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James Dean: Rebel With A Cause (Indiana Biography)
Aided by the cooperation of Dean's family members and friends, chronicles the life of the actor who died in a car accident at the age of twenty-four and is known for his roles in "East of Eden" and "Rebel without a Cause."
- GenresBiographyNonfiction
303 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
October 21, 2010
Okay, I'm biased. This book considers Dean a "poseur" and refers to him "posturing" in his life and that annoyed me.
So I'm sure this is probably a good general introduction to James Dean. If you're not a fan-girl.
I am. So there are other books out there I'd recommend before this one.
So I'm sure this is probably a good general introduction to James Dean. If you're not a fan-girl.
I am. So there are other books out there I'd recommend before this one.
November 26, 2012
I chose this book to start on my adventure into the world of James Dean because it was small and looked simple enough. It would allow me to wet my palate before continuing to other biographies. My mistake because there was nothing fantastic about this author's rendition of James Dean.
The author presents the theory that James Dean was in fact a poseur, that he would present an image of faux angst to mess with people and keep them on their toes. To me, this didn't seem completely improbable, but the author would run down other James Dean biographies in order to boost his own. Of course, he wouldn't name the biographies specifically when he would tear them down, but say that they pandered to either their own agenda and to audiences who didn't "get" the real Dean. He brought up this point repeatedly and awkwardly in the book and it was pretty distracting from what he was talking about in the first place.
He also called James a "Hoosier" on every page in the first three or four chapters. It took me a while to figure out that this was a term meaning someone from Indiana as the author didn't even mention that much. I guess the author wanted to drive home the fact that James was an Indiana farm boy at heart, but it got old really fast when he'd write things like "Hoosier haven", "Hoosier teen", or "Hoosier Heritage". As he talked more about James's career, the word died off from his writing. Maybe I'm being nit picky, but it was a little much.
He would also ramble on at points, stating that MAYBE James did this because of that or James MIGHT have done this for these reasons. Part of the book seemed more like a guess-work then it did research. I felt like if he wanted to write about the meaning behind James and all of his actions and movies and what they represented, then he should have wrote "James Dean and Philosophy".
He would then spend pages talking strictly about the careers of Elia Kazan, George Stevens, Marlon Brando, and even Charlie Chaplin. In some respect, I can understand why the author did that. For Brando, he was someone James idolized and emulated, thus making an impact on James's life and career. With Stevens, it helped paint out the strained relationship that the director and the actor had on set. Most of the time though, the author went into too much detail and at times, I forgot I was reading a biography about James Dean.
If the book was supposed to be about the film industry between 1935 and 1960, it would have been well done. Besides that, it kinda took the light away from James. It didn't really delve deep into who James was- it barely skimmed the surface. That might be because James died so young and information is scarce, but many other authors managed to put together dozens of books on him. Well, according the this writer, those others aren't correct in their rendition of James anyways.
Something else that I found odd, the author began the epilogue with a picture of Humphrey Bogart and ended it with a picture of Marlon Brandon and Al Pacino in "The Godfather". I didn't start this book looking for pictures of James, but out of the dozens of pictures included, not many were of Dean.
In the end, the author seemed more focused on how his book was better than other biographies and spent less time talking about James Dean himself. However, this book isn't stopping me from looking into other biographies about James, but I'll be sure to be wary when I pick the next one up.
The author presents the theory that James Dean was in fact a poseur, that he would present an image of faux angst to mess with people and keep them on their toes. To me, this didn't seem completely improbable, but the author would run down other James Dean biographies in order to boost his own. Of course, he wouldn't name the biographies specifically when he would tear them down, but say that they pandered to either their own agenda and to audiences who didn't "get" the real Dean. He brought up this point repeatedly and awkwardly in the book and it was pretty distracting from what he was talking about in the first place.
He also called James a "Hoosier" on every page in the first three or four chapters. It took me a while to figure out that this was a term meaning someone from Indiana as the author didn't even mention that much. I guess the author wanted to drive home the fact that James was an Indiana farm boy at heart, but it got old really fast when he'd write things like "Hoosier haven", "Hoosier teen", or "Hoosier Heritage". As he talked more about James's career, the word died off from his writing. Maybe I'm being nit picky, but it was a little much.
He would also ramble on at points, stating that MAYBE James did this because of that or James MIGHT have done this for these reasons. Part of the book seemed more like a guess-work then it did research. I felt like if he wanted to write about the meaning behind James and all of his actions and movies and what they represented, then he should have wrote "James Dean and Philosophy".
He would then spend pages talking strictly about the careers of Elia Kazan, George Stevens, Marlon Brando, and even Charlie Chaplin. In some respect, I can understand why the author did that. For Brando, he was someone James idolized and emulated, thus making an impact on James's life and career. With Stevens, it helped paint out the strained relationship that the director and the actor had on set. Most of the time though, the author went into too much detail and at times, I forgot I was reading a biography about James Dean.
If the book was supposed to be about the film industry between 1935 and 1960, it would have been well done. Besides that, it kinda took the light away from James. It didn't really delve deep into who James was- it barely skimmed the surface. That might be because James died so young and information is scarce, but many other authors managed to put together dozens of books on him. Well, according the this writer, those others aren't correct in their rendition of James anyways.
Something else that I found odd, the author began the epilogue with a picture of Humphrey Bogart and ended it with a picture of Marlon Brandon and Al Pacino in "The Godfather". I didn't start this book looking for pictures of James, but out of the dozens of pictures included, not many were of Dean.
In the end, the author seemed more focused on how his book was better than other biographies and spent less time talking about James Dean himself. However, this book isn't stopping me from looking into other biographies about James, but I'll be sure to be wary when I pick the next one up.
July 25, 2024
Who was James Dean? According to a plethora of sources, an angst-ridden rebel, an actor devoted to perfecting his craft, an ambitious Hoosier, and at his core a volatile young man affected by the lasting trauma of losing his mother at an early age and being rejected by his father shortly after.
Despite the morbid portrait that has emerged of the late Dean in the ensuing years, the author of this biography adopts a decidedly different view of the brooding albeit promising young actor. An adherent to the Strasbergian school of method acting (whose disciples include Marlon Brando and later, Al Pacino — and my personal favorite — Jeremy Strong), Dean deployed a carapace of youthful melancholy and engaged in acts of subversion to solidify his appeal as a character in his own right. The author argues that, rather than being by nature a troubled or embattled person, Dean capitalized on such traits to construct a mythical persona. The boy we recognize in the acclaimed (yet disturbing) film “Rebel Without a Cause” thus achieves synonymity with the actor himself. Was Dean really inhabiting a role so much as bringing his underlying traits to the fore?
Although Dean’s life was cut mercilessly short by a freak accident, his legend proved to be an enduring one. I can still remember the first time I heard Lana Del Rey’s angelic voice sing his simple all-American name, evoking a person whose cultural significance had yet to make itself known. Not to mention the notorious JD in Heathers, a bad boy who takes the persona to notoriously extreme heights. Notwithstanding the mythos surrounding James Dean, this book constitutes something of a rebuke to these prevailing views, ones that suggest Dean as some sort of morose person harboring a death wish.
This biography acquaints readers with a more multifaceted version of Dean than most are likely accustomed to. Described as an avid athlete and enthusiastic farmhand, the young Jimmy Dean was nurtured by his adoptive aunt and uncle and grew up to pursue his passions with a steadfastness that indicated an underlying emotional stability and imperturbable resolve. Although I was shocked to learn that he was exploited sexually by a certain older man, his bisexuality doesn’t in itself recommend anything problematic about his character. Above all, I was left with the lasting impression that Dean was nothing short of a wunderkind, a once-in-a-lifetime phenomenon whose success and upward mobility from his cornfield heritage reinforces his sui generis brilliance as an actor. The world lost a burgeoning icon upon Dean’s demise, and I can only imagine how his onscreen talents might have culminated if his life hadn’t been cut so abruptly short. Even so, in his death, Dean’s stardom shot to the sky. Today, nobody fails to recognize him as a figure of profound enigma, formidable skill, and staggering emotional complexity.
Despite the morbid portrait that has emerged of the late Dean in the ensuing years, the author of this biography adopts a decidedly different view of the brooding albeit promising young actor. An adherent to the Strasbergian school of method acting (whose disciples include Marlon Brando and later, Al Pacino — and my personal favorite — Jeremy Strong), Dean deployed a carapace of youthful melancholy and engaged in acts of subversion to solidify his appeal as a character in his own right. The author argues that, rather than being by nature a troubled or embattled person, Dean capitalized on such traits to construct a mythical persona. The boy we recognize in the acclaimed (yet disturbing) film “Rebel Without a Cause” thus achieves synonymity with the actor himself. Was Dean really inhabiting a role so much as bringing his underlying traits to the fore?
Although Dean’s life was cut mercilessly short by a freak accident, his legend proved to be an enduring one. I can still remember the first time I heard Lana Del Rey’s angelic voice sing his simple all-American name, evoking a person whose cultural significance had yet to make itself known. Not to mention the notorious JD in Heathers, a bad boy who takes the persona to notoriously extreme heights. Notwithstanding the mythos surrounding James Dean, this book constitutes something of a rebuke to these prevailing views, ones that suggest Dean as some sort of morose person harboring a death wish.
This biography acquaints readers with a more multifaceted version of Dean than most are likely accustomed to. Described as an avid athlete and enthusiastic farmhand, the young Jimmy Dean was nurtured by his adoptive aunt and uncle and grew up to pursue his passions with a steadfastness that indicated an underlying emotional stability and imperturbable resolve. Although I was shocked to learn that he was exploited sexually by a certain older man, his bisexuality doesn’t in itself recommend anything problematic about his character. Above all, I was left with the lasting impression that Dean was nothing short of a wunderkind, a once-in-a-lifetime phenomenon whose success and upward mobility from his cornfield heritage reinforces his sui generis brilliance as an actor. The world lost a burgeoning icon upon Dean’s demise, and I can only imagine how his onscreen talents might have culminated if his life hadn’t been cut so abruptly short. Even so, in his death, Dean’s stardom shot to the sky. Today, nobody fails to recognize him as a figure of profound enigma, formidable skill, and staggering emotional complexity.
September 9, 2014
There are seemingly limitless books on the actor, James Dean, but Wes Gehring's presentation is relatively brief, unemotional -- and knowledgeable. Gehring has written widely on many aspects and people of Hollywood history and it shows in his smooth presentation of the young actor from Indiana who was as talented at manipulating the people around him as he was before the camera. Gehring's portrayal of Dean as a "user" of the people around him resonates with truth, with the actor almost desperately seeking knowledge and/or skills to help him elbow his way up the ladder, then abruptly discarding the individual who had been the source of the information.
Watching East of Eden and Giant in the past week (I saw them both when they first came out)with Dean's mumbling Method-driven efforts at presenting James Dean rather than the scripted character become boring, though back then he seemed to jump off the screen. It was amusing to watch Dean in Giant jubilantly pace off the land his character had just inherited, recalling director George Stevens putting pieces of paper on the ground to guide Dean's pacing which enraged Dean whose pacing then becomes aggressive and emphatic, just as Stevens wanted it.
It would have been interesting to see how Dean would have handled the two roles waiting for him had he lived: the boxer Rocky Graziano and the killer Billy the Kid (both films ultimately done by Paul Newman). Would it have been just more James Dean portraying James Dean as a boxer and killer, or compelling portrayals of the real life principals involved?
Gehring is probably right in suggesting that had Dean lived a more normal life, his "rebel" status would have faded within a few years as did Brando's, and his career would likely have gone into directing.
Wes Gehring's insightful book on Dean should satisfy the interest of most readers, leaving the reader with the feeling that there really is nothing more to learn of importance. I did at one time consider driving out to the site of Dean's fatal accident and visiting the cafes he had gone to, but I found that I had better things to do with my time.
Watching East of Eden and Giant in the past week (I saw them both when they first came out)with Dean's mumbling Method-driven efforts at presenting James Dean rather than the scripted character become boring, though back then he seemed to jump off the screen. It was amusing to watch Dean in Giant jubilantly pace off the land his character had just inherited, recalling director George Stevens putting pieces of paper on the ground to guide Dean's pacing which enraged Dean whose pacing then becomes aggressive and emphatic, just as Stevens wanted it.
It would have been interesting to see how Dean would have handled the two roles waiting for him had he lived: the boxer Rocky Graziano and the killer Billy the Kid (both films ultimately done by Paul Newman). Would it have been just more James Dean portraying James Dean as a boxer and killer, or compelling portrayals of the real life principals involved?
Gehring is probably right in suggesting that had Dean lived a more normal life, his "rebel" status would have faded within a few years as did Brando's, and his career would likely have gone into directing.
Wes Gehring's insightful book on Dean should satisfy the interest of most readers, leaving the reader with the feeling that there really is nothing more to learn of importance. I did at one time consider driving out to the site of Dean's fatal accident and visiting the cafes he had gone to, but I found that I had better things to do with my time.
August 23, 2012
I found this book while shopping a book store in Indiana. It was written by a Hoosier: Wes D. Gehring is a film professor at Ball State. I'm fascinated with James Dean's life and the movies he made. in this book I saw what James Dean was truly all about. It is my belief that this Indiana farm boy made a decision to be a successful actor. In doing so, he paid a huge price. I think the pain we see is real. I think he only wanted to go back to his home. It's so sad that he died so young. Mr. Gehring discounts the theories of some other biographers. I think Mr. Gehring's more moderate view is probably closer to the truth. There will always be an aura of mystery surrounding James Dean. He was just a normal, average basketball playing Indiana farm boy who found himself on the world stage. He was a victim of the casting couch and was dead by age 24. At the same time I would like to visit his grave. He was James Dean and his work was amazing. There is no one to compare.
August 9, 2007
Of course I love his cute look, and that's the only reason I bought this book.
Some pictures given, although not as many as I wanted.
But because he died so young, I think actually there was not much the writer could tell. Most of the stories are common and citation, I guess.
Some pictures given, although not as many as I wanted.
But because he died so young, I think actually there was not much the writer could tell. Most of the stories are common and citation, I guess.
May 24, 2014
This Dean biography merits its kudos as both a "Non-Fiction Finalist" in the Indiana State Library "Best Books of 2006" competition, and a "Foreword Magazine" "Biography Finalist" at BookExpo (Washington D.C.)in 2006, where it took home the Bronze Prize.
June 25, 2008
Learned much about the personal James Dean. Plus the author had inumerable and tiresome inferences relating other celebrities and their circumstances to Dean.
August 17, 2016
One of the better James Dean biographies.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews