Rebel Without A Cause’s Groundbreaking Gay Subtext Explained

Rebel Without A Cause is remembered as the movie that made James Dean an icon, but it also boasted some groundbreaking themes for its time – here’s the classic film’s gay subtext explained. Thankfully, LGBTQ teen characters don’t have to look too far for onscreen representation these days. From Oscar-winning films like Call Me By Your Name or Moonlight to critically acclaimed TV shows like Love, Victor and Euphoria, there’s an abundance of productions that feature young LGBTQ characters discovering and accepting their sexuality.

Obviously, this wasn’t always the case. Representation of LGBTQ characters – teenage or otherwise – in mainstream film and TV is a relatively new phenomenon and up until the late 1960s movies were subject to a strict set of guidelines called the Motion Picture Production Code. Also known as the Hays Code, the guidelines were established in 1934 and sought to limit “morally questionable” content in film. In that less tolerant era, this meant depictions of homosexuality in film was a no-no.

Some films like Rebel Without A Cause managed to skirt the Hays Code, however. Directed by Nicholas Ray, the 1955 drama tells the story of rebellious teen Jim Stark (James Dean) who moves to a new town with his timid father and domineering mother in hopes of a fresh start. Though Jim struggles to stay out of trouble, he forms a close bond with two equally disaffected classmates: Judy (played by Natalie Wood), a popular girl with a difficult home life, and outcast John “Plato” Crawford (Sal Mineo) who is bullied by his peers. Romance blossoms between Judy and Jim, but Rebel Without A Cause suggests Jim and Plato’s friendship isn’t entirely platonic.

In a groundbreaking move for the mid-1950s, Ray inserted several clues in Rebel Without A Cause that code Plato as gay. The fact he is often seen gazing adoringly at Jim and has a picture of Hollywood heart-throb Alan Ladd taped inside his school locker has seen the character cited as one of the first gay teenage characters in film history. While Jim is ostensibly heterosexual, he has an affectionate (sometimes even flirtatious) friendship with Plato that’s often interpreted as evidence Rebel Without A Cause’s protagonist is possibly bisexual.

Apparently, it was common knowledge among Rebel Without A Cause’s crew Plato was indeed gay. According to a Vanity Fair article, star James Dean instructed Mineo to “Look at me the way I look at Natalie” while the actors were filming a particularly intense scene between their characters. In their book Live Fast, Die Young: The Wild Ride Of Making Rebel Without A Cause, film critics Lawrence Frascella and Al Weisel note that an earlier version of the movie’s script even featured a scene in which Jim and Plato shared a kiss. However, Hays Code censors soon put the kibosh on the kiss via a warning memo sent to a Rebel Without A Cause producers Warner Bros that stated, “It is of course vital that there be no inference of a questionable or homosexual relationship between Plato and Jim.”

By today’s standards, the subtle gay subtext in Rebel Without A Cause is restrained. However, the fact that Nicholas Ray managed to circumvent the restrictive Hays Code and produce a film that’s widely recognized for its queer-coding is a feat that was both impressive and groundbreaking for the era in which Rebel Without A Cause was produced.