James Dean, Sense Memories
May 26, 7:00 p.m.
In partnership with KVPT, Valley Public Television

James Dean has long survived his brief 24 years. Born in 1931 and dead by 1955, it is as if he had a destiny, rather than a life. September/October 2005 marks the 50th anniversary of both Dean's fatal automobile accident and the release of the film with which he is forever identified, Rebel Without a Cause.

A cinema figure of such iconic and mythic dimensions, it is said of Dean that he didn't just change the way people acted, he changed the way people lived. He was an original, he was a natural. Synonymous with adolescent angst, he also redefined the American male ideal, making vulnerable sexy and alienation desirable.

Remarkably, there are only three films to his legacy - East of Eden, Rebel Without a Cause, and Giant - crafted with the three seminal directors Elia Kazan, Nicholas Ray and George Stevens. Reality and art are closely linked in Dean and are seamlessly woven in this documentary - his film personae are all misfits, consummate outsiders, characters in search of identity and meaning, who echo the themes of loss and abandonment in his own life experience.

The film looks at James Dean through the lens of 1955 and the three films Eden, Rebel and Giant; three films by three historic directors in which the character in the film echoed the life of Dean.

Film Review from the San Francisco Chronicle

Links and Resources

Official James Dean site

Obituary from BBC-online

A Historian Looks at James Dean
Professor Vagn Hansen examines the James Dean legend--in the context of the Eisenhower era and the Silent Generation.

James Dean: A Rebel for All Seasons 
An introductory essay to The James Dean Story.

James Dean at UCLA
A fellow student remembers James Dean and UCLA in the early 1950s

Humiliation and Charisma: James Dean

Films:
Rebel Without a Cause (from the International Movie Database)

One of the Gang -- The making of Rebel Without a Cause

Sal Mineo Website

Finding the Father: A Psychoanalytic Study of Rebel without a Cause

The Picture In Sal Mineo's Locker

Giant (from the International Movie Database)

The Making of Giant
An exclusive interview with Ivan Moffat, co-author of the screenplay for Giant--Dean's third and last movie

The James Dean I Knew by Bob Hinkle
From the dialogue coach on Giant

East of Eden (from the International Movie Database)

Analysis of the film East of Eden

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