Product Description
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Complete James Dean Collection, The (DVD) (3-Pack)
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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 her (Raymond Massey) in Monterey, California,
at the dawn of World War I. Massey is a lettuce farmer, striving
for market domination with an ill-ed refrigeration scheme.
Having discovered that his presumed-dead mother (O winner Jo
Van Fleet) is a brothel owner in nearby Salinas, Cal convinces
her to finance an investment that will restore his her'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 c 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 O
for this ambitious, grandly realized (if sometimes slow moving)
epic of the changing socioeconomic (and physical) landscape of
modern Texas, based on E 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.