Rebel without a Cause (1955) is Hollywood's best film about rebellious youth in the 1950s. Promoted as a story about why a kid from a "good" family would "tick … like a bomb," the film sympathetically presents an adolescent perspective on the rebelliousness of middle-class youth of the time. The film focuses on three frustrated teenagers who seek to form their own identities apart from the world and values of their parents and other adults from which they feel alienated. In his role as James Stark, James Dean presented the American archetype of the troubled and tormented teenager, and in so doing became a spokesman for frustrated youth.

The Jim Stark character is the insecure offspring of a domineering mother (Ann Doran) and henpecked father (James Backus), who seeks to find a place where his inner gentleness and love can be safely expressed. The...