Rebel Without a Cause

1950s: Cold War Culture &
The Birth of the Cool
at Amherst Cinema

Thursday October 8   7:00pm Only!
Introduction and Q&A with Karen Koehler, Hampshire College

This landmark juvenile-delinquent drama scrupulously follows the classic theatrical disciplines, telling all within a 24-hour period. Teenager Jimmy Stark can't help but get into trouble, a problem that has forced his appearance-conscious parents to move from one town to another. The film's tormented central characters are all introduced during a single night-court session, presided over by well-meaning social worker Ray. Jimmy, arrested on a drunk-and-disorderly charge, screams "You're tearing me apart!" as his blind-sided parents bicker with one another over how best to handle the situation. Judy is basically a good kid but behaves wildly out of frustration over her inability to communicate with her deliberately distant father. (The incestuous subtext of this relationship is discreetly handled, but the audience knows what's going on in the minds of Judy and her dad at all times.) And Plato, who is so sensitive that he threatens to break apart like porcelain, has taken to killing puppies as a desperate bid for attention from his wealthy, always absent parents.  Starring James Dean, Natalie Wood and Sal Mineo.

Director Nicholas Ray.  1955, 111 mins.