Rebel Without A Cause Across Generations

“Is this what people did in the ‘90s?” my 6-year-old granddaughter asked as she stared at the TV screen where two teenage boys squared off before a dramatic Los Angeles backdrop.

(Side note: My granddaughter thinks everything in the past is the “‘90s”)

In reality, the iconic scene from the 1955 film Rebel Without A Cause had mesmerized her like it has so many. James Dean, a young man dressed in a white, collared shirt and suit jacket with his black 1949 Mercury coup parked in the background, stood in front of the sprawling city skyline.

When Dean's character yelled out, “Is that meaning me? Is that meaning me? Chicken?" he gave voice to the angst of a bygone generation.

My granddaughter had just been introduced to an unfamiliar world that had already grabbed ahold of the rest of our family and even inspired filmmaking within our ranks.

A few weeks later, my family stood on the observation deck of  Griffith Observatory where James Dean and Corey Allen had their dramatic fight. We gazed out at the same view Dean had once taken in.

What is it about the magic of movies that sparks such interest in this vintage film that none of us, in theory, should be able to relate to?

Film Forum

Natalie Wood was a 16-year-old girl who’d been acting since the age of 4.  Director Nicholas Ray didn’t want to cast her because of her innocent child star image, and it wasn’t until she got into a car accident with Dennis Hopper and called Ray to pick her up, and informed him that

the police had called her a juvenile delinquent, that he cast her for the role.

James Dean actually got a cut on his ear while filming the knife fight scene on the very outlook where my family now stood. He was a method actor who was furious when the director yelled cut after his injury, hoping to keep going and use it in the film.

These were real people, often flawed and controversial, but people who had their own problems and lives going on. On that big screen, they’re a living home movie of the past.

They allow us to feel the consistency of humanity and to transcend our current circumstances for awhile. We can see, in black and white or in full technicolor, that we're not the first or the last to experience life with all its ups and downs.

Walking around to the front of the Griffith Observatory, we saw a bust of Dean perched atop a beautiful piece of stone.

Unfortunately, Dean filmed Rebel Without a Cause during some of his final months of life, as he would sadly pass away before the film would enthrall audiences in theaters.

But through the magic of movies, he’s an idea, a cool memory that we can all tap into with the same reverence.

We know history happened, but we usually don’t get the chance to watch it unfold as a visceral experience, with real flesh and blood people. Movies give us the chance to “walk around” and observe what history actually looked and sounded like.

And for my family, it’s been a bonding experience across generations.