Screenplay (by Stewart Stern from an adaptation by Irving Shulman of an original storyline by director Nicholas Ray) was based on an actual case study of a delinquent, teenage psychopath.
The purpose of these questions is to help you understand the film's many references to Classical Tragedy, and to point out some of the more subtle aspects of the plot's construction. Like a Shakespeare play, the film is divided into five acts. We shall divide our discussion in the same way.
ACT ONE:
Exposition of the conflict between
parents and children
1. What sound do we hear as the film opens?
2. How is Jim dressed when we first see him?
3. What holiday is being celebrated?
4. What color is Judy wearing at the police station?
5. Why was Judy arrested?
6. What problem does she have at home?
7. What does Jim try to give Plato?
8. What does Jim's father's clothes tell us about him?
9. Why was Plato arrested?
10. How would you describe the love offered by Jim's parents?
11. What did Jim do that got him in trouble in their last home?
12. In what way does Jim want his father to change?
13. What does Ray suggest to Jim
next time he has trouble?
ACT TWO:
Interaction between the teenage
characters
1. What style of clothing as Jim chosen to wear when he attends school?
2. What advice does Jim's dad give him when he leaves the house?
3. Why does Judy change her attitude toward Jim after the other kids arrive?
4. What is Judy's relationship with Buzz?
5. What mistake does Jim make when he gets to school?
6. What is significant about Plato's choice of Alan Ladd as a movie star hero?
7. How does Plato first see Jim in school?
8. Why does Jim "moo" in the planetarium?
9. How does this backfire on him?
10. What display in the planetarium momentarily shakes up the kids?
11. What does the planetarium director mean by these lines: "Through the infinite reaches of space, the problems of man seem trivial and naive indeed, and man existing alone seems himself an episode of little consequence."
12. What does Plato say about
the display after it's over?
13. What do the kids say in order to get Jim to fight?
14. How does Plato try to help him?
15. What does Jim do which breaks
the "rules" of the fight?
ACT THREE:
The Chickie Run
1. How is Jim's father dressed that evening?
2. What does Jim want his father to do?
3. Why doesn't Judy's father want to kiss her?
4. What question does Jim try to get his father to answer?
5. No longer interested in his father's values, Jim changes clothes. What does he put on?
6. In what way does his jacket connect him to Judy?
7. What lie does Plato tell Judy about Jim?
8. Why does he tell her all that?
9. As Jim and Buzz begin to get friendly, why do they still have to have the chickie run?
10. When Judy kisses Buzz for luck, why does Jim kiss a compact?
11. Why does Jim ask Judy for some dirt for his hands?
Jamie?
12. What goes wrong for Buzz?
13. Why does Plato want them to
go home with him?
ACT FOUR:
Moral Options
1. In the classic milk bottle scene, why does Jim rub it on his head?
2. When Jim tells his parents what happened, what do they want him to do?
3. Jim can see his father knows what he should do, but what is keeping him from telling Jim to go to the police?
4. Why does he attack his father?
5. Why does Jim kick the hole in the painting before he leaves?
6. What do the gang assume when they see Jim at the police station?
7. What happens when Jim tried to call Judy after his brush-off at the Police station?
8. Why does Judy call him Jamie?
9. What does the dedication on the radio mean?
10. For what does Judy apologize?
11. Where do they spend the night?
12. What does Jim mean when he says, "You can trust me Judy."?
13. What message is written with the check from Plato's father?
14. What is important about the game they play at the deserted estate?
15. When Jim imitates his father's Mr. Magoo voice, what is he saying about his parents' attitude towards children?
16. What do they find odd about the way Plato is dressed?
17. When Jim and Judy begin to realize they are in love, what changes are taking place in Jim's personality?
ACT FIVE
Tragedy
1. Why does Plato feel betrayed by Jim (in much the same way as Jim felt betrayed by his own father)?
2. What motivates Jim to risk his own life to try to help Plato?
3. What is significant about Plato's hiding out at the Planetarium?
4. When does Jim think the end of the world will come?
5. What does Jim do to protect Plato from the cold?
6. What does Jim do once he has convinced Plato to give him the gun?
7. How do the police betray Jim's trust in them?
8. What does Jim's father think when he see's the boy in the red jacket shot down?
9. In what way are Jim and his father alike at this point of the film?
10. Jim's father's final promise shows what change in his character?
11. After Jim zips up the jacket on Plato, Jim's father covers him in his own jacket. What is the significance of this act?
12. What sounds end the film in
the same way it started, as though Shakespeare's wheel of fortune has made
a complete cycle?
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