giant Tagged Articles at Cinematical

In the last twenty-four hours alone, countless news articles have compared the late Heath Ledger to James Dean. Of course it helps that the two actors -- whose careers lie fifty years apart -- bear physical resemblances to each other. The real reason for the frequency of the comparison, however, revolves around the possibility that Ledger, like Dean, might end up with a posthumous Oscar nomination.

Other than Dean, whose death in a 1955 car accident was preceded by two nominations back-to-back, six actors have landed the distinction -- but only one, Peter Finch, actually won (for Network in 1976). However, Ledger is now perceived an actor who possessed a potential he never quite realized, while Dean was already an icon by the time of his death (and he still didn't win the prize). If Ledger gets nominated for his performance as the Joker in The Dark Knight, the award will also acknowledge the great career that never was. Dean surely would have followed Giant with other wonderful performances, but his brief filmography also allowed the actor to reach a level of prestige that Ledger would have needed a few more movies to attain. So does this comparison really hold up?

The media certainly seems to think so. "Like Dean, he could endure as a mythic figure of talent silenced before his time," writes the AP. "People are aflutter over seeing the final performance of a new James Dean," reports The Huffington Post. " One quality that Ledger and Dean did share is rapid growth," notes the Baltimore Sun.

Martha noted earlier that the James Dean museum in Indiana finally closed for good. The news made me want to look for some images of James Dean, preferably not the same few photos I always seem to find: the long one of him reclining in Giant, the surly one in the jacket from Rebel Without a Cause. You can imagine why I might feel particularly inclined to find a still of Dean in his role as Jett Rink in the 1956 epic Giant: the character's name is so charming. But he looks terrible as the older Jett; the photo would have to be from early in the film. Fortunately, I tracked down the above image.

I'm not a big fan of Giant (it's too long, for one thing), but I remember the little scene above where Leslie (Elizabeth Taylor) visits Jett and he makes her a cup of tea. The idea of a man serving tea could perhaps be viewed as oddly non-masculine to some people, particularly 1950s audiences. But Dean pouring tea, his shirt open practically to the waist, makes you think of his serving you breakfast the morning after some crazed night of passion. You might be tempted to say something like, "That man can strain my tea leaves any day." I'm not sure quite what that means, but ... enjoy the image.

East of Eden, Rebel Without a Cause, Giant. That's what you call a Complete James Dean Collection, I guess. In each film, he performs a variation on the same outsider identity—perpetually tormented, John Donne style, by an internal good v. evil battle. Red jacket, white t-shirt, blue jeans—I watched Rebel for the first time seven years ago (I know, I know. What took me so long?) and I swear that's all I wanted to wear. You too? Awesome.