Ever since September 30th, 1955, many have sought to capture the persona of legendary screen legend, James Dean, in books and documentaries. Unfortunately, most authors and producers passed over his genius and commitment to life and presented a bleak and dark perspective rather than the truth.
They were somehow seduced by Jimmy’s apparent destructive and reckless lifestyle on the surface and missed, for whatever reason, the sensitive and loving side of his character. Their focus on an endless list of “what” he did was shallow in comparison to “why”, which is the very center of this first full length motion picture based on his life.
James Dean possessed an enormous appetite for life. As a highly talented “Method” actor, he could create an immediate illusion of fear, love, anxiety, deep depression, peace or violent anger. His excessive periods of silence, and other strange and unusual behavior in every day life, were explicitly designed to manipulate the spectator’s mental and emotional reaction. In the framework of each reaction, Jimmy polished his own personal inner characterizations which he would later use on stage or in front of a motion picture camera. His hard work and dedication while studying human nature was then merged with his genius to create a living and powerful image on the screen.
Jimmy’s close friends and family said he was inherently funny, artistic, hospitable, chaotic, fragmented, charming, desperate and tender. To his fellow actors involved in “Method” acting, it is called the “work”. Jimmy one day discovered that the Stanislavski style of acting he learned at Actor’s Studio in New York could be used in his daily life to polish his skills as an actor. It was the combined use of this style in every day life that created many of the false rumors and lies that have been repeated for decades.
There were failures and tragedies along the way, yet James Dean possessed one clear and distinct advantage; from the day his mother died when he was only nine, he knew exactly what he wanted out of life. Whether he was walking in the gutters of New York while starving, or immersed in the seductive glitter of Hollywood, he held a strong and defiant romance with the create process. He held no reverence for the past and how others had done it before him. Elvis Presley may have changed our music, but James Dean changed the way we lived and kept a promise to the only person he never stopped loving.
JAMES DEAN: THE MOVIE is a powerful and heartwarming story about his commitment and dedication to life. This theatrical feature film is based on the first screenplay ever to receive the approval of his family by the only Hollywood writer to ever read his lost “Diary”. This unique film is designed to capture his dream and the price this Indiana farm boy was willing to pay of it.
Elvis Presley said “he was a genius”, and John Lennon claimed, “the Beatles would have never existed without him”. In essence, James Byron Dean, was the first rock and roll star who had to learn to sing and dance without music.
SCREENPLAY BY ALAN HAUGE
© Copyright 2006 Alan Hauge. All rights reserved.