Xander's Film Registry Continues....

While I try desperately to calm down over the whole Uganda thing mentioned on Wednesday's post (I am still seething over that), I shall turn to lighter fare, inducting three more movies into my Hall of Fame. An interesting thing to consider, folks: life is too garflinking short. Find a dream and do it. Before you know it, the world could sink deeper into the bowels of Hell, and then where will you be? Besides watching a horned dude and a country boy in a fiddle contest while the mercury hits 150?

On that subject, I introduce the star of today's registry admission: James Dean. A man who only lived a quarter of a century, starred in only three films, and lived to see only one of them. Yet he did in two years and three films what most actors don't achieve in decades and scores. He created a whole new archetype and ushered in the era in which parents actually listen to their kids. It wouldn't be right to have any list of "definitive" film experiences without including all three, even though the last one is a wee bit on the weak side. The films are: an adaptation of John Steinbeck's East of Eden; the quintessential teen movie, Rebel Without a Cause; and Giant, an ambitious epic from Edna Ferber's novel.

East of Eden (1955)- Dean was introduced to the world as Cal, the brooding, outcast, misfit, well-intentioned brother who lives in the shadow of his sibling, Aron (Richard Davalos), who is preferred by their father (Raymond Massey). For a while, Cal's primary mission seems to be winning the approval of his father, but when a financial calamity befalls the man, Cal dedicates his life to helping the man who bred him-- with precisely the results he should have been expecting. Set before and during World War I, this is a re-working of the old story of Cain and Abel, with a component of the story often excised from Genesis: Cal and Aron's missing mother, played perfectly by Jo Van Fleet, is Lilith to Massey's Adam. Kudos to Julie Harris as Abra, and Dean should have gotten that lil' award for which he was nominated (the first posthumous nomination by the Academy for an actor).

Rebel Without a Cause (1955)- A 24-hour Greek tragedy in contemporary California, complete with cosmic parallels, a surprising romantic subplot, and Jim "Thurston Howell" Backus as James Dean's inept, emasculated father. Dean co-stars brilliantly with Natalie Wood and Sal Mineo in the story of three outcast teenagers who become friends while witnessing and coping with a tragedy that snowballs to a heartbreaking conclusion. Ironically, Dean gives what is still considered his defining performance here-- and it was the only film not to get him an Academy nomination. He shares the screen well, and it's interesting to see what teenage rebellion was like in the pre-rock 'n' roll era, when blue jeans were still considered inappropriate dress for school.

Giant (1956)- He shared the screen with Natalie Wood and Sal Mineo in Rebel, but he mostly gets the screen taken from him in his final film, Edna Ferber's sprawling tale of love, rivalry, and racism. Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor lead the cast, and she gives a performance that shows she can actually act-- despite the impression given by Cleopatra in retrospect. Dean plays a wrangler, working for Hudson until Hudson's strong-willed sister bequeaths the worker a little scrap of the 595,000-acre ranch... and Dean discovers there's oil running under it. His initial, extremely exuberant discovery of his newfound wealth is one of the proudest, most enjoyable sequences in movie history-- but it's quickly ruined, because Dean's character is also destroyed by the income and power. He turns into a bigoted, sleazy, nouveau-riche hick who, twenty years later, returns to wreak his vengeance on Hudson's family... but his liquor-riddled liver won't allow it. It runs 201 minutes and it leaves the audience more than a little frustrated with the way things work for Dean, but it's still one of a trilogy of excellent performances and it almost makes up for director George Stevens' later debacle, The Greatest Story Ever Told.

It probably won't be directly the next time I post, but the next time the Film Registry returns, we'll be looking at some financial duds that should have been huge blockbusters.

Well, Uganda, have you come to your senses yet?