Scarface

[Rev. Rye]

Humans have a bullshit fascination with "rebels" and "outcasts". Even the old movie "Rebel Without A Cause" everyone back then loved James Dean's Character, despite in reality any strife your parents have is not on you. But in the movie, his dad is not the alpha male and his mom is the leader.

In reality the movie about Tony or Dean should not be based on testosterone and men "proving themselves". 

if you like either like Al's or Dean's character, as a character, FINE. But it is still not ok to sell cocaine and it is still not ok to try to get pussy in a street drag because your dad listens to his wife.

I'm sorry, but Jim Stark and Tony Montana aren't really morally comparable. Tony Montana was a ruthless criminal (even in his Cuban
days) whose ruthlessness is dwelled upon, but was thrown into sharp relief by his relatively few humanizing qualities (his unwillingness to kill kids and his admittedly-borderline-incestuous affection for his sister Gina.)

Jim Stark, by contrast, seems to be a generally nice guy whose ability to thrive is hampered by the combination of his dysfunctional family life, getting in with the wrong crowd, and an increasingly meaningless universe (remember the planetarium scenes? Even from the clips in La La Land? They're crucial, theme-relevant scenes for understanding the film.)

Jim does not initiate any criminal activity, stands up and befriends Plato on his first day at school, is friendly to those who have shown him kindness, and when the Chickie Run ends up in a death, he actually GOES OUT OF HIS WAY TO ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR HIS ROLE IN IT. Even as his parents try to downplay it, he insists "but I am involved!" He even jumps to the front of the line at the police station to turn himself in. How much of this sounds like Tony Montana?

Really, Jim is not, in fact, the titular Rebel Without a Cause. That dishonor really belongs to Sal Mineo's character Plato. Given that he's introduced in the police station being questioned over shooting puppies, and director Nicholas Ray himself stated he was the real rebel in the film, one would expect more people to pick up on that.

And, really, in case you wonder why people have the obsession with outcasts that they do, it's because a lot of us know, on some level, that our society is really lacking. That may not excuse the shit they do, but it really shouldn't be surprising that things like that happen.