The Story Archive

Rebel Without a Cause

Nicholas Ray · 1955 CE · Film · Modern / American · Contemporary

Picked up drunk on his first night in a new town, a seventeen-year-old is booked at juvenile hall alongside a girl whose father will not touch her and a boy who has been shooting puppies. School the next morning produces a knife fight outside the planetarium and a dare to drive stolen cars at a cliff edge. Ray restarted production in CinemaScope and colour after two weeks of black and white.

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Lineage

Attributes

Genre
Coming-of-AgeTragedyPsychological
Theme
Coming of AgeIsolation & AlienationIndividual vs SocietyLoss of Innocence
Archetype (Jung / Campbell)
Rebel / OutlawEverymanInnocent
Plot structure
Single DayBildungsroman
Symbol / motif
The Fall / DescentThe GarmentThe Estate
Conflict
vs Societyvs Self
Mode / tone
TragicRealistRomantic
Culture / tradition
Modern / American

Closest analogues