Anti-semitism was alive and functioning quite well in America in the 1950s.
Our film takes place in 1955. At the local Roxie Theater, in Scranton, Pennsylvania, "Rebel Without A Cause" is playing. What an appropriate title. In this film, our "rebel," Brendan Fraser, does have a cause.
At first, I laughed. Brendan Fraser playing a young Jewish guy. The laugh is on me. He comes across in a wonderful performance as a typical American young man who happens to be Jewish.
Scouted by an elite Catholic prep school, Fraser takes the challenge by transferring to the Boston school. It is here that we see that anti-semitism is rampant among the supposed elite of the young students attending there. The Jewish people are stereotyped in the usual ways that we have been denounced through the ages. It must be said that Christian people are negatively stereotyped here as well.
Warned by the scout to keep it quiet that he is Jewish, Fraser seems to assimilate among the other students. His winning ways at a football game get him endeared with the rest of the guys.
In fact, he falls for the girl that fellow student Matt Damon likes. Naturally, via a slip it comes out that Fraser is Jewish and he is subjected to the worst torments by the rest of the students. His girlfriend, in addition, now rejects him because her grandmother would turn over in her grave if she ever
she heard that she was dating a Jewish boy.
Here is a school that prides itself on its honor codes. They know full well what is going on. Talk of honor at this bastion of bigotry? This is hypocrisy at its worst.
The film also deals with pressures of student life-getting good grades so as to get into the Ivy League Schools.
As I'm not one of the most optimistic people, for me, the picture ended well. Green (Fraser) tells the headmaster off. "You used me to improve the football team and I will use you to get into Harvard."
He walks off the campus a determined but yet a bitter young man. Great to see a film end like this rather than we all sat down and lived happily ever after. I might be sounding bitter but the theme here is not exactly "Mary Poppins." I liked this film so much because it depicts that upper class Americans went to church and then practiced hatred for the rest of the week. May I also state that Matt Damon is terrific in a supporting role as a bigot. He conveys the twisted and tormented hate that is so anti-American as well as anti-human. It's sad that the Oscar-winning film "Gentleman's Agreement" conveyed this in 1947. The unrelenting hatred goes on and on.
Our film takes place in 1955. At the local Roxie Theater, in Scranton, Pennsylvania, "Rebel Without A Cause" is playing. What an appropriate title. In this film, our "rebel," Brendan Fraser, does have a cause.
At first, I laughed. Brendan Fraser playing a young Jewish guy. The laugh is on me. He comes across in a wonderful performance as a typical American young man who happens to be Jewish.
Scouted by an elite Catholic prep school, Fraser takes the challenge by transferring to the Boston school. It is here that we see that anti-semitism is rampant among the supposed elite of the young students attending there. The Jewish people are stereotyped in the usual ways that we have been denounced through the ages. It must be said that Christian people are negatively stereotyped here as well.
Warned by the scout to keep it quiet that he is Jewish, Fraser seems to assimilate among the other students. His winning ways at a football game get him endeared with the rest of the guys.
In fact, he falls for the girl that fellow student Matt Damon likes. Naturally, via a slip it comes out that Fraser is Jewish and he is subjected to the worst torments by the rest of the students. His girlfriend, in addition, now rejects him because her grandmother would turn over in her grave if she ever
she heard that she was dating a Jewish boy.
Here is a school that prides itself on its honor codes. They know full well what is going on. Talk of honor at this bastion of bigotry? This is hypocrisy at its worst.
The film also deals with pressures of student life-getting good grades so as to get into the Ivy League Schools.
As I'm not one of the most optimistic people, for me, the picture ended well. Green (Fraser) tells the headmaster off. "You used me to improve the football team and I will use you to get into Harvard."
He walks off the campus a determined but yet a bitter young man. Great to see a film end like this rather than we all sat down and lived happily ever after. I might be sounding bitter but the theme here is not exactly "Mary Poppins." I liked this film so much because it depicts that upper class Americans went to church and then practiced hatred for the rest of the week. May I also state that Matt Damon is terrific in a supporting role as a bigot. He conveys the twisted and tormented hate that is so anti-American as well as anti-human. It's sad that the Oscar-winning film "Gentleman's Agreement" conveyed this in 1947. The unrelenting hatred goes on and on.