Rebel Without A Cause (1955)

Originally envisioned as a trashy, lowbrow exploitation thriller, Rebel Without A Cause got a massive boost to its budget when the success of East Of Eden (1955) convinced Warner Brothers that James Dean was a rising star worth more of an investment. Alongside director Nicholas Ray, Dean carefully molded the coming-of-age story into a tragic, Shakespearean melodrama. Released just after Dean's sudden death, Rebel Without A Cause struck a nerve in the American psyche and has remained a pop culture fixture to the present day. Ryan is joined by Rachel for an in-depth breakdown of this Hollywood classic. Discussion topics include how Rebel Without A Cause marked a shift in how mainstream America perceived masculinity, why the term "teenager" became a part of common parlance in the mid-20th century, how Rebel Without A Cause uses queercoding to define one of its main characters, and why Hollywood often embraces tragedy porn whenever they tell queer stories. There's also a segment where Ryan discusses how the concept of the literary canon differs from a corresponding film canon. Rebel Without A Cause is used as a case study for this point since, while it is almost inarguably included in the film canon, it is not nearly as widely-seen as Casablanca, The Wizard Of Oz, or The Godfather.