Historical Text Task...

Rebel Without A Cause (1955)

Rebel Without A Cause has similar aspects of what we see in society's films today about teenagers. The similar aspects that we see in this historical film is the rebelliousness of teenagers and the constant resort to violence and the aggression in male teens especially. We see these actions in teenagers in Adulthood too. The main protagonist in the film, played by James Dean, is similar to the main protagonist in Adulthood as he shuts out everyone and causes trouble were ever he goes, this is similar to Sam in Adulthood, played by Noel Clarke.

The main protagonist in Rebel Without a Cause, 1955, has the similar characteristics as Sam in Adulthood. In Rebel Without a Cause, we see James Dean try to find a new path and change his old ways and wants a fresh start. We see this in Adulthood as Sam comes out of prison hoping to leave the past behind him and begin and start fresh. However, both characters in both films get puled back into their old ways and are once again pulled back into the violent cycle that never seems to end. We see similar use of props in both films as both films to tend to use guns and knifes.

However, the differences we see in this film are of the roles of females characters in both films. In Rebel Without A Cause we see the females as "The Madonna" pure, innocent and clean. The main female protagonist is the character Judy , whom James Deans Character likes, comes across as your average girl sweet innocent and pure. However, in Adulthood, we see the female character Lexi who is represented as "The Whore". Lexi comes across as promiscuous, provocative and sinful as she sleeps around and uses drugs. We see how society has changed in female characters of teenage films, however their is no change in the role of male characters in teenage films. Therefore it shows that there are similar conventions of both films but they differ in other aspects of these conventions.