It’s safe to say that one of the most difficult, complicated, and downright confusing times in a person’s life is their teenage years. Countless internal chemical changes aside, it’s often a perplexing task navigating the tumultuous social world that is high school. Those years signify a moment in your life when the possibilities of the world – and the opposite sex, are suddenly revealed. Unfortunately these tantalizing opportunities are by and large out of reach. All of those pent up feelings and emotions cause each and every teenager – yes even the popular quarterback or head cheerleader – to suffer theie own sense of isolation and ennui. No one understands the raging sea of emotions within teenagers, especially not parents.
Having just barely survived my own teenage odyssey, I thought I should finally visit the cinematic journey of arguably the most famous teenager (though he was actually 24 when he died) to ever live: James Dean, the ultimate Rebel Without A Cause. In Nicholas Ray’s tale of teenage disillusionment amongst the 1950’s Hollywood Hills was a massive box office success that resulted in Oscar nominations for costars Natalie Wood and Sal Mineo – and posthumously transformed Dean into an icon.
James Dean, with features chiseled from marble, and Natalie Wood with her stunning beauty don’t exactly represent the typical teenager. Despite the leads being better looking then I could ever hope to be, their melodramatic adolescent suffering still rings true today. But as I watched Rebel Without A Cause I couldn’t shake the sense that not only had I seen this all before, but I had seen it in a film that was vilified and derided by critics and the general public. I am talking of course about Twilight.
Stop me if this sounds familiar: beautiful yet troubled high school girl falls for a brooding loner with chiseled features and a pompadour. Melodrama and romance abound as they attempt to maneuver the minefield that is high school – also the insanely handsome boy she falls for is a teenager for all eternity. Yes I pretty much sidestepped the whole vampire thing, and Dean will forever remain a teenager due to his tragic early death instead of being a member of the undead; but that description could be used for either film. It’s almost undeniable that Rebel Without A Cause was a massive influence on Catherine Hardwicke when she was conceptualizing the film. The question is why was Twilight’s reception so chilly?
Catherine Hardwicke proves herself more then adapt at coaxing authentic performances out of even the most wooden of actors and actresses. Her grasp of the material was also the best out of the various directors over the series run. While the other films began focusing more on bloated spectacle propped up by shoddy CGI – I’m looking at you puppy werewovles – Hardwicke understood that the emotional center belonged to two lonely teens that only found understanding in the arms of one another. Belle and Edward staring into each others eyes in a Settle meadow functions not only as a visual cue for Dean and Woods lying together in a dilapidated Hollywood Mansion, but also as an updated form. 50 years may have passed but teenagers haven’t changed.
Robert Patinson and Kristen Stewart are certainly no James Dean and Natalie Wood, but it isn’t even fair to attempt to compare young actors to pop icons. Perhaps though they will prove to be this generation’s incarnation of them. Besides the wizarding escapades of Harry Potter I struggle to think of two young adults whose melancholic romance and rebellious nature (what’s more rebellious then falling in love with a vampire?) have captured the zeitgeist as much as Twilight has. Only time will tell if 50 years from now Twilight will be held in the same reverence as Rebel Without A Cause. Still, after staring into James Dean’s eyes and hunting down his sweet red coat I implore you to give Twilight a peak as well, if only to see how teenagers never really change.
