Rebel Without a Cause (1955)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Featurette-Rediscovering A Rebel Interviews-Cast-3 Theatrical Trailer Main Menu Audio
Rating
Year Of Production	1955
Running Time	106:24
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Nicholas Ray
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	James Dean Natalie Wood Sal Mineo Jim Backus Ann Doran Corey Allen William Hopper
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$29.95	Music	Leonard Rosenman

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 1.0 (192Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 1.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.55:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English French Italian Dutch Arabic Spanish Portuguese German Romanian Bulgarian English for the Hearing Impaired Italian for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    It's entertaining enough, but Rebel Without A Cause didn't ring true to me as a treatise of delinquent youth because the dialogue reads like what it is: the concoction of a team of Hollywood staff writers. The story goes that Warner optioned the rights to a criminal analysis written by a doctor purely for the title, then had no idea what to do with it. They later adapted a short story from the same doctor.

    Unlike MGM's West Side Story, the no-good youth depicted by this film aren't poor, uneducated jailbait, but kids from well-off middle class homes. Apparently this had quite some impact back in the 50s. When I look at a 24-year-old James Dean shouting, "YOU'RE TEARING ME APART", I can't help but compare it to the two 12-year-old boys with zombified expressions that stood next to me on a train inhaling gas from a plastic bag a couple of weeks ago. When our modern society is so rotten and decayed, I have trouble finding the rebel aspect satisfying in this film. I don't know - maybe I'm jaded, maybe I was expecting too much, but I was more interested in deciding whether Sal Mineo's character was intended to be gay in the script, whether it was a choice made during shooting by Mineo or director Nicholas Ray, or whether we just make assumptions based on modern clichés. Don't get me wrong - it's a decent enough film. Certain scenes still have a lot of power - the classic 'Chickie Run' scene immediately gets the blood pumping. I just question whether it still has the social relevance people ascribe to it.

Video

    Given the age of the film, this restoration looks excellent. It appears to be taken from the same source print as the NTSC laserdisc.

    The disc maintains the theatrical aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and is 16x9 enhanced.

    The sharpness is surprisingly good, considering the film is approaching its 50th birthday. The shadow detail is also better than expected, and blacks are good and deep. Grain is quite unobtrusive. In these aspects, the image is similar to MGM's West Side Story, which also looks far better than you'd imagine it could.

    The colour is generally pleasingly well-saturated, although the primitive optical compositing of the era broadcasts imminent fades between scenes with a reasonably subtle colour and luminance shift. The film was originally intended to be shot in black and white, until Fox insisted that all films using their CinemaScope technology must use colour stock.

    I noticed no glaring MPEG artefacts despite the moderate bitrate, although the transfer displays a fair amount of aliasing when viewed on a 4:3 set. Much of this problem is eliminated in 16x9 mode and those with progressive displays will probably just look confused and ask; 'What's aliasing?'. Film artefacts were generally few and far between, although the print used has lost some frames to damage (e.g. 17:35 and 43:53). These jumps are noticeable but not overly distracting, and quite acceptable given the age of the film and the otherwise excellent video quality.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The disc contains three audio tracks; English Dolby Digital 5.1, and French and Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 mono. I listened exclusively to the English track.

    The 5.1 mix is essentially mono in focus. Dialogue is always clear and easy to understand, although obviously dated in fidelity. However, the soundtrack was never harsh or edgy because of this. I noticed no problems with audio sync.

    The music is surprisingly warm and rich, and certainly far better than I would have hoped, spreading widely across the front soundstage and even reaching into the surrounds. The score itself is fairly typical of 50s Hollywood movies, and I have no comments on it good or otherwise.

    The surround channels are barely used except for the score. Occasionally, I noted crickets and other ambient sound effects around me, but by and large the focus is on the centre channel.

    I noticed the LFE channel being used only once, and then it really made its presence known. Those who've seen the film can probably guess where.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

Theatrical Trailer

Documentary - Rediscovering A Rebel (9:31)

Interviews

    The video quality is fantastic for a film of this vintage.

    The audio quality is very acceptable, though I wish Warner would start including the original soundtrack as well as their modified versions.

    The extras are decent, but not extraordinary.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall