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First, the title says everything. Jim Stark(James Dean) had everything a young guy could want. He had an extended family that loved him. He had nice clothes, a car, lived in a very nice house, could go to high school without working etc. What more could a guy want? But something was wrong and it was far more than just inside Jim Starks head. It had to do with America after WW2. Before WW2 there wasn't young gangs of whites having knife fights. There wasn't the generation gap between parents and the young before WW2 like there was after WW2. So now it gets somewhat political. Since WW2 didn't bring us peace at home we have to ask what went wrong that brought us this rebellion of youth and the other social ills that came after WW2. But let me say that although it was only a movie things were the way the movie portrayed it in the 1950s. I was young back then but had sisters in high school so I can relate to the times through them. I think deep down young people felt that something was wrong with what we did in WW2. I believe that when we went to war against Germany it severed some kind of a spiritual link between Europe and the U.S. and the result was the disaffection of youth. There was a lot of insecurity it young people back then. They, the young people, couldn't really verbalize what it was because it was like it was in a metaphysical realm that no one really understood at the time. I don't expect everyone to relate to this but I really believe that there is something to it.
Excuse me? Nazi Germany did its best to sever any spiritual links between itself and the rest of the world. On the contrary, the bond between previously occupied Europe and the U.S. was at its strongest in the 50s. I hear a subtext in your post that really disturbs me.
Rebel Without a Cause, one of my favorite movies, displays the Zeitgeist among young people very accurately, but it has nothing to do with the young generation being critical of their fathers (and some mothers, like mine) fighting against the Nazis. Rather it was an existential malaise rising out of the enthusiastic materialism of the late 40s--early '50s, which was also understandable after the hardships of the '40s. The safety focus of the parents rang hollow to their kids. But it also had something to do with the teen generation becoming identified as "teens," with their music, poetry, fashions, and a dash of existentialism borrowed from the French.
When I first saw the movie I thought all the actors playing the kids were too old--I was 12 myself. Now I think Nick Ray did a fantastic job of casting everybody. He put the gang together in a dorm-type setting and let them interact and get to know each other before James Dean was introduced on the set. That created a natural "them vs him" atmosphere.
I've only seen RWaC once, years ago, and my only thought afterward was: What a profoundly over-rated movie. I haven't seen it since, so maybe I was just too much of a disaffected youth at the time to "get it."
Excuse me? Nazi Germany did its best to sever any spiritual links between itself and the rest of the world. On the contrary, the bond between previously occupied Europe and the U.S. was at its strongest in the 50s. I hear a subtext in your post that really disturbs me.
Rebel Without a Cause, one of my favorite movies, displays the Zeitgeist among young people very accurately, but it has nothing to do with the young generation being critical of their fathers (and some mothers, like mine) fighting against the Nazis. Rather it was an existential malaise rising out of the enthusiastic materialism of the late 40s--early '50s, which was also understandable after the hardships of the '40s. The safety focus of the parents rang hollow to their kids. But it also had something to do with the teen generation becoming identified as "teens," with their music, poetry, fashions, and a dash of existentialism borrowed from the French.
When I first saw the movie I thought all the actors playing the kids were too old--I was 12 myself. Now I think Nick Ray did a fantastic job of casting everybody. He put the gang together in a dorm-type setting and let them interact and get to know each other before James Dean was introduced on the set. That created a natural "them vs him" atmosphere.
Sorry you don't convince me. I believe that the young people experienced the same disillusionment that the youth of WW1 felt after that war. WW1 was felt to be a senseless war and I think that the same feelings were felt after WW2 even though, the war effort was presented to the public as necessary, which it wasn't since Germany couldn't have invaded America even if she wanted to. Contrary to popular belief WW2 was not a popular war and there was great resistance against going back into another war after WW1. But leaving theory behind I think the deeper feelings of people were greatly effected by that war, at least the war in the European theatre. It is true that the overdone materialism had an effect on young people but that wasn't the kernel of the reasons for their rebellion. The youth were most likely not critical of their fathers fighting the Nazis as you say but there was a much bigger generation gap between youth and parents after WW2 than there was before. True there was an existential malaise and that was the inner feeling that something happened that wasn't right. It would be difficult if not impossible to put existential feelings into words but those young people were rebelling against their parents and against society for reasons that had to do directly with our involvement in the European theatre of war against the Germans. Don't forget that traditional European America went under during WW2. Anyone born after WW2 never knew the real America.
Rather it was an existential malaise rising out of the enthusiastic materialism of the late 40s--early '50s,
that existential malaise that your talking about was only a symptom of something much deeper. It was the symptom of a whole value system that came to the front as a result of being the so-called victors in WW2. A whole value system that wasn't attuned to what america was really all about. A communist victory in WW2 ensured that institutional marxism would eventually take over where traditional america once reined supreme. It wasn't something that most people could verbalize but it was a feeling deep down that now we were on a new course and it didn't fit into our cultural heritage. That at least was a part of what the rebellion was about but it wasn't a conscious, thought out theory but something that was felt.
Rebel Without a Cause: Misunderstood teenager generation-gap soap opera. Popular movie theme at the time – they made a lot of money.
Starring James Dean as the archetypal misunderstood teenager.
I was 15 years old at the time. I thought I was misunderstood. I thought the movie was great. Especially the hot rods.
My big sister was 17 years old. She thought she was misunderstood. She thought the movie was great. Especially James Dean. She had a James Dean poster hanging on her bedroom wall.
When haven't teenagers felt misunderstood.
Forget WWII, the Nazis, communism, existentialism, materialism, complicated psychological analysis – it doesn't apply. Rebel Without a Cause is only a movie. It's entertainment. Nothing more.
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