Natalie Wood and James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
Angel and Judy in "Are You Now or Have You Ever Been?" from Angel (2000)
As Dr. H brought up in class today, "Are You Now or Have You Ever Been? gives such a huge shout-out to Rebel Without a Cause even in an episode so packed full of concepts. Upon doing some research to refresh my memory about the film, the reference is so visually and even conceptually thorough (and just plain awesome).
As the pictures above illustrate, Angel appears explicitly James Dean-esque. The wardrobe is on point (the classic red jacket/shirt!) and even the brooding, handsome, smoking thing is employed. He's perfecting the "I'm very aloof but I'll save your life" persona--something Angel is famous for, but I'm glad James Dean is getting due credit for some characteristics which he helped perfect in Hollywood cinema.
Like Judy in this episode of Angel, Natalie Wood's character is also named Judy in Rebel Without a Cause. Her style in the film is playing a major role in the Angel version of Judy; they both have brown, perfectly curled short hair, red lipstick, and standard feminine 50s attire.
A major plot element in Rebel Without a Cause is the paranoia surrounding the death of Buzz (the bully who challenges Jim to a game of "Chicken", which he loses). The central characters are paranoid about the police discovering their involvement in Buzz's death and endure anxiety over who-knows-what regarding the night of the accident. Similarly, Judy's character in Angel is on the run from her own "accident"--the bank robbery.
I can see some ties between the two relationships of Angel/Judy and Jim/Judy. I recall how Judy (Natalie Wood) and Jim (James Dean) start off rocky in the film--she lets her awful boyfriend and his crew torment James Dean's character (at the observatory especially--also featured in this episode!) In "Are You Now or Have You Ever Been?", Judy lets Angel take the blame for chaos going on in the hotel, and he also endures violence without Judy stepping in to help. Both the film and the episode of Angel resolve the respective Judy-relationships, though--but Natalie Wood doesn't become super old. :)
