Rebel Style: Cinematic Heros of the 1950s

by G. Bruce Boyer

Between the end of World War II and the election of John F. Kennedy there was a tremendous shift in Hollywood film: a fresh wave of actors (with Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, Paul Newman, and James Dean) whose talent and lives seemed to be inseparable in their work, came to the forefront of film-making. This Rebel style brought a completely new attitude and look to the screen. The leather jacket and provocative stare of a Brando, and the prole clothes and the broodingly cool demeanor of a Clift became the aesthetic correlative of an American version of the existentialist view of life. G. Bruce Boyer analyzes the sartorial and philosophical revolution brought about by the representatives of this first counterculture, and the evolution of the Rebel style.

80 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2005

Reviews

[Kris Lynch · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I read this book I wanted to use it as a means of revamping my own personal style. I thought to myself, "why not use the past as a source of inspiration?" Not only did this book provide me with some interesting "rebellious" styles from the 1950s it gave a keen philosophical insight into what makes a rebel and how that idea changes over time. I thought it was an fascinating delve into the 50s "rebel" style, but I finished the book wanting more of a timeline for how rebellious styles and philosophy transformed from then to now.

[Andrew Dunn · Rating 4 out of 5]

mostly a coffeetable book

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

The intertwining of such actors' images and roles with their personal lives gives them the "aura of apartness", in critic Graham McCann's apt phrase, which puts them firmly in the tradition of the alienated individual at war with society. But these postmodern children of the 1950s rebels do not seem to have the icon-making power of their symbolic fathers (although it must be said that film also no longer commands the mass audience it did a half century ago). The rebels of today are rebels in content, but a certain attitude was lost along the way. Their approach to their craft fills their performances with a raw power, tension, and psychological sensitivity that continues to give realism new dimensions, but insolence, this miraculous corollary of freedom, is gone. The truth is, Marlon Brando and James Dead will probably remain the touchstone images of the rebel: they gave a face to the rootless and moving voice of the common man.

[Jenn · Rating 3 out of 5]

read this in the W hotel room I was staying in - nice coffee table book.