Vladimir Dilov
I'm a great fan of James Dean and I really have very high expectations about every documentary/movie that is about his life.This movie really impressed me !The directing work was great, the plot, the cinematography and last but not least - James Franco. This guy truly amazed me, i've always liked him but in my opinion this is his best role.He made an absolutely outstanding performance.And as far as we know about the life and personality of James Dean , Franco portrayed his character very convincingly.If you've watched Dean films you'll know that he was a man with an incomparable charisma and Franco gave me the same feeling with his performance.The film is a absolute must-see if you are into James Dean life ,or biography movies at all.From my point of view , the movie is a real masterpiece and it deserves all the approval from both the critics and the audience.
SnoopyStyle
This is a TV biopic of James Dean. It starts with director Elia Kazan (Enrico Colantoni) egging Dean on as he keeps rubbing Raymond Massey the wrong way. Then it goes back to his childhood as he loses his beloved mother. His cold distant father Winton (Michael Moriarty) would abandon him to other family members. He would never get the approval from his father that he craves so much. He would ascend through the acting world in NYC and Hollywood as well.I'm not a big enough Dean fan to know how much truth is in this picture. However there is no denying that James Franco is the perfect guy of his generation to play the guy. It's much more than mimicry. He is channeling his spirit somehow or at least his public persona. He is really the rebel without a cause. The production is OK for a TV movie. The style is old school and functional. Watch it for Franco's performance.
frankiehudson
In this late-night TV movie, James Franco delivers a stunning, totally convincing portrait of the late James Dean. His physical resemblance is uncanny and his acting is spot-on, not just with the James Dean style of acting but also the awkward, shy and stooped body language off-screen and the confused persona.The whole early 1950s era is brilliantly re-created (vehicles, drinks, bars, TV and film of the time) with superb location shooting and a re-enactment of the Hollywood of the time.Dean is portrayed as an awkward child from a difficult background, with his mother dying when he was nine years old and all of the upheaval that followed (moving to Indiana, for example). He discovers his love of reckless motorcycle driving in the cornfields, something that would later cost him his life.For me, this was one of those surprise films which was rather short - about 90 minutes - yet which I just hoped would go on for another hour or more. It was that brilliant. James Franco is a star.
dauntless-1
My only negative comment about the film is that I thought the various Hollywood personnel of the time (early 1950s) could have been somewhat more realistically impersonated (for a better job see, for example, "RKO 281"). I suppose in real life Dean did display an aura of shyness and inattentiveness, and performed cartwheels and pratfalls in the presence of others. POSSIBLE SPOILER, although I'm sure that just about everyone reading this knows how Dean died. The automobile accident at the end is not exploitative but is depicted in vague and extreme slow motion. Had I not known better I would have assumed early on in the film that Dean would die from lung cancer, as he is shown in almost every scene with a cigarette dangling from his lips.
AD
