Profile: James Dean

His face adorns posters and t-shirts across the world and, whilst there aren’t many who can likely claim to have seen his films, there aren’t many who haven’t heard his name. James Dean, like Marilyn Monroe, has elevated to the status of cultural icon in much the same way that Kurt Cobain has in the music world. The poster boy for teenage disillusionment, Dean had an experimental approach to life that ran way ahead of his time.

Born in Indiana in 1931, Dean was raised by his aunt and uncle after his mother died when he was nine. He dropped out of college in 1951 to pursue acting full time and starred in just three films before he was killed in a car accident in 1955 at the age of 24. Dean has become a point of fascination ever since his death, with his “live fast, die young” approach panning out as a tragic prophecy. Over sixty years on from his death he is still one of the most recognisable actors in the world, and through just three roles he inspired generations of actors.

As part of promotions for East of Eden, Dean reportedly said: “a neurotic person has the necessity to express himself and my neuroticism manifests itself in the dramatic.” An enigma, Dean has disappeared into the realms of myth, no small feat considering his legacy amounts to just three films. In spite of his reputation for popularising the concept of ‘cool’, Dean also generated the image of an outsider who both craved and was uncomfortable with attention and fame. He took these ever-conflicting traits and infused them into his work, pioneering a naturalistic form of method acting that was yet to take hold in Hollywood, which had been long entrenched in the manufactured studio system.

East of Eden

Dean‘s big break came in the form of East of Eden, Elia Kazan’s adaption of the final third of John Steinback’s novel of the same name. His debut performance is often overshadowed by his more famous turn in Rebel Without A Cause, but there is good argument to suggest that it is his strongest work. It is also the only one of the three released in Dean’s lifetime, and the only one he viewed in its entirety.

Adapting the final third of Steinback‘s epic novel, the film begins in 1917 and is a fairly transparent biblical allegory, retelling the Cain and Abel story through a tale of two brothers, Dean’s Cal and Aron (Richard Davalos). As well as the prominent Old Testament references, the main thematic content of the film is in regards to love, sibling rivalry and the father/son dynamic as Cal yearns for the love of his father (Richard Massey).

The role of Cal, the rebellious son craving his father’s approval, was one Kazan intended for Marlon Brando or Montgomery Clift, though they were ultimately deemed too old. The director was well known for his meticulous casting, believing “casting should tell the story without words”, and it was for this reason that he deemed the then unknown Dean to be the perfect fit for Cal, despite not liking the actor personally.

With East of Eden, Kazan made a film that was not only technically brilliant, but also teased an incredible performance out of Dean. In his James Dean biography, David Dalton argues that the director “utilised the urban versus rural consciousness which was so obviously a source of tension” in the young actor. This would not be the last time Dean’s conflicting emotions fueled his performance, and it lends Cal a sense of authenticity that was rare onscreen in the 1950s.

Kazan also reportedly encouraged real life animosity between Dean and Massey, who played Cal’s father Adam (the outright nature of the biblical references cannot be overstated). Massey was a traditionally trained thespian who did not take to Dean’s attitude and perceived moodiness. Kazan is said to have capitalised on this, leading to the convincing dynamic that ended up in the film.

The most notable example of this comes when Adam turns down Cal’s financial gift, which the son perceives as a paternal rejection. In the script, Cal was meant to leave the room in anguish, but Dean improvised a moment where he embraces his father before fleeing. Massey reacted to the embrace with “Cal, Cal”, and the moment – equal parts harrowing and touching – remained in the final film.

The Brando parallels are clear in East of Eden, as is Dean’s dedication to the craft. To the modern viewer his acting may seem histrionic, with his intense and overblown performance perhaps coming as a surprise to those who associate the actor only with that moody Times Square shot, but it was far ahead of its time. He fully inhabits the role of Cal, to the point that it does not feel like you are watching a character.

Cal is easily the most interesting character of the film, displaying antihero tendencies long before they were the cinematic norm. The character is conflicted – rebellious by nature and both dismissive of and yearning to be like his brother. Dean brings this conflict to the fore, providing the film with its emotional core and making it a memorable experience for the viewer.

East of Eden was a film full of promise, a showcase for the undeniable talent of a new kind of movie star, different from what Hollywood was used to. Whilst hindsight tinges the film, along with Dean’s two others, with an air of tragedy at his loss, it is still easy to get swept up in the excitement of watching his talent in such a raw form.

Rebel Without A Cause

It is Rebel Without A Cause that has gone on to become Dean’s defining performance. In many ways it is a continuation of his work in East of Eden, with Jim Stark, the rebel of the title, being another moody and disillusioned teenager. Directed by Nicholas Ray, the film tells the story of Jim, a young teenager frustrated with his life in the way many teenagers were and continue to be. It follows his life after he has moved to a new town and struggles to integrate with new people, though he does find friends in Plato (Sal Mineo) and Judy (Natalie Wood).

Jim represents the existential crisis faced by many young people in the 1950s. With Elvis Presley and Dean breaking out on the scene, ‘cool’ was an ever-growing concept, and teenagers were being recognised as a distinct group of people. The period between childhood and adulthood was beginning to be acknowledged, but the burgeoning post-war social group were unsure of themselves, rebelling against the values of their parents in any way they could.

In their original review of the film, Time magazine’s review said: “the strong implication of this picture is that the real delinquency is not juvenile but parental.” Ray presents the film in such a way that casts the teenagers as the misunderstood heroes, whilst the parents we meet onscreen are varying degrees of negligent. Dean took this idea and ran with it, and his seemingly directionless angst has a timeless aspect to it, in that his performance remains relevant despite other parts of the film not ageing well.

Some of the messages put forward by Rebel Without A Cause, specifically regarding how lacking an overly masculine father figure will automatically damage a child, are extremely dated and appear to portray the issues from the perspective of the older generation of the time, but the themes of unfocused frustration remain universal.

Jim is shown to be parented by a domineering mother (Ann Doran) and an emasculated father (Jim Brackus), the latter of whom bears the brunt of much of his frustrations. The common trait in all the parental characters is emotional unavailability, and it is this that appears to leave the teenagers grappling with feelings of rejection and angst. Much like he did in East of Eden, Dean appeared to channel the conflicting emotions he had in himself to enhance his performance.

Dean’s mother died when he was young and he was raised by his aunt and uncle. Whilst he held a strong bond with his family, his lack of biological parents throughout adolescence was something that allowed him to tap into Jim’s feelings of parental abandonment. The seeming lack of nuance suits the character, with the moody gaze reminiscent of one which continues to be cast by young people today.

The film is also teeming with subtext – Plato’s gay undertones seem positively overt to the modern viewer – and Roger Ebert noted that “weirdness seems to bubble just beneath the surface.” It feels both ahead of its time and entrenched in it, though it is Dean’s presence in particular that elevated Rebel Without A Cause above the typical fare of the time. He was one of the early pioneers of the modern anti-hero, skewing many of the traditional ‘hero’ traits and performing in a way that meant his character did not fall into the clear cut definitions of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ that the studio system usually opted for.

Dean’s refusal to resort to typical male stereotypes gives Jim depth – he is a young man who is open in expressing his feelings and emotions in a time where machoism and a stiff upper lip was the accepted approach. It is for this reason that Jim comes across as much more relatable than the male characters in other films from the era, and it allows Rebel Without A Cause to endure as a cornerstone of disenchanted youth and a film which challenged the way male characters were viewed.

Giant

Dean was reportedly desperate for the role of Jett Rink. Giant, based on the 1952 novel by Edna Ferber, was directed by George Stevens and told the story of a Texan couple, Bick (Rock Hudson) and Leslie (Elizabeth Taylor), as well as Jett, over a 20 year period.

A western dramatic epic, the film was a total departure from East of Eden and Rebel Without A Cause, and it was for this reason that Dean sought it so enthusiastically. Keen to avoid being typecast as a moody teenage character, the role of Jett gave the actor the chance to portray a character over a period of many years, and was a huge opportunity for Dean to fully embrace his method acting style.

Despite being a departure from his previous roles, the character of Jett was still undoubtedly an outsider. Dean was reportedly distant on set, keen to enhance this idea, which led to disputes with both Stevens and Hudson, who felt that his dedication to method acting was alienating and that his disregard for the schedule was unprofessional and rude.

As with East of Eden, there is no doubt that these off-screen altercations actually go a long way in enhancing the final product. In spite of the differences between them, Stevens was fully aware of Dean’s talent and said: “He’s like a magnet. You watch him: even if he’s not doing anything, you watch him and not the others.” The audience is drawn to Jett whenever he is onscreen, even without dialogue, and a particular highlight comes when he marvels at a patch of land he has inherited.

Watching with hindsight, it is sad to see the older version of Jett – Dean shaved parts of his hair off and dyed his hair grey, as well as altering his posture to accurately portray the older version of the character – due to the fact that Dean never grew old. It is a testament to his range as an actor that he managed to portray an older character while he was only 24.

Jett is somewhat fuelled in his quest for success by his infatuation with Leslie, which later manifests in a dalliance with her daughter. In spite of a lot of less than desirable actions over the epic 201-minute runtime, Dean manages to strike Jett as a sympathetic figure – he is a man who becomes wealthy, but continued to be inhibited by his own shortcomings and inability to be with the woman he wants.

The film plays out like a soap opera, and there are many elements which haven’t aged well. Stevens’ direction is heavy handed and at times feels like spoon-feeding, but Dean is enigmatic and brings elements of nuance to his character which, along with impressive turns from Hudson and Taylor, make Giant highly watchable in spite of itself.

Conclusion

In an interview for a James Dean documentary, memorabilia collector Kenneth Kendall said: “There’s one wonderful thing about dead movie stars – they can’t disappoint you, which is about all the live ones are capable of.”

Whilst Brando went on to become notorious for his seeming apathy to his once beloved craft, Dean is immortalised in youth, his three films standing tall as a legacy to a life cut short. It is impossible to watch a Dean movie without mourning the loss of such a huge talent, and one can only imagine the kind of career the young man would have gone on to have.

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