Rebel Without a Cause: contexts, genre and narrative — Eduqas GCSE Film Studies C670
Eduqas GCSE Film Studies · C670
Rebel Without a Cause: contexts, genre and narrative
Rebel Without a Cause
What you need to know
Rebel Without a Cause (Nicholas Ray, 1955): Jim Stark, new in town, meets Judy and Plato at the police station; after a knife fight and a fatal 'chickie run' against Buzz, the three hide in an empty mansion, and the night ends at the planetarium, where Plato is shot by the police.
A Warner Bros. film of 1955 in colour and CinemaScope, made as 'the teenager' became a new social group with money and a culture of its own, and as fears of juvenile delinquency grew.
James Dean's star image, and his death shortly before the film's release.
Suburban, post-war Los Angeles, and Cold War anxieties.
Teen film and melodrama: the outsider at a new school, gangs and dares, parents who fail their children, and heightened emotion.
Narrative: a story told over about a day, with the planetarium at its start and end, and themes of teenage rebellion, masculinity and the family.
A short worked paragraph linking a context to a specific moment in the film, as the comparison question rewards.
Worked answers with their marks, and practice questions to try, each headed 'Practice question' with its marks.
Quote only short lines of dialogue you're sure of, a few words at a time, and base every point on what happens in the finished film.
