19. Shine on You Crazy Diamond &...

Lyrics

Remember when you were young,
You shone like the sun.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Now there's a look in your eyes,
Like black holes in the sky.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
You were caught on the crossfire
Of childhood and stardom,
Blown on the steel breeze.
Come on you target for faraway laughter,
Come on you stranger, you legend, you martyr, and shine!

You reached for the secret too soon,
You cried for the moon.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Threatened by shadows at night,
And exposed in the light.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Well you wore out your welcome
With random precision,
Rode on the steel breeze.
Come on you raver, you seer of visions,
Come on you painter, you piper, you prisoner, and shine!


Earlier I wrote that I found Pink Floyd's approach to rock very admirable, but that I just don't really enjoy their music. That statement may have been a bit premature. Before starting this blog I hadn't listened to Pink Floyd in a long time. I didn't like their music much the first couple of times I heard it and stopped bothering with them a bit. But when I listened to Wish You Were Here I liked it a lot more than I remembered or expected. And now I've listened to this song again. It will never be my favorite song, but it has some incredibly great parts, especially when the lyrics begin. Just like Wish You Were Here this song is about, or rather an homage to, Syd Barrett. Unfortunately Barrett is not the only artist whose career finished too early. The most famous one is probably James Dean. This song could not only be applied to him, but also to his character in his most famous movie.

The Movie: Rebel Without a Cause (Nicholas Ray, 1955)

I used to hold Rebel Without a Cause in high esteem, without ever seeing it. Even before I took much interest in movies I had heard about James Dean and his tragic fate. And that millions of people mourned his death because of Rebel Without a Cause. Even people in my family referenced the movie relatively often Later on in history lessons in high school and during my first year in university we learned about the cultural importance of this movie. It was taught as an example of the youth's rejection of old values after the Second World War, which started a new youth culture that would forever change western society. Some teachers even went further claiming that the movie wasn't only an example of this, but also played a major role in creating this new youth culture. Now I've finally seen it I can't hold it in such a high esteem any more. It's certainly an interesting film, but it doesn't really stand the test of time and has some other problems too.

But let's start with what's good. I really liked the opening scene, where all the three main protagonists, Jim (James Dean), Judy (Natalie Wood) and Plato (Sal Mineo) are introduced in a police station. The focus in this scene isn't on portraying the protagonists, but on portraying an ordinary workday in the police station. The protagonists are only related to each other, because they are coincidentally in the same police station. We only go from one character to another because we the focus of the police shifts from one character to another. I found this an interesting and original way to establish characters. The famous 'chickie game' scene is great too. A chicken game is a game in which two people drive their car towards a cliff and the first one to jump out of the car is a 'chicken.' The scene is quite suspenseful, but it's the aftermath that I found even more interesting. Jim's opponent dies in the chicken game. What I didn't expect was that Jim would go home and tell his parents right away what had occurred. This leads to a interesting discussion on what is the right thing to do now, and interesting questions on honesty are raised. Lastly, the movie is never boring and we are always interested in what will happen next. And each scene is quite interesting. But the movie has some distracting problems that unfortunately can't be ignored.

The portrayal of youths, gender and sexuality in this movie is sometimes outdated and sometimes just plain weird. The problems of the youths are portrayed in a weird melodramatic fashion with heightened emotions and suitable music. But the movie takes each problem with with almost the same huge amount of seriousness. Thus the death of Jim's friend in the chicken game is portrayed to affect Jim emotionally as much as being called a chicken (By the way, now I've seen this movie, I appreciate Back to the Future even more). The movie is even more problematic in the portrayal of the fathers. All the three protagonists have problems, partly because they have trouble communicating with their fathers. This, the movie seems to say, is because the men have been feminized. And how does this feminization show? The men actually help clean the house! This is most obvious in a fairly laughable scene where Jim's father is wearing a skirt. While cleaning up a mess he himself made Jim chides him that he has become afraid of his wife. The fear of women also shows in the fact that Judy's father seems afraid to have a close relationship with his daughter. In fact I've probably never seen a movie which believes so sincerely in the writings of Freud. Related to this Plato is subtly written as a homosexual character. At least it was supposed to be subtle in 1955. In 2012 it's quite obvious.

Besides all this there are other smaller problems. James Dean very eagerly wants to show that he is a new and different actor, who doesn't follow old acting rules. He acts significantly different than anyone else in the movie. This could have been a good idea if all the young actors acted like James Dean. That would effectively show the differences between the youths and the elders. Now that only Dean is doing it, it is often laughable. He also gives a less realistic and more theatrical portrayal of a rebellious youth than he probably thought.
Another minor problem I had with the movie is that after the first scene everything that happens is supposed to happen during one day and night. Too many developments are unbelievable to happen during one single night. The best example of this is the love that develops between Judy and Jim
Lastly all three main protagonists are supposed to be the same age, but look like they are completely different in age. On top of this their level of maturity is inconsistent. Sometimes they act like adults, sometimes like little children.