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==Psalm 8:1-5==
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==Faith & Film IX - Rebel Without a Cause==
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1 O Lord, our God, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. 2 Out of the mouths of babes and infants you have founded a bulwark because of your foes, to silence the enemy and the avenger. 3 When I consider the heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; 4 what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? 5 Yet you have made him a little lower than the angels, and crowned him with glory and honor.
+
Our three scripture passages today are John 14:8-11, Psalm 8:1-5, and 2 Corinthians 1:3-4.  Ordinarily in a sermon like this, I would read scriptures, then I'd do a three minute synopsis of the film, show 3 or 4 film clips, and analyze some themes that connect the scriptures and the film.
  
−
==John 14:8-11==
+
Rebel Without a Cause is such a complex, groundbreaking and influential film, that I'm going to try something a little different today. I'm going to intersperse the scriptures, the synopsis and the themes, all while I talk us through a lot more clips than we usually see. But first, a little background:
−
8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves.
+
  
−
==2 Corinthians 1:3-4==
+
Prior to the 1950s there was no such cultural concept as "adolescence."  Teenagers were not a recognized group.  One simply went from being a child, to being an adult--no ambiguous in between period where childhood and adulthood pulled a young person in both directions simultaneously.  That began to change in the aftermath of World War II.
−
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation, 4 who consoles us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to console those who are in any affliction with the consolation with which we ourselves are consoled by God.
+
  
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==Faith & Film IX - Rebel Without a Cause==
+
As a result of the war, many fathers never came home to their families. Many who lived came home changed by what they had experienced in the war.  Also during the war, many women entered into the workforce for the first time, achieving a measure of independence, and they didn't exactly give that up when their husbands returned.
  
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*Film Clip #1 - Trailer
+
The 1950s were years of financial prosperity for an emerging middle class--parents spent more money on their children, but less time with them.  All these things were challenges for the family unit, and particularly for the traditional concept of fatherhood.  "Juvenile delinquency" became a growing concern in America at the time. This film was the first of its kind to address the issue in a realistic and sympathetic manner.
  
−
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCIumtsReoM Opening Credits (1:24)
+
In 1944 a psychologist named Robert Lindner wrote a book called "Rebel Without a Cause: The Hypnoanalysis of a Criminal Psychopath," where he defined a psychopath as someone who is "incapable of exertions for the sake of others."  While the book didn't really have a lot to do with the later movie of the same name, I think the film does attempt to make the point that while this emerging class of young people faced real and complicated challenges, which could lead to delinquency and even tragedy, they were not, by and large, psychopaths.  Despite some of the dark or tragic elements of the film, I find it to be incredibly optimistic in its core message.
  
−
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yZrFQUbbG0 Judy, Jackets & King (3:36)
+
==Opening Credits (1:24)==
 +
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCIumtsReoM
 +
*Introduction of Jim Stark, a young man who is clearly drunk
 +
*Toy monkey with a red hat (note the red credits, too)
 +
*Jim wants to care for the monkey, cover it and keep it warm (things a father does)
  
−
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBOcWFBBB04 Tearing Me Apart (1:40)
+
==Police Station (1:28)==
 +
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yZrFQUbbG0
 +
*Prologue to introduce the three principle characters and their family dysfunction.
 +
*Jim wails like a siren--is he mimicking authority, sounding an alarm, or crying out for help?
 +
*John "Plato" (Sal Mineo) has been brought in for killing a litter of puppies.  We never see his parents, just his nanny. He rejects Jim's offer of a coat.
 +
*Judy (Natalie Wood) has been brought in for curfew violation.  Red dress--red is a symbol of rebellion.  She's upset that her father doesn't care enough to come get her. They have a strained relationship.
  
−
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kouy3p9oBw Kids and Fathers (3:16)
+
==Tearing Me Apart (1:40)==
 +
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBOcWFBBB04
 +
*Jim is humming Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" in anticipation of the parental battle.
 +
*Later, we learn that Jim is embarrassed that his father is not "strong" enough, and is dominated by Jim's mother and grandmother.
  
−
====Three Minute Film Synopsis====
+
==John 14:8-11==
−
Jim Stark (played by James Dean) is a high school student whose family has recently moved to Los Angeles. The film begins with Jim being arrested for drunkenness and taken into the juvenile division of the local police station. There, he meets two other "juvenile delinquents" his age: Plato (Sal Mineo), who has been brought in for shooting a litter of puppies, and Judy (Natalie Wood), who is in for curfew violation.
+
8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves.
  
−
All three are eventually released when their parents (or in Plato's case, his nanny) come to get them, and after we get to see the significant dysfunction in each family.  
+
*"Show us the father" is a question people have been asking for a long time.
 +
*Jesus teaches that the qualities of a Father are manifest in the son, through both words and actions.
  
−
The next day on a school field trip to the local observatory, Jim takes Plato under his wing, and gets into a knife fight with the leader of a neighborhood gang, who also happens to be Judy's boyfriend. Jim disarms the gang leader, who then challenges him to a game of "chicken" later that night, which results in the death of the gang leader when his car goes over a cliff.
+
==The Planetarium/Observatory (4:11)==
 +
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIMmdsU9n5o
 +
*This is where the real story begins...and ends.
 +
*The lecture is a metaphor for the story
 +
*Characters "observe" the stars, while we "observe" them.
 +
*People come and go, but stars remain fixed.
 +
*Three constellations represent the three main characters.
 +
**Orion, the hunter: Plato who killed the puppies, and later hunts with a gun, and is hunted in turn.
 +
**Cancer: Judy--Intuitive, sentimental, compassionate and protective.
 +
**Taurus: Jim--Strong, dependable (what his father is not), sensual, and creative.
 +
*Explosion:  Red turns to blue.
 +
*Cycle of death and rebirth.
 +
*Man, existing alone, seems himself an episode of little consequence.
 +
*May I have your attention? Oh, what the heck!
  
−
Jim, Judy and Plato run away to an abandoned house, where they fantasize about being a family for each other. This is interrupted when some of the remaining gang members find them.  Plato, in an attempt to protect his new family, draws a gun he has stolen from his mother, and shoots one of the threatening boys, wounding him. By now the police have been alerted, and Plato escapes, breaking in to the observatory they had visited the previous day, and barricading himself inside.  Jim and Judy find him, and talk him into giving himself up to the police outside.  Jim takes the gun from Plato, and removes the bullets before giving it back to him. When they finally come outside, Plato panics in the face of the bright lights, and when the police see the gun in his hand, they shoot him.  
+
==Psalm 8:1-5==
 +
1 O Lord, our God, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. 2 Out of the mouths of babes and infants you have founded a bulwark because of your foes, to silence the enemy and the avenger. 3 When I consider the heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; 4 what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? 5 Yet you have made him a little lower than the angels, and crowned him with glory and honor.
 +
*Psalm 8 teaches that man is indeed insignificant, but not alone, chosen by God.
  
−
As Plato dies, Jim and Judy comfort him, grieve, and Jim's parents arrive on the scene.  Jim reconciles with his father, introduces his parents to Judy, and they drive away as the sun rises on a new day.  
+
==The Knife Fight (3:21)==
 +
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eselLQax8us
 +
*He is drawn into the fight by being called "chicken" (unmanly).
 +
*Notice how Jim plays the part of the bull.
 +
*The inside of the gang leader's coat is red.
 +
*Fight is designed to draw blood--a little bit of red on white shirt.  Jim is becoming a rebel.
 +
*Dead = cold = red followed by blue (Plato is always cold).
  
−
====Adolescence and Juvenile Delinquents====
+
==The Chicken Run (2:28)==
−
Prior to the 1950s there was no such cultural concept as "adolescence."  Teenagers were not a recognized group. One simply went from being a child, to being an adult--no ambiguous in between period where childhood and adulthood pulled a young person in both directions simultaneously. The great depression in the 1930s, followed by World War II in the 1940s began to change all that. Furthermore, World War II wreaked havoc on families, something I'll talk about a little later. Suffice it to say that "juvenile delinquency" was a growing concern in America at the time. This film was the first of its kind to address the issue in a realistic and sympathetic manner.  
+
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDFnYvKl1LU
 +
*Jim is now in a fully red (iconic) jacket. He's a full fledged rebel.
 +
*Note Plato projecting "father roles" on Jim.
 +
*Judy wants the attention from Jim she doesn't get from her father.
 +
*The water represents the dark abyss, like the cold stars in the planetarium...the end.
 +
*You gotta do something (in the face of death, the abyss).
  
−
====Show Us the Father====
+
==Stand up for Me (2:42)==
−
The first major scene of the film--where we are introduced to the main characters in the police station--functions as a prologue, which lays out the core problem of the film: All three of the main characters have "father issues."  Jim's father is henpecked by his wife and his mother, and doesn't have the backbone to stand up for his son, who is embarrassed by him.  Judy's father, on the other hand, used to be affectionate with his daughter, but as she grows into a young woman, he pushes her away and criticizes her choices of dress and makeup.  Plato's father is simply absent altogether, from the film and from his life.  
+
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7014C_6ABAg
 +
*Aftermath of the Chicken Run death, Jim wants to turn himself in.
 +
*Notice the placement of the characters on the stairs--symbolic levels.
 +
*Jim: "Dad, stand up for me!"
 +
*Predictably, Mom is the one who saves Dad.
  
−
This was a reality of post-World War II America: Many fathers died in the war and never came home.  Many of those who did were traumatized by war.  During the war, many women entered into the workforce for the first time, leaving their children to be cared for by grandparents, and achieving a measure of independence that often resulted in family friction when their husbands returned. World War II wreaked havoc on the family unit, and called into question the very nature of what it meant to be a father in a family.
+
==The House (1:46)==
 +
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xz7IEGNSzMk
 +
*Plato: "We're safe here." Lights three candles for three-person family.
 +
*Jim and Judy role play as a couple, later Plato role plays as their child.
 +
*This is the happiest point in the film, but it's still imagined, not entirely real.
  
 +
==Not My Father (1:38)==
 +
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAWzJCHkdcM
 +
*Police arrive, and gang boys are already in the house.
 +
*Jim and Judy left Plato asleep to be alone together.
 +
*Plato, feeling abandoned, desperate for "salvation" lashes out (hunter).
 +
*Accuses his "father figure" (Jim) and then rejects him.
  
−
====The Insignificance of Man====
+
==Giving the Jacket (0:27)==
−
After the prologue in the police station, the real action in the film begins--and ends--in the observatory, the planetarium.  This is highly symbolic.
+
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqz5wwsXnUE
 +
*The Jacket is symbolic--of rebellion (which Jim gives up) but also compassion. This time Plato accepts it.
 +
*Plato is a real person, not a toy monkey.   
 +
*Jim is acting like a father, like a man.  Strong, but also sensitive.
  
−
====Showing Compassion====
+
==2 Corinthians 1:3-4==
−
In 1944 a psychologist named Robert Lindner wrote a book called "Rebel Without a Cause: The Hypnoanalysis of a Criminal Psychopath," where he defined a psycopath as someone who is "incapable of exertions for the sake of others."  While the book didn't really have a lot to do with the later movie of the same name, I think the film does attempt to make the point that while this emerging class of young people faced real and complex challenges, which could lead to delinquency and even tragedy, they were not, by and large, psychopaths.  Despite the disturbing sequence of events in the film, I think it's incredibly optimistic.
+
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation, 4 who consoles us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to console those who are in any affliction with the consolation with which we ourselves are consoled by God.
−
 
+
−
In the opening credits of the film, watch James Dean's character (who is obviously drunk, and about to be arrested) as he finds a toy monkey on the ground:
+
  
−
*Film Clip #2 - Opening Credits
+
==I got the bullets! (2:31)==
 +
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uk1MJFwGMjI
 +
*Note the red light.
 +
*Jim grieves and comforts.
 +
*Plato's socks--both red and blue (hot & cold, life & death).
 +
*Jim and his father finally stand up together.
 +
*Plato's death is not the focus.  Death is inevitable.  The point is life.
  
−
In his drunken state, he's trying to show ca
+
==Closing Scene (2:17)==
 +
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhaISNf3pzY
 +
*Plato's nanny is incorrect--he finally had someone.
 +
*Jim zips up Jacket, saying goodbye to Plato and his rebelliousness.
 +
*Father shows kindness, puts brown jacket on Jim.
 +
*Jim now has a friend, he is no longer alone (and inconsequential)
 +
*Parents smile knowingly. Their son (and American youth) will be okay.
 +
*Plato had once asked Jim if the world would end at night.  Jim said, no, in the morning.
 +
*Film ends as a new day breaks, and the planetarium curator enters the building, and life goes on.

Latest revision as of 01:34, 10 January 2021

Faith & Film IX - Rebel Without a Cause

Our three scripture passages today are John 14:8-11, Psalm 8:1-5, and 2 Corinthians 1:3-4. Ordinarily in a sermon like this, I would read scriptures, then I'd do a three minute synopsis of the film, show 3 or 4 film clips, and analyze some themes that connect the scriptures and the film.

Rebel Without a Cause is such a complex, groundbreaking and influential film, that I'm going to try something a little different today. I'm going to intersperse the scriptures, the synopsis and the themes, all while I talk us through a lot more clips than we usually see. But first, a little background:

Prior to the 1950s there was no such cultural concept as "adolescence." Teenagers were not a recognized group. One simply went from being a child, to being an adult--no ambiguous in between period where childhood and adulthood pulled a young person in both directions simultaneously. That began to change in the aftermath of World War II.

As a result of the war, many fathers never came home to their families. Many who lived came home changed by what they had experienced in the war. Also during the war, many women entered into the workforce for the first time, achieving a measure of independence, and they didn't exactly give that up when their husbands returned.

The 1950s were years of financial prosperity for an emerging middle class--parents spent more money on their children, but less time with them. All these things were challenges for the family unit, and particularly for the traditional concept of fatherhood. "Juvenile delinquency" became a growing concern in America at the time. This film was the first of its kind to address the issue in a realistic and sympathetic manner.

In 1944 a psychologist named Robert Lindner wrote a book called "Rebel Without a Cause: The Hypnoanalysis of a Criminal Psychopath," where he defined a psychopath as someone who is "incapable of exertions for the sake of others." While the book didn't really have a lot to do with the later movie of the same name, I think the film does attempt to make the point that while this emerging class of young people faced real and complicated challenges, which could lead to delinquency and even tragedy, they were not, by and large, psychopaths. Despite some of the dark or tragic elements of the film, I find it to be incredibly optimistic in its core message.

Opening Credits (1:24)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCIumtsReoM

  • Introduction of Jim Stark, a young man who is clearly drunk
  • Toy monkey with a red hat (note the red credits, too)
  • Jim wants to care for the monkey, cover it and keep it warm (things a father does)

Police Station (1:28)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yZrFQUbbG0

  • Prologue to introduce the three principle characters and their family dysfunction.
  • Jim wails like a siren--is he mimicking authority, sounding an alarm, or crying out for help?
  • John "Plato" (Sal Mineo) has been brought in for killing a litter of puppies. We never see his parents, just his nanny. He rejects Jim's offer of a coat.
  • Judy (Natalie Wood) has been brought in for curfew violation. Red dress--red is a symbol of rebellion. She's upset that her father doesn't care enough to come get her. They have a strained relationship.

Tearing Me Apart (1:40)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBOcWFBBB04

  • Jim is humming Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" in anticipation of the parental battle.
  • Later, we learn that Jim is embarrassed that his father is not "strong" enough, and is dominated by Jim's mother and grandmother.

John 14:8-11

8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves.

  • "Show us the father" is a question people have been asking for a long time.
  • Jesus teaches that the qualities of a Father are manifest in the son, through both words and actions.

The Planetarium/Observatory (4:11)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIMmdsU9n5o

  • This is where the real story begins...and ends.
  • The lecture is a metaphor for the story
  • Characters "observe" the stars, while we "observe" them.
  • People come and go, but stars remain fixed.
  • Three constellations represent the three main characters.
    • Orion, the hunter: Plato who killed the puppies, and later hunts with a gun, and is hunted in turn.
    • Cancer: Judy--Intuitive, sentimental, compassionate and protective.
    • Taurus: Jim--Strong, dependable (what his father is not), sensual, and creative.
  • Explosion: Red turns to blue.
  • Cycle of death and rebirth.
  • Man, existing alone, seems himself an episode of little consequence.
  • May I have your attention? Oh, what the heck!

Psalm 8:1-5

1 O Lord, our God, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. 2 Out of the mouths of babes and infants you have founded a bulwark because of your foes, to silence the enemy and the avenger. 3 When I consider the heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; 4 what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? 5 Yet you have made him a little lower than the angels, and crowned him with glory and honor.

  • Psalm 8 teaches that man is indeed insignificant, but not alone, chosen by God.

The Knife Fight (3:21)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eselLQax8us

  • He is drawn into the fight by being called "chicken" (unmanly).
  • Notice how Jim plays the part of the bull.
  • The inside of the gang leader's coat is red.
  • Fight is designed to draw blood--a little bit of red on white shirt. Jim is becoming a rebel.
  • Dead = cold = red followed by blue (Plato is always cold).

The Chicken Run (2:28)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDFnYvKl1LU

  • Jim is now in a fully red (iconic) jacket. He's a full fledged rebel.
  • Note Plato projecting "father roles" on Jim.
  • Judy wants the attention from Jim she doesn't get from her father.
  • The water represents the dark abyss, like the cold stars in the planetarium...the end.
  • You gotta do something (in the face of death, the abyss).

Stand up for Me (2:42)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7014C_6ABAg

  • Aftermath of the Chicken Run death, Jim wants to turn himself in.
  • Notice the placement of the characters on the stairs--symbolic levels.
  • Jim: "Dad, stand up for me!"
  • Predictably, Mom is the one who saves Dad.

The House (1:46)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xz7IEGNSzMk

  • Plato: "We're safe here." Lights three candles for three-person family.
  • Jim and Judy role play as a couple, later Plato role plays as their child.
  • This is the happiest point in the film, but it's still imagined, not entirely real.

Not My Father (1:38)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAWzJCHkdcM

  • Police arrive, and gang boys are already in the house.
  • Jim and Judy left Plato asleep to be alone together.
  • Plato, feeling abandoned, desperate for "salvation" lashes out (hunter).
  • Accuses his "father figure" (Jim) and then rejects him.

Giving the Jacket (0:27)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqz5wwsXnUE

  • The Jacket is symbolic--of rebellion (which Jim gives up) but also compassion. This time Plato accepts it.
  • Plato is a real person, not a toy monkey.
  • Jim is acting like a father, like a man. Strong, but also sensitive.

2 Corinthians 1:3-4

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation, 4 who consoles us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to console those who are in any affliction with the consolation with which we ourselves are consoled by God.

I got the bullets! (2:31)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uk1MJFwGMjI

  • Note the red light.
  • Jim grieves and comforts.
  • Plato's socks--both red and blue (hot & cold, life & death).
  • Jim and his father finally stand up together.
  • Plato's death is not the focus. Death is inevitable. The point is life.

Closing Scene (2:17)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhaISNf3pzY

  • Plato's nanny is incorrect--he finally had someone.
  • Jim zips up Jacket, saying goodbye to Plato and his rebelliousness.
  • Father shows kindness, puts brown jacket on Jim.
  • Jim now has a friend, he is no longer alone (and inconsequential)
  • Parents smile knowingly. Their son (and American youth) will be okay.
  • Plato had once asked Jim if the world would end at night. Jim said, no, in the morning.
  • Film ends as a new day breaks, and the planetarium curator enters the building, and life goes on.
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