Rebel Without A Cause is made for a certain generation. One that was desperately in search of a hero, a patron saint, a man who could obtain freedom and show expressing yourself is the key of life. James Dean, in 1955 and throughout the 50’s and 60’s, was that hero. However, it is with great melancholy that Nicolas Ray’s touted and beloved classic is a deplorable, languid mess of a picture. The film follows Jim Stark (Dean) a rebellious teenager, upset with everything and everyone. Particularly his father Frank (Jim Backus): a symbolic character, who represents Stark’s quest for manhood and integrity (neither of which his apron wearing father contains). Written by Stewart Stern and adapted by Irving Shulman’s novel by the same name, the plot in Rebel Without A Cause is not only scarce, but irrelevant. There’s next to nothing in quantity and quality in the film. Perhaps that’s on purpose, though. The film is not so much lacking purpose, as it is perplexed in it its wa