REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE [1956] [Special Deluxe Limited Edition DigiBook] [Blu-ray] More than half a century after its original release, `Rebel Without A Cause' remains one of the most enduring motion pictures of all time. Starring James Dean in what many consider to be his finest performance, this cinematic and cultural milestone is now re-mastered and presented on Blu-ray for the very first time!
Powerfully directed by Nicholas Ray, Dean plays the ultimate teenage rebel and, together with Academy Award nominated costars Natalie Wood and Sal Mineo, gives voice to the post-war subculture of troubled American youth. His unforgettable performance is the highlight of a film that was landmark achievement. `Rebel Without A Cause' is included in the Library of Congress' National Film Registry and is on the American Film Institute's 1998 list of the 100 Greatest American Movies Of All Time. Since its October 1955 release, `Rebel Without A Cause' has become one of the archetypal films of teenage angst, an enduring hit with successive generations and a harbinger of things to come in the tumultuous Sixties. The fact that all of the film's stars, Nick Adams, James Dean, Natalie Wood and Sal Mineo died tragically and early on has also lent a mystique to this powerful, ground-breaking film that continues to this day.
FILM FACT: Awards and Accolades: Wins: 1990 National Film Registry. Nominations: Academy Award® for Best Supporting Actor (Sal Mineo). Academy Award® for Best Supporting Actress (Natalie Wood). Best Writing, Motion Picture Screenplay (Nicholas Ray). Best Writing, Motion Picture Story (Nicholas Ray). BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actor (James Dean).
Cast: James Dean, Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo, Jim Backus, Ann Doran, Corey Allen, William Hopper, Rochelle Hudson, Edward Platt, Nick Adams, Frank Mazzola, Dennis Hopper, Virginia Brissac, Jack Grinnage, Marietta Canty, Beverly Long, Steffi Sidney, Jack Simmons and John Righetti
Director: Nicolas Ray
Producer: David Weisbart
Screenplay: Stewart Stern
Composer: Leonard Rosenman
Cinematographer: Ernest Haller
Video Resolution: 1080p [WarnerColor]
Aspect Ratio: 2.55:1 [CinemaScope]
Audio: English: 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, French: Dolby Digital Mono, Spanish: Dolby Digital Mono, German: Dolby Digital Mono, Italian: Dolby Digital Mono, Portuguese: DTS Mono, Czech: Dolby Digital Mono, Polish: Dolby Digital Mono and Japanese: Dolby Digital Mono
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, German SDH, Italian SDH, Czech, Danish, Finnish, Hebrew, Korean, Mandarin (Simplified), Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Swedish and Turkish
Running Time: 1 hour 51 minutes
Region: Region A/1
Number of discs: 1
Studio: Warner Bros.
Andrew's Blu-ray Review: The concept of `Rebel Without a Cause' was to focus on telling a story about confused middle class teenagers living in Suburbia. How the story was told, was a different matter altogether. Back in 1955, when the film was first released, the film was controversial at the time as it seemingly depicted teenage rebellion and moral decay in the 1950s. Yet there is a lot that happens in the course of the film that has made it become the classic that it is heralded as. Originally conceived to be a cheaply produced black-and-white movie, Warner Bros had switched the production into a larger budget mode and with colour filming when it became apparent that James Dean was one of the rising stars of the time.
From the opening frame of the film, James Dean began to deliver an iconic performance. He was creatively enmeshed in his characters. The first shots of the film show James Dean lying on the ground. He is playing with a toy monkey. This was improvised. He asked the filmmaker Nicholas Ray if he could try something. This became the opening of the film and quite a fascinating moment. James Dean was capable of such amazing acting. He had so many ideas.
The story of `Rebel Without a Cause' primarily follows the teenagers Jim Stark [James Dean], Judy [Natalie Wood], and Plato [Sal Mineo] as they try to make sense of their lives while a sequence of events sends things spiralling for all of them. At the start of the film, the three teenagers are all in a police station, each needing their parents to get them. Jim's parent's argumentative nature around Jim makes him more restless and distant. Judy's father is shockingly distant from her with a cold detachment. Plato's father abandoned him. The characters in this story each deal with their own feelings of displacement.
One of the greatest sequences in the film is when the characters first meet each other while attending a school field trip to an observatory. There, while witnessing a theoretical show displaying the destruction of the entire universe, the wide expansiveness of the world is seemingly even colder to them than before. It's a perfect metaphor for how the three characters are going through such severe feelings of isolation and misunderstandings.
The performances by James Dean, Natalie Wood, and Sal Mineo are equally great. Each actor brought a memorable performance to the screen. Over the course of the story, Jim and Judy seem somewhat parental to the Plato character. They even enact a 'game' of sorts at one point, inhabiting these roles. James Dean and Natalie Wood had immense screen chemistry together and were perfectly in synch with each other during this film. The confusion and angst felt from the characters was well demonstrated by the performances.
Nicholas Ray did an excellent job as the director of `Rebel Without a Cause.' The story is a complicated one to tell, and was not a small task for Nicholas Ray to attempt to realise as director. Everything about the film was stylistically 'ace' and he managed to have the actors create compelling characters that could be universally fascinating and compelling.
The film has incredible pacing and flows from one scene into the next with a remarkable vitality that's essentially fundamental to the film's success. This universally appealing story was one he managed to tell with a heart and soul in the filmmaking, which makes the tragic ending so powerful that one can truly consider it amongst the best film endings of all time.
Blu-ray Video Quality - In my estimation, `Rebel Without a Cause' is of the best looking film out of the three James Dean films. There is something about its unique visual style that impresses me the most. Perhaps it has something to do with the colour and the way it brings the best out of the costumes, especially the famous red jacket James Dean wore during the film. All three films contain excellent cinematography, and yet I found the work that was done by the Academy Award® winning cinematographer Ernest Haller. The original 2.55:1 theatrical aspect ratio has been preserved. The 1080p image quality is splendid and has an average bit-rate is around 25 mbps. This is certainly not a huge sampling rate, but it is on par course for Warner Bros. and it's adequate for this presentation. I found the film to have good colour depth and decent clarity. The film could have been sharper. However, the sharpness in this transfer is notable, nonetheless, and far better when compared to earlier presentations of `Rebel Without a Cause.'
Blu-ray Audio Quality - Unlike the audio presentation of `Giant' received, Warner Bros. has given `Rebel Without a Cause' an audio makeover of sorts with a 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio presentation. I'm all for keeping the original audio intact but this is actually not that bad of a sound mix for the film. Surprisingly, I found it sounded rather authentic with the material. There's a bit more dimensionality to the mix, especially when the car sequences are taken into account, and with regards to the way score music was implemented. However, I will also maintain that this is an authentic sounding mix that is generally an impressive and satisfactory experience. It's still a front-heavy mix. It implements a good range of bass into the sound-stage. It's simply a nice expansion to the audio presentation and not an awful attempt at utilising sound effects beyond their capabilities. Film fans won't feel disappointed by the presentation as long as the audio-purist in them doesn't kick it into over-drive on this one.
Blu-ray Special Features and Extras:
Audio Commentary By Douglas L. Rathgeb [Author Of The Making Of Rebel Without A Cause] Douglas L. Rathgeb recorded this commentary before publishing The Making of Rebel Without a Cause [2010], but he was obviously already at work researching the book. While he tends to fall too easily into describing the action on screen, his commentary is full of interesting details concerning the film's production, with particular emphasis on issues with the Production Code, which peppered the project with questions and concerns.
James Dean Remembered [1:06:22] This 1974 documentary was shown on ABC's Wide World of Entertainment series. Hosted by Peter Lawford, it features interviews with Sammy Davis, Jr., Steve Allen, Natalie Wood, Leonard Rosenman and Sal Mineo.
Rebel Without a Cause: Defiant Innocents [36:30] This 2005 documentary traces the development and production of the film, although many of the participants were no longer available. The major contributor is screenwriter Stewart Stern, whose distinctive voice seemed to mesh most closely with director Nicholas Ray's original inspiration for the film. Other participants include author Rathgeb, Dean biographer William Bast, Faye Nuell (Natalie Wood's stunt double), Beverly Long (Helen), Frank Mazzola (Crunch), Corey Allen (Buzz), Jack Grinnage (Moose), Steffi Sidney (Mil) and, briefly, Dennis Hopper.
Vintage Documentary: James Dean Remembered [1:06:22] This 1974 documentary was shown on ABC's Wide World of Entertainment series. Hosted by Peter Lawford, it features interviews with Sammy Davis, Jr., Steve Allen, Natalie Wood, Leonard Rosenman and Sal Mineo.
Dennis Hopper: Memories From The Warner Lot [10:31] In this candid interview conducted late in his life, Hopper recalls his years as a Warner contract player, with emphasis on his roles in 'Rebel Without a Cause' and 'Giant.'
Screen Tests [6:27] Sal Mineo, James Dean and Natalie Wood.
Wardrobe Tests [5:05] Primarily James Dean and Corey Allen, with various gang members forming different groups.
Black & White Deleted Scenes [Without Sound] [2.55:1] No "play all" feature is included: Kids Exit the Planetarium [2:42]; Gang Outside the Planetarium [1:12]; Gang Outside the Planetarium (Alternate Angle) [2:41]; Plato on the Bus [3:01] and Kids Run Down the Ramp [0:55]
Colour Deleted Scenes [Without Sound] [2.55:1] No "play all" feature is included: Kids Drive Up to School [1:36]; Kids Walk Up to School [0:57]; Kids Leave School [0:31]; Jim Sees Judy [0:55]; Kids Leave the Planetarium Auditorium [3:04]; Jim Hustled into Precinct [0:51]; Gang Attacks Plato [0:49]; Gang Attacks Man [1:43]; Cops Arrive at the Planetarium [0:58]; Parents Arrive at the Planetarium [1:20] and Alternate Ending [0:36]
Behind the Cameras [1.33:1] A series of promos, narrated by Gig Young and almost unbearably stiff. The listing by name is somewhat misleading, because Wood and Dean are interviewed only briefly. Dean's interview, which came to be known as the "drive safe" spot, is positively eerie: Natalie Wood (7:57); Jim Backus (5:47) and James Dean (7:44)
Theatrical Trailer [1080p] [2:25].
PLUS: Stunning 44 Page Book and includes Rare Memos, Trivia and Behind The Scenes Photos.
Finally, the dynamic and influential `Rebel Without a Cause' seemed to speak to an entire generation when it was first released. I feel that is still the case today and it will be the case tomorrow: Future generations of film lovers will find something to connect to in this essential masterpiece. The Picture Quality resulting from MPI's restoration efforts are fantastic and this is a must-own Blu-ray of an important film in American cinema. That is why I am so honoured to add this to my other Two James Dean Special Deluxe Limited Edition DigiBook Blu-ray Collection, as this is history in the making and you will be a fool not to purchase these classic James Dean films. Highly Recommended!
Andrew C. Miller - Your Ultimate No.1 Film Fan
Le Cinema Paradiso
WARE, United Kingdom
| Additional DVD options | Edition | Discs | Price | New from | Used from |
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September 21, 1999 "Please retry" | — | 1 | $6.98 | $2.50 |
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May 31, 2005 "Please retry" | 2-DISC SPECIAL EDITION | 2 | $11.00 | $2.60 |
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Great movie. The box however arrived at my house with a hole already in it.
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