It was recently brought to my attention that the end of this month (September 30th) marks the anniversary of James Dean’s untimely death. I’ve been meaning to see a few of his films for a while now, and this seemed as good an excuse as any to push them toward the top of my queue.

First up is Rebel Without a Cause, which I actually consider to be two separate movies: There’s the movie before the crash and the movie after the crash.

The former is effectively a prototype for every teen movie and coming-of-age film made in the years since. I could find the protagonist learning how to fit in with the crowd at a new high school, the conflict between parents and their kids, the tough but well-meaning adult mentor (a cop, no less), and of course, the impossibly huge douchebag with no depth or reason to be a bully, not to mention his posse of hangers-on who are even more annoying and two-dimensional.

At first, I thought this movie really wasn’t for me. I realize that this is just the decade the movie was made in, but the characters were all so paper-thin that I couldn’t sympathize with them. The film tries to pass itself off as dramatic with characters devoid of nuance and presentation that doesn’t carry any weight. This overly sanitized depiction of teenage delinquency might have passed muster back in the fifties, but cute drunkards and badly-choreographed knife fights just don’t cut it anymore.

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off had a scene in which a nervous wreck lets his frustrations loose on his dad’s prize car and takes the blame for it. Fast Times at Ridgemont High had candid discussions of teen sexuality, complete with nudity. The Breakfast Club is one of my candidates for “Best Movie Ever Made,” for its skillful balance of comedy and drama, in addition to its unparalleled character development. Next to these movies and others in the genre, the shallow characterization, sanitized action, and watered-down depictions of criminal behavior in Rebel Without a Cause show how far we’ve come in the years since. Put simply, it just isn’t enough by modern standards.

But then, when I least expected it, there came the crash at the movie’s halfway point. And this suddenly became a different, far better movie.

Most of the shamelessly two-dimensional characters had disappeared entirely. Those who were left suddenly had clear motivations and were acting on life-and-death stakes. The development of these characters also improved drastically, as they finally had to discover what they were truly made of. There was action, there was suspense, and there was some amazingly solid drama.

But of course, the driving force behind the movie as a whole is James Dean. First of all, when we meet his character at the beginning of the movie, he’s sauced to the gills and being dragged into a police station. We learn the reasons for his actions, and he makes an effort to shape up when the next morning comes. So it is that when we see all the poser bullies antagonize our leading man, we already know who the real McCoy is. Our sympathies lie with James because he is (or was) the kind of guy that these assholes are only pretending to be. And not only that, but James is trying to be the better man, even though he could easily beat them at their own game.

Then the second half comes, and James is one of the few characters who shows any backbone at all. This is when he finally calls a few characters out on their bullshit and starts acting as the movie’s moral compass. The character develops a great amount of conscience and courage over the course of this film, and Dean makes this development compelling throughout.

The other noteworthy actor in this movie is Natalie Wood. She shows some amazing range here, with a teary-eyed monologue at the start of the film and some charming moments of levity near the end. Her chemistry with Dean is very good, making it believable that these two could fall for each other over the course of a single day. Of course, it helps that the romance arc is paced very slowly and deliberately, with neither actor overselling the relationship until the time is right. Very well done.

Alas, Sal Mineo didn’t impress me nearly as much as James’ would-be best friend, nicknamed “Plato.” When we first meet this character, he’s in a police station for shooting a bunch of puppies. On his birthday, no less. Mineo tries so hard to make his character sympathetic, but it just isn’t enough after that introduction. Of course, it also doesn’t help that Plato is a compulsive liar and shows a few stalker-ish tendencies toward James.

Now, Dean does an outstanding job of selling his character’s compassion for Plato, as well as his desire to help his friend. The problem is that Dean still only plays one person in a two-person relationship. For Mineo’s part, Plato just wasn’t played with enough pathos to make for a genuinely tragic figure. I didn’t mourn for him because I wasn’t given enough reason to think that he might be willing to receive help, or that he wasn’t past the point of help. All told, Plato is a character who suffers because the actor playing him wasn’t remotely as talented as Dean or Wood.

Speaking of characters, I noticed a couple of redundant characters and arcs in this film. There’s a student, for example, who chides James for treading on the school crest, then never shows up again. There’s also the family of our love interest, all of whom get a good chunk of screen time that leads to nothing. Really, the editing as a whole was just awful, with visibly screwed-up continuity between shots and some horribly-dubbed lines.

All things considered, I don’t really like Rebel Without a Cause so much as I respect it. I can understand why this movie was a classic in its day, James Dean and Natalie Wood are both extraordinary throughout, and the second half has some genuinely good drama. On the other hand, I can’t overlook the shallow first half or the misfire that was Plato’s characterization.

This film just isn’t my thing, though I certainly won’t complain if it’s yours. In either case, this is definitely a film worth seeing at least once.