REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE (1955)
Melodrama noir about a tormented young man (James Dean) who shows up at a new school and is prodded into knife fights and drag races, to prove his manhood. When his racing opponent ends up dead, things get complicated. It gets even more complicated when the dead teen’s girlfriend (Natalie Wood) falls for him.
James Dean is so moving and sexy. He’s perhaps the ideal man in this movie. And the story is just so powerful and tragic. And it’s so hip. Nicholas Ray’s directing can’t be beat. Sal Mineo is incredible as a younger kid obsessed with James Dean. See this movie. Heartbreaking. And it has one of the greatest negative, despairing endings.
