In Rebel Without a Cause, James Dean is not much of a rebel and he does have a cause.

The film is iconic because James Dean is iconic (he died one month before this film was released). And viewers expect to see a James Dean character consistent with the James Dean persona, but are usually disappointed.

James Dean's character is not a badass, aloof, alpha rebel. He's a lost, upset, emotional teenager "rebelling" against his terrible parents. He's upset because his father is a pussy who will not help him become a man.

This movie is not a RedPill example of what to be like, it's a RedPill example of what happens to teenagers without good masculine fathers.

The movie is ostensibly about James Dean, and high school bullies, and teenage love, and reckless teenage behavior. But post-TRP, I see that this is a story about the impact of fathers and male role models, and the main characters are three teenagers with some serious Daddy issues.

Jim (James Dean) has a father who is fucking him up because he's a spineless chump who lets his wife wear the pants.

Judy (Natalie Wood) has a father who is fucking her up because he is emotionally distant and withholding of affection and approval.

Plato (Sal Mineo) has a father who is fucking him up because he's completely absent and left him to be raised by a selfish mother, who's also frequently absent.

These characters are first seen in the same police station on the same night. Jim's there for public drunkenness, Judy's in there for walking around town after curfew (looking for male attention), and Plato's in there for doing some weird shit like shooting puppies.

Throughout the film, Jim continually confronts his father about not standing up for himself or his son. The mother is seen squawking from the sidelines, but Jim mostly ignores her and looks disappointedly at his father as if to say, "I expect this from her, but from you, Dad?"

This scene [3 mins 37 secs] in which Jim argues with his parents about owning up to his role in some reckless driving that got a schoolmate killed, captures perfectly the dynamic between them, and also the cause of this "rebel".

What is strange is how someone could write this story in 1955, even though it essentially works as a cautionary tale about the post-feminism era.

When the father acts like a woman and the mother acts like a man, the boy will suffer, and, if he can become a man at all, it is a bumpy road to getting there.