Creating a world apart and a family of their own

As Rebel winds towards its violent conclusion, the three main characters get a precious breathing space, in which they are able to play, to touch and to explore their feelings about their predicament as teenagers. The sequence lasts only eight minutes, but it is in many ways the heart of the film. In fact, it's like a film within a film, because the characters are all acting out a fantasy of their own devising. Once the three have taken refuge in the empty mansion, Plato introduces the play-acting with a little touch of Gothic horror - brandishing the candelabra and referring to the house as "my castle".

Plato may want to "direct" the action, but it develops along lines that are somewhat troubling for him. It has been clear from early in the film that Plato is attracted to Jim and resents Judy - in real life on the set, the gay Mineo fell in love with bisexual Dean - but now he must go along with the game in which Jim and Judy pretend to be a married couple.

This game does, however, fit with Plato's deep need for a father figure and for parental love. As the three of them mock the attitudes of their parents ("I don't know what to do when they cry, do you dear?"), they form a new kind of family.

This family is characterised by physical closeness. Unlike when we first saw then in police custody, divided by closed doors and straight lines, here they can come close: Jim and Judy touch each other on the stairs; they all lean on each other on the veranda. Acting out their sense of injustice and anger at the adult world and its attitudes toward the young, Jim, Judy and Plato experience the only moments of real happiness in this often violent and angst-ridden story.

By the end of the sequence, Plato can drop off to sleep lulled by Judy's maternal humming. This dreamy sequence is relaxed and full of fun, but the darkness that constantly surrounds the characters lends a sense of impending danger; we know the characters' escape from the outside world must end soon. Tragically, Plato is let down by Jim's kind attempts to "father" him.

"You're not my father!" Plato cries to Jim when he discovers he's been left sleeping on his own. "Why did you run out on me?" he asks - a question he would love to ask his own father. Jim and Judy, meanwhile, get to have their inevitable love scene - "Wanna explore?" Jim has asked, with double meaning - but trouble is coming for the lovers and for Plato. The sequence ends decisively with the arrival of the angry gang outside the mansion.