Rebel Without a Cause (1955) and Mental Health Crises
Recently I’ve been creating 1950s inspired makeup looks within the past week. So, I’ve been watching a lot of 1950s movies and videos. I decided to watch Rebel Without a Cause (1955) over the weekend. In the movie, the plot of the film is reminiscent of a cultural issue we still have today in terms of mental health, gun violence, and the societal stereotype of the loner. So, let’s dig into this cultural phenomenon.
Jim Stark (James Dean) is the new kid in town at the beginning of the film and has a troubled past as evidenced by the film starting at the police station. He meets another kid, Plato Crawford (Sal Mineo), offering him a jacket as Plato is shivering. It’s clear that Plato is shy and withdrawn until the detective questions him about killing a litter of puppies. The next day at school, Plato follows Jim to the school field trip and tries to befriend him. Plato and Jim slowly start to build a friendship as the school bully Buzz attempts to hassle Plato after the field trip (Ray,1955).
Plato soon starts to get extremely attached to Jim as he doesn’t have a father or a mother at home. After Jim wins the chicken run, Plato tries to get closer to Jim by inviting to his home to stay over but is rebuffed by Jim. This is a form of rejection for those who have abandonment wounds as a child. Jim, Judy (Natalie Wood), and Plato attempt to run away to an abandoned mansion and pretend they're a family together.
At some point, Plato falls asleep, and the two protagonists explore the abandoned mansion together. Plato awakens moments later to his bullies wanting to tie chains to him. Plato feeling abandoned and betrayed almost shoots Jim, unaware of who is who. Plato was expressing the fear trauma response as well as the fight trauma response during these final moments of the film. Jim attempts to go after him to intervene Plato from shooting other people.
Jim attempts to de-escalate the situation with Plato as the police are trying to shoot Plato since he shot them first. This is common today in mass shootings as attempts to de-escalate the perpetrator can be difficult. Plato is able to be de-escalated through Jim offering his red jacket in exchange for the gun so that Jim can unload the gun. De-escalation is used with words and empathy rather than force. Jim then proceeds to get Plato to come out and get help from the police. Jim attempts to de-escalate the police so Plato can comfortably come out but fails. The police trigger Plato and Plato attempts to run with the gun blank meeting his tragic end.
Unfortunately, this happens a lot and it leads to countless tragedies. The importance of this film is to recognize a mental health crisis when it’s visible and not visible. Empathy is the tactic used to decrease violence and aggressive perpetrators. Most of the time the people who engage in violent acts are in pain and are in need of someone to help them figure things out. I believe the director of the film, Nicholas Ray was already recognizing this issue way before our time.
References:
Warner Brothers Studios. (1955). Rebel Without a Cause [Film]. United States.
