Poetic Influence in Hollywood: Rebel without a Cause and Star Wars
1980; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 10; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.2307/464776
ISSN1080-6539
Autores Tópico(s)Cinema and Media Studies
ResumoI. The tyranny of the bodily eye' In 1971 George Lucas, the director of Star Wars, released film called American Graffiti which was generally received as spoof of Nicholas Ray's 1955 classic Rebel Without Cause, but which also took hard look, as did the earlier film, at some of the cultural myths and stereotypes that young Americans have available to measure themselves against and grow by. In interviews Lucas has intimated that there is link between the fact of his almost having been killed in an accident near the end of his high school career, and the turn toward film-making which his subsequent decision to attend college led to [Star Wars, The Year's Best Movie, Time Magazine, May 30, 1977, p. 61]. His accident occurred when he was on the brink of becoming professional race car driver-the same career that James Dean, the star of Rebel Without Cause, had begun to take seriously when he died in crash on his way to race [John Howlett, James Dean (London: Plexus Publishing limited, 1975), p. 158]. During or after spending the entire summer in the hospital, it is tempting to surmise, Lucas may have come to the conclusion that his reading of Ray's film and of the James Dean myth was wrong-that one moral, at least of Ray's film, was the necessity to go on from or even to escape, rather than simply to emulate, the images which seem to constitute its particular vision. At the end of its narrative American Graffiti represents just such turning point, though the film itself remains caught between the attraction of the rich, emotionally powerful imagery of Ray's film and recognition that any image, especially that of an attractive, young rebel, can turn oppressive, limiting, and even lethal. Dramatically the film ends when one indecisive character, named Kurt, dubiously boards plane to go east to college, while his more colorful friends remain behind in the small California town where they have grown up together. In written afterward, then, we learn that the engaging but aging hot-rodder in the story has been killed in an accident, that another character is missing in action in Viet Nam, that the successful high school politician, who might have gone with Kurt but did not, has become local insurance salesman, that Kurt's destiny alone, if not illustrious, is still unsealed. Listed as a writer living in Canada, Kurt has become creator rather than captive of images. He is also presumably draft-dodger, kind of voluntary exile from the decade's most lethal, captivating image--the war. Ilk
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