The Complete James Dean Collection includes
two-disc special editions of the three major films Dean made during his
meteoric career: East of Eden (1955, never before available on DVD),
Rebel Without a Cause (1955), and Giant (1956). In addition to
new transfers, the films collect new and vintage documentaries, commentary
tracks, publicity materials, and even the infamous "Drive Safely" commercial
spot Dean filmed shortly before his death in an auto accident.
East of Eden is an acknowledged classic, and the starring debut of
James Dean lifts it to legendary status. John Steinbeck's novel gave
director Elia Kazan a perfect Cain-and-Abel showcase for Dean's iconic
screen persona, casting the brooding star as Cal, the younger of two
brothers vying for the love of their Bible-thumping father (Raymond Massey)
in Monterey, California, at the dawn of World War I. Massey is a lettuce
farmer, striving for market domination with an ill-fated refrigeration
scheme. Having discovered that his presumed-dead mother (Oscar winner Jo Van
Fleet) is a brothel owner in nearby Salinas, Cal convinces her to finance an
investment that will restore his father's lost fortune, but neither money
nor the tenderness of his brother's fiancée (Julie Harris) can assuage Cal's
anguished need for paternal acceptance that comes nearly too late. Kazan's
oblique camera angles and Dean's tortured emoting may seem extreme by
latter-day standards, but their theatrics make East of Eden a
timeless tale of family secrets and hard-won affection.
When people think of James Dean, they probably think first of the
troubled teen from Rebel Without a Cause: nervous, volatile, soulful,
a kid lost in a world that does not understand him. Made between his only
other starring roles, in East of Eden and Giant, Rebel
sums up the jangly, alienated image of Dean, but also happens to be one of
the key films of the 1950s. Director Nicholas Ray takes a strikingly
sympathetic look at the teenagers standing outside the white-picket-fence
'50s dream of America: juvenile delinquent (that's what they called them
then) Jim Stark (Dean), fast girl Judy (Natalie Wood), lost boy Plato (Sal
Mineo), slick hot-rodder Buzz (Corey Allen). At the time, it was unusual for
a movie to endorse the point of view of teenagers, but Ray and screenwriter
Stewart Stern captured the youthful angst that was erupting at the same time
in rock & roll. Dean is heartbreaking, following the method acting style of
Marlon Brando but staking out a nakedly emotional honesty of his own. Going
too fast, in every way, he was killed in a car crash on September 30, 1955,
a month before Rebel opened. He was no longer an actor, but an icon,
and Rebel is a lasting monument.
Giant got its name because everything in the picture is big, from
the generous running time (more than 200 minutes) to the sprawling ranch
location (a horizon-to-horizon plain with a lonely, modest mansion dropped
in the middle) to the high-powered stars. Stocky Rock Hudson stars as the
confident, stubborn young ranch baron Bick Benedict, who woos and wins the
hand of Southern belle Elizabeth Taylor, a seemingly demure young beauty who
proves to be Hudson's match after she settles into the family homestead. For
many the film is chiefly remembered for James Dean's final performance, as
poor former ranch hand Jett Rink, who strikes oil and transforms himself
into a flamboyant millionaire playboy. Director George Stevens won his
second Oscar for this ambitious, grandly realized (if sometimes slow moving)
epic of the changing socioeconomic (and physical) landscape of modern Texas,
based on Edna Ferber's bestselling novel. The talented supporting cast
includes Mercedes McCambridge as Bick's frustrated sister, put out by the
new "woman of the house"; Chill Wills as the Benedicts' garrulous rancher
neighbor; Carroll Baker and Dennis Hopper as the Benedicts' rebellious
children; and Earl Holliman and Sal Mineo as dedicated ranch hands.
