Rebel Without A Cause Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Growing up in Los Angeles as an admittedly shallow, callow youth in the 70s, I always wanted a stylish hot rod so I could attract the girls who liked guys in fast cars. Alas, I had to be content with puttering around in very practical, somewhat beat-up used cars (1964 Chevy Corvair, graduating to a 1965 Ford Falcon), but dreams die hard. Even though I'm still driving a very practical, somewhat beat-up used car, I still yearn for a sizzling hot motor vehicle and an attractive lady passenger urging me to go faster, faster.

These thoughts are prompted by the imminent release of the hot rod-loving Fast & Furious, due in theaters tomorrow, which features the return of the gorgeous Jordana Brewster and the equally lovely Michelle Rodriguez, two talented ladies who have a definite need for speed. (Oh, yeah, Paul Walker and Vin Diesel are back, too, and so is director Justin Lin.) In their honor, we present our seven favorite, fabulous hot rod girls.

1. Tracie Thoms, Death Proof

Tracie Thoms packs an unbeatable combination of brains, beauty, and bravado as Kim, a stunt woman in Quentin Tarantino's twisted ode to 70s car chase movies and 80s slasher flicks. Kim is rowdy and rambunctious with her girlfriends, but her hot rod heart starts beating fast when she revs up the engine of a borrowed 1970 Dodge Challenger, with Zoe Bell precariously perched on the hood. Smashing!

Last week, I gave you a nice list of DVDs for younger kids. This week it's time to give a little love to the older kids in the family. Sure, they'll sneak a peek at the younger sibs' kiddie flicks when they think you aren't looking, but they really want to know that you know they're getting older, and they have their own taste in movies. Some of these recommendations are more current films that older kids might enjoy; others are well-loved classics you might remember from your own teen-hood. In any case, adding a couple of these selections to your shopping list for that tween or teen in your life is sure to make you tops on their list.

It used to be that movie collectibles only came to anxious audiences in special memorabilia stores. However, with the internet came eBay, and with eBay came a warehouse of collectible goodies at our fingertips. It's hard not to fall for the low-price lure that evilly reels you in and gives you a false sense of hope before ripping the dream away as people sail in with more buying power. But that's small potatoes. eBay is gearing up for a sale where I'm sure a thousand bucks will seem dirt cheap. The collection of items, which is valued at $3.1 million, contains some of the most memorable props and objects you can possibly think of. It looks more like a list of items from Planet Hollywood than a public auction.

Some of the stuff is a little newer. If you're a Star Wars fan, what would interest you? Perhaps the heads of R2D2 and C3P0? Not only are they two of the most recognizable pieces you could grab, but C3P0 would make one hell of a bookend. If you're looking for some older film pieces, you could put a bid in for the Wizard of Oz Cowardly Lion costume, or my personal favorite, James Dean's switchblade from Rebel Without a Cause. For something off-screen but just as noteworthy -- there will be the chance to bid on Elvis' wedding ring from his marriage to Priscilla.

The event will run on eBay from December 14 to 15, so you might want to start saving your pennies, or better yet, your gold pieces.

I have a lot of admiration for screenwriters. They are the unsung heroes of the film business; without their stories, no film would ever be made. Being a writer is hard, anxious and often lonely work. You stare at the blank screen. It waits to be filled, it must be filled, and so you start to write, praying that the end result is worth the effort you give to it. I've started and not finished countless screenplays whose stories just wouldn't go anywhere, written and completed eight full drafts of an absolutely dreadful romantic comedy and, through various writing groups I've belonged to over the years, read a lot of developing screenplays that will, thankfully, never see the light of day. I'm such a geek, in fact, that I often read the scripts for films I love, over and over again, just to feel rhythm of the words on the page, and to get a sense for how those words translated into the finished film on the screen.

As so often happens, Anne Thompson at The Hollywood Reporter has written an astute piece on screenwriting that is so obvious it seems it should be carved into granite above the entrance to every studio in Hollywood: Great writing makes for great movies. The film with which Thompson explores this hypothesis is Stranger Than Fiction, which debuted at Toronto (sadly, I missed it there), and she makes her point about great writing by enumerating how many big stars wanted to be in the film based on the script alone. Some truly great films have come out of a script that speaks its truth to actors so purely and loudly that they simply must see the film get made. They'll work for scale, drop other projects, shuffle their schedules around, all for the sake of that golden opportunity to be in a film so good that it demands to be made, whatever the sacrifice. When critics and cinephiles bemoan the dismal quality of so many films sludging their way out of Hollywood, very often what we are really bemoaning is the lack of originality in storytelling, the lack of passion in penning that story, and mostly, the lack of truth that seems to permeate so many films.

Over at the Guardian yesterday, they reported that "lost" footage of iconic actor Marlon Brando screen testing for Rebel Without a Cause way back in 1947 has been found, and it's got lots of folks excited to imagine what Brando would have brough to the lead role of the classic film. The five-minute screen test, included as an extra on the DVD release of Brando's A Streetcar Named Desire, shows a young Brando "railing against his parents" and "finding a gun and lighting out for a new life with his girl. Today The Guardian's Xan Brooks speculated on what Rebel Without a Cause might have been like with Brando in the role that made James Dean famous eight years later. Davis opines that a Rebel with Brando in the role of Jim Stark would have been inferior to the film made by Nicholas Ray with Dean in the lead role - an assertion I happen to agree with.

What neither Guardian piece addresses, though, is that the screen test Brando made in 1947 had practically nothing to do with the Rebel Without A Cause we're all familiar with. After I read the article in the Guardian, I emailed Stewart Stern (pictured), who wrote the screenplay for Rebel Without a Cause.  I interviewed Stern extensively last year, and we talked a lot about Dean, Rebel, and what Brando thought of Dean. I knew Stern didn't write his screenplay in 1947, so I asked him if he knew anything about this Brando screen test. As he recalls it after all these years, Stern believes it went this way:

 

Well before Dick Clark took over the mantle, Nicholas Ray was America's Oldest Teenager. The director, who made such classics as Rebel Without a Cause, Johnny Guitar, and In a Lonely Place, is well known (in a mostly affectionate way, at least early-on) to have spent most of his life steadfastly refusing to mature. Right up until his death, Ray battled drug and alcohol addictions, gambled heavily, and slept with lots and lots of people of both genders (his fourth wife, married as he headed into old age, was a woman he met when she was a teen) - much of which he recounted in his memoir, I Was Interrupted.

Said memoir is now being adapted for the big screen by Oren Moverman, and will be directed by Philip Kaufman, a director who, though he did make The Right Stuff and The Unbearable Lightness of Being, has seen his star decline rather significantly lately. (Unless, that is, you were a big fan of Twisted, in which case you probably think he's doing great.) What's most interesting about the news of this project is the fact that someone is actually going to get to play Ray - it's a potentially fantastic role, but the risk of turning the man into a caricature is a major one. (I can picture, for example, Anthony Hopkins getting way, way into the role.) Keeping in mind the fact that the movie is expected to focus on the last decade of Ray's life, who do you think should get the job?