Watch This: The James Dean That Never Was
Filed under: Fandom
In searching the Cinematical archives to see whether or not this commercial that, quite brilliantly, imagines what James Dean's life would have been like had he not died in a car crash in 1955, I came across this post from Cine writer Martha Fischer honoring the legendary actor on the 50th anniversary of his death. I find Martha's words of remembrance to be a bittersweet frame upon which to hang the advertisement embedded below.
"...the world Dean lived in has so little connection to ours (he never heard The Beatles; didn't live through the political chaos of the 60s) that he seems almost alien sometimes. He's so distant that he's become a symbol to us now: the kid with the cigarette dangling from his lips, tough facade laid over painful insecurity. He's so fragile that we want to protect him, but there's toughness there, too, a toughness that makes him willing to appear weak in front of the whole world."
This minute-long ad created by the King James ad agency for a South African long-term investment firm is, frankly, stunning, and that's a reaction coming from someone who has long been indifferent to the career and posthumous iconography of James Dean. But it doesn't take a diehard Dean fan to appreciate this meticulously crafted hypothetical that hearkens back to an increasingly forgotten era while creating one that never existed. It's equal parts heart-warming and heart-wrenching, which only makes me wish all advertisements were this compelling.
Via BoingBoing.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-23-2009 @ 2:12PM
techstar25 said...
Since that ad proposed that if Dean were alive today, his career would have taken a path similar to Clint Eastwood (born in 1930), it got me thinking "How many of his peers are still working?". So I hit up IMDB for a list of actors also born in the 1930's, to see what they are doing today. I found a bunch of actors who remain busy in the entertainment industry to this today.
Robert Duvall
Rip Torn
Bill Shatner
Leonard Nimoy
Robert Loggia
Alan Arkin
Warren Beatty
Michael Caine
Gene Hackman
Ian Holm
James Earl Jones
Harvey Keitel
Jack Nicholson
Donald Sutherland
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9-23-2009 @ 2:49PM
eSVee said...
thank techstar.
That REALLY puts it in perspective. I'm a James Dean fan so his life being cut short has always felt like a loss to me..
But after reading that list of his peers who are still making movies today- I can't imagine the cinema world without them.
Life is such a precious thing.
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9-23-2009 @ 3:09PM
Monika said...
While co-opting passed celebrities for ads really bugs me, I really do like what they did with this.
I've been mesmerized by the man for years, and always wondered what could've been. I mean, who else is that iconic from 3 credited features? (Granted, he got Oscar nods for two of them.)
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9-23-2009 @ 5:23PM
Eric said...
Wow that was great. Now I would like to see one with John Lennon.
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9-23-2009 @ 5:35PM
paul said...
Supposedly, there were things in Dean's closet that were as unpleasant a burlap sack filled with eels. Maybe death did him proud.
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9-25-2009 @ 12:43PM
Tna said...
That gave me shivers.
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9-30-2009 @ 9:03PM
Ann Sandra said...
I have had a full and wonderful life....but never the less....on that day....54 years ago today.....as a young pre pubescent my life and perceptions changed forever.............This tugged at my heart...."If only....."
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