Post by klep on Jun 8, 2020 10:54:15 GMT -6
MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 6/8: Rebel Without a Cause
MOVIE STAR WEEK!
Note: This week's essay is graciously provided by a guest contributor.
If Nicholas Ray could've done it, Plato would've been gay. I don't know what he would have done with the sexuality of the other boys, but Ray was making a movie about outcasts, and in 1955, the gay kid would have been pretty well the ultimate outcast. It's unfortunately still true in too many places in this Year of Insanity 2020, but in 1955, he had to settle for a picture of Alan Ladd in Plato's locker and the way he interacts with Our Hero. And possibly in casting Sal Mineo, who eventually came out as bisexual.
The story brings its main characters together at first in a police station. Jim (James Dean) is drunk and disorderly. Judy (Natalie Wood) is having a fight with her father and was herself wandering the night streets alone. Plato, the most sinister of the three, was shooting and killing puppies. In school, Jim is also an outcast despite desperately wanting to fit in. Judy fits in and isn't happy about her place. Jim wants to be friends with Buzz Gunderson (Corey Allen) and ends up in a chicken race with him instead.
The story is one of trying to find a family that fits. The thing I like least about it is the emphasis on how Jim's father (Jim Backus, before Gilligan's Island) is weak and can't stand up to his mother (Ann Doran). Jim is trying to figure out how to be a man, and he doesn't think he can be in a household where his father—gasp--wears an apron. But Jim would be better off if he learned that being a man isn't being stronger and tougher than everyone else, that there are all kinds of ways of being a man that allow for wearing aprons. And, sure, maybe his dad doesn't look great in the frilly one, but find him one that suits him.
Because the biggest problem these kids are having is not just their unpleasant home lives. The first time I saw this, I thought from how Judy's dad (William Hopper, before Perry Mason) reacted to her lipstick that he was molesting her. He does seem awfully concerned about her sexuality. But really, the only one whose parents seem actively harmful is Plato; the maid (Marietta Canty) isn't bad, but she's Plato's support mechanism because his parents are basically absent.
It's hardly a novel statement, that the movie is about the problems of 1950s families. It isn't even novel to say that Jim would have been better off if he hadn't absorbed the toxic masculinity of the era. This movie was seen as shocking at the time because of its take on Juvenile Delinquency, that '50s boogieman that also gave us Seduction of the Innocent and the Comic Book Scare. But in its own way, it presaged the modern era of chosen families if your actual family doesn't work for you.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 6/15: Black Panthers (1968)
CIVIL RIGHTS WEEK!
For Civil Rights Week we'll be following Agnès Varda into the Civil Rights movement of the '60s as she largely lets the Black Panthers speak for themselves. Join us next week for our discussion of Black Panthers, available on the Criterion Channel and for rent on Amazon.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 6/9: Shirley
Next the podcast concludes its current pairing with Josephine Decker's film Shirley, about what happens when Shirley Jackson and her husband invite a young couple into their home. Come join our discussion on Wednesday for this film, available for rent on Hulu and Amazon at least.
MOVIE STAR WEEK!
Note: This week's essay is graciously provided by a guest contributor.
If Nicholas Ray could've done it, Plato would've been gay. I don't know what he would have done with the sexuality of the other boys, but Ray was making a movie about outcasts, and in 1955, the gay kid would have been pretty well the ultimate outcast. It's unfortunately still true in too many places in this Year of Insanity 2020, but in 1955, he had to settle for a picture of Alan Ladd in Plato's locker and the way he interacts with Our Hero. And possibly in casting Sal Mineo, who eventually came out as bisexual.
The story brings its main characters together at first in a police station. Jim (James Dean) is drunk and disorderly. Judy (Natalie Wood) is having a fight with her father and was herself wandering the night streets alone. Plato, the most sinister of the three, was shooting and killing puppies. In school, Jim is also an outcast despite desperately wanting to fit in. Judy fits in and isn't happy about her place. Jim wants to be friends with Buzz Gunderson (Corey Allen) and ends up in a chicken race with him instead.
The story is one of trying to find a family that fits. The thing I like least about it is the emphasis on how Jim's father (Jim Backus, before Gilligan's Island) is weak and can't stand up to his mother (Ann Doran). Jim is trying to figure out how to be a man, and he doesn't think he can be in a household where his father—gasp--wears an apron. But Jim would be better off if he learned that being a man isn't being stronger and tougher than everyone else, that there are all kinds of ways of being a man that allow for wearing aprons. And, sure, maybe his dad doesn't look great in the frilly one, but find him one that suits him.
Because the biggest problem these kids are having is not just their unpleasant home lives. The first time I saw this, I thought from how Judy's dad (William Hopper, before Perry Mason) reacted to her lipstick that he was molesting her. He does seem awfully concerned about her sexuality. But really, the only one whose parents seem actively harmful is Plato; the maid (Marietta Canty) isn't bad, but she's Plato's support mechanism because his parents are basically absent.
It's hardly a novel statement, that the movie is about the problems of 1950s families. It isn't even novel to say that Jim would have been better off if he hadn't absorbed the toxic masculinity of the era. This movie was seen as shocking at the time because of its take on Juvenile Delinquency, that '50s boogieman that also gave us Seduction of the Innocent and the Comic Book Scare. But in its own way, it presaged the modern era of chosen families if your actual family doesn't work for you.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 6/15: Black Panthers (1968)
CIVIL RIGHTS WEEK!
For Civil Rights Week we'll be following Agnès Varda into the Civil Rights movement of the '60s as she largely lets the Black Panthers speak for themselves. Join us next week for our discussion of Black Panthers, available on the Criterion Channel and for rent on Amazon.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 6/9: Shirley
Next the podcast concludes its current pairing with Josephine Decker's film Shirley, about what happens when Shirley Jackson and her husband invite a young couple into their home. Come join our discussion on Wednesday for this film, available for rent on Hulu and Amazon at least.