James Dean

Written from the perspective of Dean's long term friend Bast (well portrayed by Robert Brandon), this film as some good quirks and sub- texts to it.

Actor Stephen McHattie does have the affect and appearance of Dean in some instances, he portrays the early start of James Dean as a somewhat transient and alienated life. Living in NYC and finally getting accepted to the prestigious Actors Studio, but living with a big name actor, who is just someone he owes a debt to, and to "pay the piper" as he tells his friend.

The section regarding Dean's earlier family life could have been better explicated, but the audience does see his Hollywood relationships, including some decent cameos by Brooke Adams and Meg Foster (as Liz "Dizzy" Sheridan, who appeared in "Rebel Without a Cause"), and now plays Seinfeld's mother (credited as Liz Sheridan).

Overall worth seeing , but better to rent a DVD or purchase it, for the true researcher into Dean's checkered history. This film shown on MAVTV channel in US is terribly edited, and MAVTV is not a good viewing experience, at all. 8/10.

William Bast, friend and roommate of the late actor, James Dean, has scripted a series of memories about Dean in this tv movie of 1976. Told from Bast's point of view, Dean is depicted as an incredibly gifted talent, totally committed to his craft, and with an extraordinary degree of concentration in his work. Indeed, Dean's entire life objective here was to be the best possible actor.

That Dean was able to achieve so much in such a short span, while being completely uncompromising in his quest for artistic excellence, is remarkable. That he was able to do this while indulging in a totally nonconformist lifestyle, both in New York and Hollywood, is little short of amazing.

What Dean seemed to have going for him here was an endowment of genuine, natural talent, very good looks, and business-career acumen, which he could use to be both ingratiating and charming when required. It is said his presence and work in films had a great affect on the then leading exponent of the "method school of acting," Marlon Brando. Dean's early demise seemed to affect Brando's work significantly, as though it ended the Great Brando Period (1950-58) thereafter never to be restored.

While I appreciate the Dean legacy, I do feel that a life lived on-the-edge tends to be hard to sustain in the long run. It risks the possibility of soon "having the tail chase the dog": requiring one to forever live up to one's own public and private image. Existing in the fantasy world of acting is challenging enough without the added ingredient of rebellion to cope with. Dean's premature burnout and expiration seemed a direct consequence of his abnormally driving ambition and impregnably uncompromising stance. Thus, while we are the appreciative recipients of his rich legacy, he remains its ultimate sacrifice. The highly experienced Stephen McHattie shines as Dean, while the talented Michael Brandon portrays Dean's best friend, William Bast.

What a phenomenon Dean is. With only three major films to his credit, and his stage and tv work but a memory in the minds of a relative few, Dean is still able to enter into the ranks of screen immortals. Perhaps it was worth it after all.

for an early TV movie, this one was ahead of its time...it featured James telling his friend to be more sexually adventurous, leading him to go cruising in a gay bar...

I got it at the dollar store , so my print was typically muddy, being that the flick fell into the public domain and all...still if you like JD you will get a kick out of this flick...well then there now!!!!

It also shows Katherine Helmond. Amy Irving and a beautiful Brooke Adams...I liked it enough to recommend it if you buy it cheap like I did!!!

If you want a really good JD movie, try Robert Altman's documentary it is archaic but fascinating!!!

Seriously sensitive TV-movie starring Stephen McHattie as actor James Dean and Michael Brandon as William Bast, a fellow student at UCLA and Dean's pre-stardom roommate. The film chronicles Dean's inauspicious work as a drama student--doing shaky Shakespeare on stage--and the years following once Dean relocated to New York City and was accepted into the exclusive Actor's Studio, which lead him to Broadway and then back to Hollywood. Bast himself wrote the teleplay, and he's very careful to show the many complex sides of Dean--the prankster, the romantic, the artist committed to his craft, the jerk--as well as the "Star Is Born"-like friendship which developed between the two men. Bast, a failed actor who took on writing jobs, grew to respect and love his friend, however, without any apparent envy or jealousy (although he's often shown playing the third wheel). Brandon has a tough job acting as the author's surrogate, but he does so without self-pity; his acceptance of his friend as America's newest star is casual and natural, with no melodrama. The film begins with a symbolic dream (never a good idea) and features sketchy episodes with a handful of the women in Dean's life, but the main focus is on the relationship between Dean and Bast, and in those sequences the movie shines. McHattie, whose thin smile curls up at the corners like the Joker, bears a passing resemblance to Dean when seen from a distance, but up close he has to overcome features which are too pronounced; it's not an impersonation, and yet the performance we do get slowly grows on you. "James Dean" is an unusually literate and thoughtful drama, with an excellent supporting cast including Dane Clark, Meg Foster, Brooke Adams, Amy Irving, Katherine Helmond, Candy Clark and Leland Palmer.

There is a segment in this obscure made for TV bio-pic that ascends to another plane of artistry, and provides a spellbinding glimpse into what made this legendary actor so extraordinary. Dean, played by the gifted Stephen McHattie, has returned home to find his sensitive roommate sulking in the dark over the sudden realization that the mercurial Dean is broadening his horizons and slipping away from him. By no means unmoved, Dean's response is to read aloud a particularly meaningful passage from his favorite book "The Little Prince". And as he reads consolingly, dramatically; you can see the joy he takes in forming the words, the pleasure he derives from sharing them with an audience, the immense respect he has for the piece itself. The scene plays out as a sort of communion, with Dean seeming to re-absorb the passage as a way of purifying himself. His roommate is mesmerized at this level of devotion to craft and only then begins to appreciate what his friend is becoming, has become.

Told from the refreshingly limited viewpoint of his off and on roommate William Bast (who went on to be a reasonably successful TV and Film writer) the movie touches on the pivotal events of Dean's life and career like a stone skipping across water. The focus is very much on Bast's up close witnessing of Dean's improbable, mind-blowing emergence from awkward hayseed wanna-be into the most emblematic actor of his generation.

Considering that he doesn't look incredibly like Dean (McHattie's face is flinty and pentagonal whereas Dean's was chiseled and rectangular) McHattie does a remarkable job duplicating the body language and facial expressions - the slouched shoulders, sudden movements, furtive looks and exaggerated boyishness. The director frames and lights him in clever ways and there are times when, spookily, you really do feel like you're looking in on Dean's life. McHattie also captures that alien, kaleidoscopic, wildly unpredictable quality - no easy task. He gives you a sense of the development of the persona, the fine-tuning of the image he was trying to project to the world. His Dean almost seems like a mad scientist working on his most diabolical Frankenstein creation - himself.

Makes a nice companion to "9/30/55", another poignant meditation on the actor.