|
|
But those of us who came too late to witness the meteoric rise and fall of the brash anti-hero of "Rebel Without A Cause" will largely be intrigued about this young actor who's now a cultural icon.
"James Dean," at 8 on TNT, tells the story of the sad, emotional actor who channeled his own pain into the roles he brought to life on the big screen.
As Dean, James Franco breathes a peculiar kind of life into the actor shown to be a tortured soul.
Dean, whose motorcycle-riding, bad-boy roles blended into his real life as an adventurer and party boy, became known for his blue jeans, his dangling cigarette and a characteristic slouch.
Franco turns that slouch into a bending, turning, stooped posture that make him seem stranger than he might have been.
But every now and then, he flashes a pose or a face that seems to catch the James Dean look that still turns up on posters or movie stills.
It's in the little moments when Franco conveys the hip, cool intensity that burned up the celluloid in Dean's short, three-movie career that filmmaker Mark Rydell ("On Golden Pond") seems to have connected with this legendary success story.
Because most viewers know that Dean's career was cut short by a tragic automobile accident when he was just 24, they're ready for the unhappy ending.
But many viewers, especially those like me who missed his original career, will be interested to learn what made this legend such a smoldering cauldron of emotion.
In the hands of Rydell, who also does quite a star turn portraying film studio head Jack Warner, the film flows smoothly from Dean's emotional performance in his first film, "East of Eden," into his troubled youth.
This film--saying that much of the story was based on fact, and that the rest was an educated guess--shifts from a tearful father and son scene in that film to the strained home life Dean grew up with.
It begins with the young Dean reciting a poem he's memorized to his father.
"What's he doing?" chastises the seemingly cold-hearted Winton Dean (Michael Moriarty). "Can't you see I'm trying to read the newspaper?"
His mother hugs the young boy to her after the angry father flees, trying to explain away the hurt.
But it grows, especially when Dean's mother dies and he's shipped off to live with relatives in Fairmont, Ind. His father, promising to come to the funeral to collect his son, never shows.
That well of hurt grows as Dean develops into an athlete and something of a talented high school actor. A shot at business school and a reconciliation with his father fails, and he turns to acting for solace and a means of venting his grief.
The approach works, as Dean succeeds at landing a play in New York and then the breakthrough role in "East of Eden."
The film sports a superb supporting cast, from the icily cold Moriarty to Enrico Colantoni (the silly Elliot on TV's "Just Shoot Me") as fatherly, warm and engaging director Elia Kazan.
Throughout the film, which unfolds with a comfortably deliberate pace and a sympathetic tone, the one constant is Dean's dual nature: a terrific talent who can't help but be a pain for those who help him the most.
A last-minute reconciliation with his father comes across as a feel-good counterweight for the tragic ending, though revelations learned go a long way to explaining the dysfunctional family.
In the end, "James Dean" does what any decent biopic should do: create interest.
"Rebel Without A Cause" should be a hot item at the video stores come Monday.
ROB HEDELT can be reached at The Free Lance-Star, 616 Amelia St., Fredericksburg, Va. 22401; by fax at 373-8455; by phone at 374-5415; or by e-mail at rhedelt@freelancestar.com.