Rebel Without a Cause
Overview
 
Rebel Without a Cause is a 1955 American drama film
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...

 about emotionally confused suburban, middle-class teenagers. Directed by Nicholas Ray
Nicholas Ray
Nicholas Ray was an American film director best known for the movie Rebel Without a Cause....

, it offered both social commentary and an alternative to previous films depicting delinquents in urban slum environments. Over the years, the film has achieved landmark status for the acting of cultural icon James Dean
James Dean
James Byron Dean was an American film actor. He is a cultural icon, best embodied in the title of his most celebrated film, Rebel Without a Cause , in which he starred as troubled Los Angeles teenager Jim Stark...

, fresh from his Academy Award nominated
Academy Award for Best Actor
Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...

 role in East of Eden and who died before the film's release, his most celebrated role.
Quotations

I never thought I'd live to see eighteen. Isn't that dumb? Every day I look in the mirror and say "What? You still here?"

[to Jim] Hey, you want to come home with me? I mean, there's nobody home at my house, and heck, I'm not tired. Are you? See, I don't have too many people I can talk to... If you want to come, we could talk, and in the morning we could have breakfast like my dad used to. Gee, if only you could have been my dad.

Teenage terror torn from today's headlines

...and they both come from good families!

To Belong...and be loved.

Jim Stark... a kid from a good family - what makes him tick... like a bomb?

The bad boy from a good family.

 
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