You’re Tearing Me Apart

His personal cause, being misunderstood; his iconic, heart-rending cry, “You’re tearing me apart!” Jim Stark or James Dean are practically interchangeable most times. With James Dean’s death coming right before the release of Rebel Without a Cause, and with the powerfully accessible and immensely relatable feelings of teenage angst, what we have is a formula for a film that will have an audience for generations. With his exceptional portrayal of the ultimate misunderstood teen, Rebel Without a Cause became an important film in the way that it defined the modes gas tankless water heater of expression for teenage angst. While the youth made Rebel Without a Cause, the movie also defined them. Through this 1955 Nicholas Ray film, the idea of the “teenager” as a powerful cultural identity and social force became conceivable.  On September 30, 1955, just a few days shy of a month before the Rebel’s release, James Dean ran his silver Porsche, “Little Bastard,” off the dog wheelchair highway and into the halls of popular culture. The general release date was listed as October 27 but it premiered earlier in New York City and then in Los Angeles, both coasts responded with extreme fervor. James Dean became the first of the tragic—and legendary—figures of the then just burgeoning youth culture. The appeal of Rebel Without a Cause could not be separated from the appeal of James Dean, who the audience, even back then, knew was a doomed young man, who grappled with the pains of growing up. His sudden and dramatic death, combined with the timely microdermabrasion machine release of the film, was James Dean’s assured his status as a legend. In 1956, Life magazine reported that Dean was receiving thousands of fan mail a week. Up to late 1957, Warner Brothers, his home studio, was still frozen yogurt franchise getting up to 7,000 fan letters a month. Later on, when James Dean’s totaled Porsche was exhibited in a Los Angeles bowling alley, a staggering 800,000 tickets were sold. The cult that grew around him has also spawned an unending slew of fan clubs, books, documentary films, television programs, songs, t-shirts, posters, buttons, busts, statuettes, James Dean magazines, mugs, balloons, bubble gum cards, commemorative dinner plates, medallions, smoking paraphernalia, and so on, up to the present. Through the film, James Dean—inadvertently—became a virtual model of the new American youth, which included his distinctive, slurred mumbling, his facial expressions, his hairstyle and his clothing. Nicholas Ray and the production staff via James Dean sent thousands of American kids hunting for the same red windbreaker jacket and black engineer boots that he wore in the movie. Coupled with his blue jeans and white t-shirt, Dean’s costume became a much-desired possession: It was both a statement and a youth uniform. Internationally, Rebel also made an impact. Its appeal to British and German kids was especially obvious. They seemed to take to it even more enthusiastically than American teenagers. Germany and Poland soon had their own versions of James Dean, Horst Bucholz and Zbigniew Cybulski, respectively. But James Dean aside, the movie is not all about Jim Stark alone. True, it revolves around this tragic central character, but the result is the work of the entire cast and crew—as campy as they can be in a scene or two. Still, it’s hard to deny that his work on Rebel Without a Cause remains the most influential single performance on today’s generation of actors. Many actors that have graced the screen in the last 40 years admit to being in the James Dean tradition. His acting style has in fact watched over American acting ever since Rebel’s release. To this day, even one look or one line can bring it all back: “You’re tearing me apart!” If you can sell angst in a bottle, that would be its slogan.