We’re introduced to three troubled teenagers at a juvenile police station. There’s Plato, a young teen effectively abandoned by his parents and showing (frankly psychopathic) disturbed tendencies. Judy yearns for attention and affection from her father, who thinks she’s too old for that and acts disgusted by her attempts to be seen. And then there’s Jim Stark who can’t stand his bickering parents, his timid father, and is tortured by their instinct to pick up and move every time Jim gets into trouble. The next day—the first day of school—Jim starts to get picked on. He tries extremely hard to avoid trouble but ends up in a knife fight. He is injured in the scuffle but wins the fight, and accepts a follow-up challenge to race a “Chickie Run”. When things go south at the Chickie Run, Jim becomes desperate for moral guidance, responsibility, and safety—none of which he gets from his parents or the local police. He flees with Judy and Plato and the three form something of a family, with each filling a void left by their parents. Things are wonderful until violent teens and incompetent adults crash into their world.
I have been on record saying that I don’t like “teen” movies, but there was something really alluring about this one. I think the ‘55 Los Angeles backdrop played a big role in that. The film also does a really good job of selling our main characters’ woes. This isn’t a “will he/she like me; nobody understands me” teenage drama—our characters face real struggles with their parents. Navigating the transition from childhood to adulthood is hard and in the absence of guidance, pitfalls abound. Especially in the ‘50s, which the film depicts as containing some real awful, physical and emotional bullying. James Dean and Natalie Wood were charming, although some of the dialogue was clunky, dull, or aged poorly (more on that, below). And the cinematography was particularly brilliant. I grabbed onto a few standout shots, like Jim treading on the school insignia, the start of the Chickie Run, Jim sitting on the couch upside down and the fight with his parents—all shot in color and stunning CinemaScope (for some reason, I always assumed this was a black and white film).
One of the things I love about this “film project” is I get to learn all of the ways that the films I love (and assume were original) were influenced by earlier films—warts and all. And in that vein, there is an unquestionable dotted line between this film and the ‘50s scenes in Back to the Future 1 & 2. In addition to the production design and setting, each share a thematic thru-line of a kid who is ashamed of his timid father. Not wanting to be associated with this weakness, each character wont stand down from a fight—especially when it’s suggested that they are “chicken”. Whether interpreted as basic pride and defense-of-honor, or as toxic masculinity, Jim and Marty McFly share this trait. But whereas Marty gets to “teach” his father to be brave, Jim is stuck in the same timeline and just berates his dad. At one point, Jim even suggests that the best thing for his family would be for his father to beat his assertive mom, just once, to shut her up and reestablish a man at the head of the house. Though pivotal to Jim’s arc (he ultimately moves past yearning for a ‘manly’ role model by asserting himself as “the man”), some of these scenes have aged really poorly. Heavy, man.