NATALIE PORTMAN
I know she’s not the typical rebel but look at some of the stuff that she’s done. I think I’m specifically thinking V for Vendetta and The Professional. It’s not exactly the kind of rebel I think you are looking for but she feels rebellious to me.
Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate… the passive aggressive rebel?
Paya & others: By all means – I don’t want to restrict this to just male rebels – let’s get the lady rebels in this too! Thanks.
Landen: Passive-aggressive rebel, hmm…I need to think about that one, but I believe it does fit, after he gets past Anne Bancroft twisting him around her little finger, and he realizes what everyone is doing to him. Gotcha..
Do we still have rebels in the mold of Dean or Brando? I’m not so sure. They were even within the studio system! It seems to me that the mantle of rebel tilted more to the filmmakers during the 70’s, rather than the actors.
Thanks, Bob! : )
Can I also say Keira Knightly then. She’s become quite the little bombshell bad ass herself. This starts with Bend it like Beckham, I think. I don’t particularly like her but she’s pretty rebellious, right?
Tom Courteney in The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner and Billy Liar.
I’m going to have to disagree with you there Paya (On Knightley – Portman was fantastic in The Professional!)
She’s far too much of a starlet to be considered a rebel, I’d say. However, Faye Dunaway might fit the bill…
Paya: To be perfectly honest, let’s keep her (Keira K.) in this for all the great reasons you describe. If she isn’t a rebel per se, she would sure make a dandy companion for one. She’s a keeper. Oh, did someone mention Faye Dunaway – move over Keira.
Shotzi: Yes to Tom Coutenay – you read my mind. I was going to put him in my original post, but was thinking in Billy Liar he gets kind of bogged down by his family and job. There is no doubt he is a great rebel in Loneliness, for sure.
Thanks, Stutsman.
I see what you mean Daniel. She did start out as one, though. Am I right?
Angelina Jolie was a fairly daring actress for a while. If Portman and Knightly make the cut, which works for me depending on what defines the standard, the Jolie definitely would as well.
I agree. I think I lowered the standards a little bit upfront. Sorry people.
Thanks a lot, Paya!
I think it all depends on how we’re defining a rebel, especially for women. Is she a rebel if her character is rebellious? Or is she just an able actor? Is it the talent or the off-screen personality, or both?
Angelina Jolie sexed some guy named Billy Bob in the limo on the way to the Oscars (or Globes?). Having sex with a guy named Billy Bob is rebellious in any situation and that’s a fact.
Can any of us say that if we were on the way to the Oscars in a limo that we’d do otherwise?
I agree with Daniel, given that films like Ray’s Rebel Without a Cause were steeped in issues of a “feminized” masculinity and a loss of clear identity in both the war and emerging generations, its hard to draw an exact contemporary match.Identity conflict and isolation are definitely still prevalent issues, as is a wide generational gap which could produce a “rebel” character but its not exactly the same. We don’t really have the precursor of a World War and a looming threat of nuclear annihilation coupled with familial tensions created by both a returning male population from overseas, and that of the large women populations getting kicked out of the workforce with nothing more then a simple pat on the back.
So all in all, similar but not quite the same. Interesting question nonetheless. I’d say the following could possibly fall under this:
Tadanobu Asano
Johnny Depp
Leslie Cheung
Asia Argento
Buster Keaton
Can I earn my place back in this thread by saying Jack Nicholson?
I’m confused if we’re talking about actors or characters?
If we’re talking actors, I think Joaquin Phoenix should be mentioned.
If we’re still talking characters, quite possibly most of John Cusack’s characters as the underdog/loser rebel…?
Ooo, I know… everyone involved in the making of Wall-E.
most likely actors for the characters they seem to play. For example James Dean for his constant depictions of troubled youth.
Marlon Brando
James Dean
Johnny Depp
Joaquin & River Phoenix
James Cagney
Angelina Jonlie
Heath Ledger (r.i.p.)
Crap Monster: I agree; the mid 50’s brought about massive changes to youth culture; to think that Elvis was filmed above his waist for fear of scandalizing a television audience shows exactly how charged the period was. Couple that with the fact that post-war adolescence was the first time that teenagers truly had advertising directed at them, and real financial independence gave them a voice in the market. Think Alan Freed, the Mods & Rockers, etc. Much of the previous generation were genuinely scared at the prospect of the new crop being in charge of things, and that sort of fear allows for people being branded “rebels.” We’re not so easily shocked these days.
Paya – I think that’s acceptable!
Any rebel list has to have Paul Newman/Lucas Jackson on it….Cool Hand Luke. “He’s a natural-born world shaker.”
And more recent: Mel Gibson for his portrayal of ‘Mad Max’ pts 1 & 2.
He’s still standing for something, not just joining the mad gangs.
Sally Hawkins – Happy Go Lucky.
Everything she says to her sister is against a lifestyle code that many, many, many people I know, and you know have followed and will follow to their death in thinking narrowly about what leads to happiness.
In that case, I think the most rebellious directors, since it’s usually their visions being presented by such actors are Mike Leigh, and Peter Watkins.
I really need to hop on these threads earlier, before I’m left with that last broken cookie in the jar. Believing that not all the “rebels” have been claimed, however, I offer Ferris Bueller, Alex and his droogs, Kevin Bacon in Footloose and Judd Nelson as the bad-boy member of The Breakfast Club.
Tyler Durden
James Cagney and Lawrence Tierney
Zach, Tyler Durden definitely works imo. Brad Pitt generally seems to be a good pick actually….
chloe sevigny.
Bob Stutsman
I was thinking recently of that terrible period in time in America called the 50s. It was seemingly an age of conformity and consumerism – Doris Day & Rock Hudson. In the rebellious 60s, we looked back at it with disdain. Yet, this was the period in film of two of the great icons of the Rebel – James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause and Marlon Brando in The Wild One. James Dean defined the role of the rebel in the film by giving us a character that was alienated, distant, smart, cool and superior to the stuffy society around him. Every kid could identify with him, and many still do. Look Back in Anger brought the vogue of the angry young man to British film in 1958. In the 60s, French actors like JP Belmondo, Alain Delon, and Maurice Ronet continued the tradition – with a suave, cool look that only the French could muster. Jack Nicholson re-invented the rebel in films like Easy Rider and Five Easy Pieces – except he was a bit more complex and even more jaded. It looked like the rebel was here to stay – but was he?
Where are the rebel characters of today, or the past, who you would define as rebels? Come on, you rebel wantabees – now is your chance.