Rating: 
Summary: James Dean: a true and gifted actor.
Review: "Rebel Without A Cause" is a true landmark film. James Dean should have gotten the Academy Award for this film and not for "East of Eden". Although I think "East of Eden" is as equally as good as "Rebel Without A Cause". It's the story of a discontented teenager who doesn't fit in in the new neighboorhood, and who always finds himself in trouble, and doesn't know why. His troubles all stem from a lack of communication with his folks. He finally finds himself friends with Plato and Judy, but still becomes involved when a leather-jacket clad gang comes after Plato, in which he is eventually shot in the end. Truly what James Dean was all about. You can imagine the impact it had on its audiences when this film was released, which was just about a month after the car accident that took James' life. James Dean will always be remembered as a
gifted and true actor.
Rating:
Summary: A very moving film!
Review: This is a classic film that captures teenage angst and the alienation of youth in a powerful way. James Dean stars as Jim Stark, a rebellious youth who is a new kid in town and the new kid in school. Nobody, not even his parents or the police can understand what exactly is fueling Jim's rebellious behavior. Natalie Wood and Sal Mineo also star as Judy and Plato, two of Jim's friends that also have problems of their own and issues with their parents. This is a very complex drama that makes a gripping statement about teenage angst and the communication gap that exists between parents and their children. This is an excellent film that transcends time and still has the ability to speak to generations of youth. The film features breathtaking performances from James Dean, Natalie Wood and Sal Mineo. Jim Backus and Ann Doran also give first-rate performances in their roles as Jim's parents, as does William Hopper as Judy's father. Other good supporting performances include Marietta Canty's as Plato's family's maid and Virginia Brissac's as Jim's grandmother. Also features very beautiful cinematography. Highly recommended!
Rating:
Summary: a classic
Review: James Dean, Natalie Wood, and Sal Mineo gave Oscar worthy performances in this movie. I really like this movie because it has a teen's perspective. The parents don't seem to understand them, for example, when Judy wanted her father to show her some affection.
Rating:
Summary: no jokes this time, I have something to say
Review: The fact that Rebel can have such a profound effect on myself almost half a century after its creation is a testement to its greatness and proves its status as a classic piece of cinema. Its message is ageless and is almost saddening to think that after all this time the issues relevent in the film have yet to be socially adressed, adults still dont emote with their kids, and kids still have trouble fitting in to the pecking order laid down by our supposed betters. Despite being made nearly 50 years before i graced this good earth and set in a completely alien setting to my own the beat that runs through this film caught me in its rythm and Ive never danced the same again. Anyone who ever felt like dropping their pants and screaming just to be heard, be it by a parent, boss or government official should see this film.
James Dean in Rebel creates one of the greatest roles ever brought to screen, Jim is the rebel that we want to be and also the sensetive tourtured soul we all are, he embodies the characteristics of everyone who watches, one of the only characters in film who is truely polysemic ( only Brando as Terry Malloy in On the waterfront comes to mind as another example) James Dean is a hero for all, we each take a different part of his character and relate it to our own struggles.
The film has a timeless message and although set in the 50s only the dress and the 50s terminology reveal its age, this in no way detracts from the film though, because as with Shakespeare and other such timeless media, the emotional nerve is still as sensetive as it was then, and personally i feel the setting causes a modern audience to relate the text more closely to themselves, creating the question this was how it was for them, how is it now for you?
Anyone farmiliar with my reviews will know this isnt my usual style of writing, but when something speaks to me as Rebel does I have no time for humerous scribings, A film of this callibure demands my full respect and your full attention, if you have not seen it go see it, if you have seen it watch it again and try and learn a little bit more from it.
Rating:
Summary: James Dean... as himself
Review: A phenom like James Dean comes along once in a generation; we will be fortunate to see his like again in our lifetime. He was, purely and simply, a natural. And in his second movie, "Rebel Without a Cause", he showed clearly what he had hinted at in "East Of Eden", a stroke of genius. "Rebel" is the great picture it is mainly because Dean is in it. Dean doesn't play Jim Stark, he IS Jim Stark. He brings to vivid reality all the confusion and anguish of a 17 year old who doesn't know who he is or where he's headed; we see his love for both his parents struggling with his resentment against his overbearing mother and his contempt for his henpecked father; and his bewilderment at participating in the "chicken run" even while he accepts its inevitability ("Why are we doing this?" he asks Buzz, the delinquent gang leader played by Corey Allen; "I dunno; we gotta do something", Buzz answers, as confused and fatalistic as Jim). In that exchange lies the film in a nutshell. Why do these kids indulge in anti-social behavior that risks their lives? Because there's nothing else in their lives that has any real meaning. In these youngsters we see all the vapid emptiness of 1950's suburbia. This is what made this 1955 movie so compelling, and so disturbing, to its audience when it opened -- these weren't aliens from the slums of the big cities; these were the kids next door."Rebel" is also the movie that made household names of Dean's two co-stars, Natalie Wood and Sal Mineo. Wood plays Judy, a vibrant, popular teenager living with her uptight parents and her younger brother. Judy's father is distant and withdrawn from her; and the more Judy, who loves her father more than anything in the world, reaches out to him, the more he repulses her. What Judy can't understand, but what we can see, is that her growing sexuality is profoundly disturbing to her father; he's attracted and repelled at the same time, and he reacts by pushing her away. Judy reacts to his rejection by running away and staying out all night, which alienates him further. At least Judy has parents at home. Plato, brilliantly acted by Sal Mineo, has nobody but the housekeeper. His parents are off in Europe somewhere; they can't be bothered with him, and when Plato finally receives a long-awaited envelope from his father, he eagerly tears it open only to find a check enclosed, without a word of "hi" or "how are you". Plato is far more lost than Jim or Judy, and at the movie's conclusion, we realize that the denouement was inevitable. Almost too late, Jim's parents begin to understand their son; whether or not Judy and her father will reach a similar rapprochement is unknown...
Rating:
Summary: I have just one word "Wow"....
Review: Yeah I just saw it on TMC...And wow, this movie is really good, it seems like it could've been a recent movie, despite the 50's clothing, clean language, and a few other things that differ from today and the yestar-years, but set aside those things and this movie doesn't seem dated at all. The story is great, the acting is great, the movie's just great. It had me in tears at the end. The characters are like real troubled teenagers, I guess it just go's to show that through out all the ages teens have had the same problems. And its presented here. This is a teen movie that's really worth seeing, not your run-of-the-mill teen story. So despite what you may be thinking about this movie you gotta at least give it a try!!! ...
Rating:
Summary: An excellent movie...
Review: Truly a classic. James Dean, Natalie Wood, and Sal Mineo are great. The extra features on the DVD, including the Screen Tests, Deleted Scenes, and Alternate Endings, were awesome.
Rating:
Summary: One Word-Classic
Review: This movie, made 46 years ago, makes more sense now than all the teen movies made now put together!!! This is one of my favourite movies of all time because kids can relate to it today. Feelings of isolation, sadness, lonliness .....it all makes sense.
Rating:
Summary: Vintage James Dean
Review: When wathcing this movie one can not help to feel very frustrated that his, i.e., Mr. Deans career ended before it could come to full frtuition. In these movies on is shown a glipse of things to come that never materialized due to his untimely and tragic death. However, what we do see in this movie , i.e., Rebel Without a Cause VHS ~ James Dean , is maturation beyond his young years and a performance that is only matched by a handfull of actors, e.g., Montgomery Clift, Kirk Douglas, Charlton Heston to name a few. The movie is benchmark for movies dealing with teenage and youth rebellion and has been the blue print of many other movies. Highly Recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: A "Rebel" with effect
Review: ...As for "Rebel Without a Cause", people today who expect to smirk through a hopelessly outdated "problem picture" have a surprise in store. Granted, the high school students smoke nothing but cigarettes and their language is necessarily antiseptic (the Hays Code was still in force), but the movie has a tough, angst-ridden quality that should appeal even to today's young generation. Most of this is due to James Dean,who was without a doubt before his time. He captures his character Jim Stark in the opening shot (behind the credits) when he literally stumbles across a toy monkey and, covering it carefully with a scrap of paper, curls up beside it in the fetal position. In the following police precinct sequence when he drunkenly hums "The Ride of the Valkyries" (a reference to his mother and grandmother?) or furiously pummels a desk, he vitalizes the screen in a manner few actors have before or since. His supporting players Natalie Wood and Sal Mineo (who really were teenagers -- Dean was in his early twenties) would probably not have left such a strong impression had they not been working with such an impetus. Natalie Wood is Judy, the confused girl next door: her father is obviously having difficulty dealing with her increased nubility. Sal Mineo's Plato is a nervous, potentially violent boy whose feelings for Jim Stark may or may not be filial. Plato's sexual orientation is never explored; but he keeps a picture of Alan Ladd in his locker, and when punks steal his address book they find only boys' names listed. Evidently the remarkable thing about this story for contemporary audiences was that all the despair and dysfunction was not taking place in the slums but in the whitewashed all-WASP suburbs.The high school student body (which includes Corey Allen, Nick Adams, and a squeaky-clean Dennis Hopper) has not a single black person. The implication is of affluence without honest affection, which of course became a "troubled youth" cliché; and, despite Nicholas Ray's hip direction, "Rebel Without a Cause" without James Dean would be just another such cliché It's Dean's sensational presence that makes this a classic picture, one that has as much punch today as when it was first released.
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