Flyerplesys Perfectly adorable

Tedfoldol everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Sienna-Rose Mclaughlin The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Ezmae Chang This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

alexanderdavies-99382 I remember reading about this documentary many years ago and felt quite intrigued. The timing for this feature length tribute was just right. Released for the cinema in 1957, "The James Dean Story" really captures the spirit of the man as well as the star. It's great to see people who knew Dean being interviewed and that counts for a great deal. All the major aspects of Jimmy Dean are covered: the loss of his mother at a young age, his initial efforts in the field of acting, how Dean was thought of as a person and other aspects besides. The narrator does a fine job of guiding the viewer through the documentary and his voice is commanding.

hrayovac Perceptions will vary wildly about this film and may parallel some misunderstandings of who Dean was: Unless you have an intuitive view, you might think of Dean as arrogant or standoffish...the icon you see in posters of "rebel". In reality he was shy, tender, yet very driven to constant self-exploration. This documentary, shot not long after Dean's passing, successfully tells his story through his real friends and family. Hollywood apparently no longer aspires to make this kind of honest film without the sensationalism and innuendo heaped in for "box office". Back in '57 folks didn't cry on cue just to prove the depth of their sentiments while being interviewed. Yet one can plainly feel the love felt and the deep impression Dean made on those around him. Altman and George reveal that the "rebel" aspect attributed to Dean was not some sort of love of violence (a la today's Pulp Fiction), but was Dean's expression of loneliness and search for acceptance...much like the character Cal in East of Eden.

housebluehill I watched the movie because Robert Altman directed it, but I'd assumed it was going to be a straight forward documentary of Dean's life. Then about half way through it something didn't feel right. The people being interviewed spoke like they were on automatic pilot and the childhood photographs chosen for the movie had the quality of a spoof. I watched it a second time and realized it was Altman's documentary of the American Celebrity Cult, not James Dean. Our devotion to movie actors was reaching a new zenith in the 1950's and the life and death of Dean was a timely example of it. It's a movie about us in the same way Nashville is, or A Wedding, or Short Cuts.

arneblaze This 1957 documentary was thrown together to capitalize on the Dean legend and hopefully cash in on it. Out of luck - even Dean's ardent fans avoided this turkey. Using still photography and a morose narrator, Martin Gabel, this contains little useful information not already known about Dean. Interviews with family and neighbors back home shed little light - they are so terminally dull and brimming with flat affect, one is astonished that Dean's fluidity of expression and sensitivity grew out of this environment. Of some value is an outtake from EAST OF EDEN (presented here in dimly lit black and white) between Dean and Davalos. It's a gruelling 82 minutes.