"There's one queasy moment as Rebel approaches the finish line where Jim's parents look at each other and finally laugh, as though burying the hatchet. This is the film’s only cop-out. It is a bone thrown to the conformity-ridden culture, to the worry-wart adults out there, saying, 'Hey, guys, you're not so bad after all, ya big lunks, we forgive you, we know you’re doing your best in a crazy world.'" This is analogous to the obligatory moment in all the cheapo 1950s rock'n'roll movies where we saw the grown-ups at the high school hop start to tap their feet to band, as if to say, "These kids and their wacky music - they're not so bad after all."
One historical irony, re: Lester Bangs comment about "How Much Is That Doggy in the Window?" It's actually an old sailor's song about prostitutes: "How much is that doggy in the window?/The one with the waggily tail/How much is that doggy in the window?/I do hope that doggy's for sale." Once you know the real subject, the lyrics are pretty unambiguous. So it's ironic that in such a sexually repressed decade, one in which this song in particular serves as a definitive example of that repression, the song itself is in fact about sexual decadence. (I count at least three #1 hits that are about prostitution: this one, "The House of the Rising Sun" and "Lady Marmalade." Funny how a culture founded in part by Puritans seems to feel the need to return to this topic from time to time.)
"There's one queasy moment as Rebel approaches the finish line where Jim's parents look at each other and finally laugh, as though burying the hatchet. This is the film’s only cop-out. It is a bone thrown to the conformity-ridden culture, to the worry-wart adults out there, saying, 'Hey, guys, you're not so bad after all, ya big lunks, we forgive you, we know you’re doing your best in a crazy world.'" This is analogous to the obligatory moment in all the cheapo 1950s rock'n'roll movies where we saw the grown-ups at the high school hop start to tap their feet to band, as if to say, "These kids and their wacky music - they're not so bad after all."
One historical irony, re: Lester Bangs comment about "How Much Is That Doggy in the Window?" It's actually an old sailor's song about prostitutes: "How much is that doggy in the window?/The one with the waggily tail/How much is that doggy in the window?/I do hope that doggy's for sale." Once you know the real subject, the lyrics are pretty unambiguous. So it's ironic that in such a sexually repressed decade, one in which this song in particular serves as a definitive example of that repression, the song itself is in fact about sexual decadence. (I count at least three #1 hits that are about prostitution: this one, "The House of the Rising Sun" and "Lady Marmalade." Funny how a culture founded in part by Puritans seems to feel the need to return to this topic from time to time.)
Thank you...
https://thenobbyworks.blogspot.com/2023/02/me-and-my-james-dean-memorial-stamp.html