Jim Stark (James Dean) sits in a police station being ignored by his hen-pecking parents: he wants them to listen to him, but they can’t even listen to each other. Young Plato (Sal Mineo) is there too; he’s been out gunning down puppies but he sits sullenly, dressed like a dandy in a tie and sweater. The third character in our triangle is Judy (Natalie Wood) sits in a poodle-skirt; she’s was caught walking the streets and her father has come to his “dirty tramp” up. Our characters and their conflict is established – all have either physically or emotionally nonexistent parents and this film is designed to serve as a warning to mid-50’s audiences that are in the grip of juvenile-delinquent hysteria.

The next morning, after their parents and maids have bailed them out of jail, Jim, Plato, and Judy meet again school and their outsider credentials are again established; Jim mistakenly steps on the school emblem embedded in the sidewalk are earns the ire of his classmates and Plato has a fan boy picture

Every era is filled with some new “menace” that must be combated and the 1950’s were no different. Politicians from both parties railed about the “teen menace” and the threat that it had become. After the long Depression of the 1930’s and the struggle of World War II, the United States was prospering and the children of the decade knew wealth and privilege that were totally unknown to their parents; they had new, clean schools to go to attend, an expanding suburbia linked by a growing highway system, and spending money and existence in a demographic that advertisers were just discovering. The era was willed with opportunistic politicians attacking one group or another that dared to deviate from the comfortable, middle-class norm of the time; Communists or Socialists, comic books, drugs, and minorities that wanted to take their position in the new America were all singled out as the latest menace for political exploitation and Rebel Without A Cause was the first, and best, in a long line of juvenile menace movies.

During the game (and while a doe-eyed Plato looks on), Buzz is accidentally killed and distraught, Jim flees home where he hopes to get some comfort from his parents. Unable to convince his parents that he should do the right thing and go to the police, Jim goes to the police station to turn himself in but is unable to get even his surrogate parents – the police – to listen to his story. The gang sees Jim leaving the police station and convi

Some topics in this essay:
Plato Jim, Plato Judy, Warner Bros, Dad Plato’s, II United, Natalie Wood, Leonard Rosenman’s, Rebel Cause, Sal Mineo, Communists Socialists, police station, rebel cause, plato judy, red sock, jim plato, jim plato judy, parents listen, looks buzz,