Historical text

Historical text

‘Rebel without a cause’(1995)

This is the story about a troubled teenager with uneffective parents and is starting a new school, he moves from a middle class school. The reactionary film is considered Hollywood's best 50's film of rebellious and restless youth (and sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll) that spawned many other lesser teen exploitation films in its wake. All three leading stars experience trouble in their lives as with ‘Kidulthood’ all of the teens experience some kind of trouble in their lives. Issues rasied include underage drinking, also, Jim’s father denies his alcohol problem as does the character in Kidulthood who’s father denies that she has any problems in school. Both films are based on the lives of rebellious teenagers. At the time this film was made, issues such as this were not openly represented in American media similarly, with Kidulthood many explicit issues are raised and shown. Rebel without a cause was extremely influencial at the time and in some ways shaped every teenager.

It is Largely seen as one of the first films to ever present the “teenager’s” point of view, many of the youngsters are what has never been shown before. Many aspects of Kidulthood have also never been shown before. The film was based on an actual case study of a delinquent teen, Kidulthood was also based on real life stories and experiences.

Differences between ‘Rebel without a cause’ and ‘Kidulthood’ are that in Rebel without a cause, the film allows us to be sympathetic with the youths as it sides with them and their problems however the majority of the way issues are raised in ‘Kidulthood’ show the youths as bored and with nothing better to do and so are causing problems, therefore ‘Kidulthood’ seems to be raising more of a moral panic than representing reality.