favorite movie #30: rebel without a cause

Favorite movies that have had an impact on me - #30 - Rebel Without A Cause (1955) - There are only three movies that James Dean starred in before his tragic death in 1955 in a car crash, but boy, did he leave an impression. A few months ago the kid and I caught Rebel Without A Cause on TCM. I hadn't seen the film in many years, and I was not only surprised by how easily he sucked me right back in to his character Jim Stark's awkward attempts to make his way in the world, but how affected my fourteen year-old daughter was by his performance, too (and Sal Mineo's tragic turn as Plato). We also recently watched Francis Ford Coppola's adaptation of S.E Hinton's The Outsiders, which was heavily influenced by this film. The technicolor is amazing too, with Jim's bright blood-red jacket an immediate icon of "dangerous" youth.

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