He talks about how the opening scene was supposed to be a bunch of youths beating a shopkeeper but the censors didn’t like the violence and so it was cut. Rathgeb illustrates what a good improviser Dean was by pointing out bits of business that the actor made up on the spot. The writer speaks very knowledgeably about many aspects (casting, visuals, acting, themes and anecdotes) of the movie in this very informative track.

Overall a highly recommended commentary. Mr Rathgeb discusses locations, reshoots, Dean's improvisations, problems with 1955 film code issues, and lots of production notes. Gives you a new insight to the film.

This commentary is excellent. Rathgeb has written a book about this movie and is very informed. He talks about nearly every aspect of the movie: the script, the casting, the acting, the directing, the photography, the locations and the censorship (very interesting). His talking is very vivid. You haven’t any gaps.

After the commentary you will watch the movie from a different point of view. Ten out of ten.

Rathgeb is great, I was pleasantly surprised of his commentary. He gives a lot of details about making of (for instance, they actually started shooting "Rebel" as a black-and-white film, but after 3 days decided to film it in color to be more modern), various problems during production (the code would not allow to show some brutal scenes, and thus the opening scene where teenagers assault someone and throw his things to the ground was cut, and it was controversial that Natalie Wood's character was jailed for walking at night, since it implied she might have been a prostitute) and interesting secrets ("Natalie and Nicholas Ray were having an affair", he says, just like that. It would have been interesting to hear more about that, but that would have been off-topic).

I am also happy that he talks about scenes on the screen - and also gives an analysis of their meaning (James Dean, Natalie and Sal Mineo become some sort of a family in the story). I originally wanted to rate this a 9 out of 10, but after listening to the track for a second time, I decided that there is little what could have been added for this to be even better, and thus it deserves the highest grade. 10/10.