Somewhat Stilted but Penetrating Biography of the 50s Icon

Buffalo Bill and the Indians or Sitting Bull's History Lesson

Burt Lancaster, Paul Newman, Geraldine Chaplin, and Frank Kaquitts in Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson (1976)

Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson

James Caan, Joanna Moore, and Bobby Riha in Countdown (1967)

Elliott Gould and George Segal in California Split (1974)

Come Back to the 5 & Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean

Cher, Karen Black, and Sandy Dennis in Come Back to the 5 & Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (1982)

James Cagney, Jane Greer, and Dorothy Malone in Man of a Thousand Faces (1957)

Christine Altman, Richard Bakalyan, Rosemary Howard, George Mason Kuhn, Tom Laughlin, James Leria, Peter Miller, and Norman Zands in The Delinquents (1957)

Robert Duvall, Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould, Sally Kellerman, and Jo Ann Pflug in M*A*S*H (1970)

Warren Beatty and Julie Christie in McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)

James Dean in The James Dean Story (1957)

Martin Gabel

James Dean

Lew Bracker

Stewart Stern

This documentary, which was undertaken soon after James Dean&apos;s death, looks at Dean&apos;s life through the use of still photographs with narration, and interviews with many of the people involved in his short life.

Robert Altman

George W. George

The James Dean Story

Some Key Omissions

That first part tracking Dean&apos;s growing-up years in small town Indiana is almost poetically rendered. Dean appears an average kid participating in normal school activities, with little hint of the near-tortured soul of later life. The docu itself amounts to a succession of photographs centering on Dean, and are woven together by a very listenable narrator (Gabel), along with a few scattered interviews of family and friends. Generally those contents follow Dean&apos;s life in rough chronological order from Indiana to New York to Hollywood and finally to a lonely California road. All in all, the main point appears an effort at penetrating the nature of Dean&apos;s tortured soul, its where&apos;s and why&apos;s. How successfuly the effort does is up to the viewer to decide.

Several points about the account are worth noting. First, there&apos;s very little about the actor&apos;s career in movie&apos;s or TV. So don&apos;t expect to see out-takes from either. The narrative&apos;s concern is much more with Dean the person than with Dean the celebrity. So don&apos;t expect to see much of star-studded Hollywood. Secondly, there&apos;s little on the young man&apos;s romantic life, except for an anguished clip from an emotional Arlene Sax. Just what the extent of their involvement is left unrevealed, while there&apos;s no clippage from actress Pier Angeli with whom he&apos;s usually identified. Lastly, there&apos;s next to nothing on how Dean supported himself during those struggling apprentice years, a seemingly important element in his life story that also remains largely untouched.

Perhaps these neglected points have something to do with the year the docu was produced, namely 1957. At that point, Hollywood was still trying to cleanse its public image from the taint of nefarious doings claimed by the McCarthy, HUAC hearings of the early 50&apos;s. At the same time, about the only thing worse than being gay was being a communist. Thus rumors of Dean&apos;s being at least bi-sexual if not simply gay would have sullied his growing iconic image during that highly conservative period. Now, I&apos;m not claiming this as factual reason for the general omissions, but it is a possibility given the nature of the era.

However you take that, there&apos;s plenty in the footage to interest Dean fans both old (like me) and new. Then too, a thanks to whoever rescued the docu from what&apos;s an apprently self-imposed exile, and also to Amazon for making the footage public. So, if you can, catch up with a cultural icon that somehow managed to escape that lonely California road.

That first part tracking Dean's growing-up years in small town Indiana is almost poetically rendered. Dean appears an average kid participating in normal school activities, with little hint of the near-tortured soul of later life. The docu itself amounts to a succession of photographs centering on Dean, and are woven together by a very listenable narrator (Gabel), along with a few scattered interviews of family and friends. Generally those contents follow Dean's life in rough chronological order from Indiana to New York to Hollywood and finally to a lonely California road. All in all, the main point appears an effort at penetrating the nature of Dean's tortured soul, its where's and why's. How successfuly the effort does is up to the viewer to decide.

Several points about the account are worth noting. First, there's very little about the actor's career in movie's or TV. So don't expect to see out-takes from either. The narrative's concern is much more with Dean the person than with Dean the celebrity. So don't expect to see much of star-studded Hollywood. Secondly, there's little on the young man's romantic life, except for an anguished clip from an emotional Arlene Sax. Just what the extent of their involvement is left unrevealed, while there's no clippage from actress Pier Angeli with whom he's usually identified. Lastly, there's next to nothing on how Dean supported himself during those struggling apprentice years, a seemingly important element in his life story that also remains largely untouched.

Perhaps these neglected points have something to do with the year the docu was produced, namely 1957. At that point, Hollywood was still trying to cleanse its public image from the taint of nefarious doings claimed by the McCarthy, HUAC hearings of the early 50's. At the same time, about the only thing worse than being gay was being a communist. Thus rumors of Dean's being at least bi-sexual if not simply gay would have sullied his growing iconic image during that highly conservative period. Now, I'm not claiming this as factual reason for the general omissions, but it is a possibility given the nature of the era.

However you take that, there's plenty in the footage to interest Dean fans both old (like me) and new. Then too, a thanks to whoever rescued the docu from what's an apprently self-imposed exile, and also to Amazon for making the footage public. So, if you can, catch up with a cultural icon that somehow managed to escape that lonely California road.

This documentary, which was undertaken soon after James Dean's death, looks at Dean's life through the use of still photographs with narration, and interviews with many of the people involved in his short life.

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The James Dean Story

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