JAMES DEAN - PORTRAIT OF A FRIEND

US, 1976, 94 minutes, Colour.
Stephen Mc Hattie, Michael Brandon, Brooke Adams, Julian Burton, Candy Clark, Dane Clark, Katherine Helmond, Meg Foster, May Irving, Jayne Meadows, Leland Palmer.
Directed by Robert Butler.

An interesting telemovie produced and written by William Bast, a friend of Dean. The film, as is said in the narrative, is a personal memoir. Steven Mc Hattie, captures something of the intensity and even the look of Dean. Michael Brandon is very good in the central role of Bast. The film traces the life of Dean from 1930 to his death in 1955 sketching in the key events in his life as well as trying to give something of an impression from the outside of what his life meant. The portrait is of an isolated and intense young man, with a great desire to achieve success and achieving it, insecure and experimental. It does not necessarily explain why there was such a cult of Dean for so long after his death even though the film attempts it. Directed very interestingly and effectively by Robert Butler, the maker of a number of telemovies.

1. The interest value and quality of this telemovie? The interest in James Dean over two decades after his death? The impact in the seventies for the immediate audience of the film? For video? For later viewers without the knowledge of Dean?

2. How important was knowledge of Dean to appreciate and enjoy the film? Would it detract from its impact? The memory of the cult of Dean after his death in the fifties? Knowledge of his films? Knowledge of what he looked like - the effectiveness of Stephen McHattie's visual portrayal of Dean, manners, intensity, style?

3. The portrait of Dean in 1950: at college, friendship with Bast, his acting in Macbeth and not being a great success, getting an apartment, jobs, his training? The potential for a significant actor?

4. The nature of the memoir, the subjective appreciation by Bast, the importance of the prologue indicating this, the way that this was expressed at various times in the narrative, the audience sharing Bast's feelings for Dean especially at the end when he expressed his love for him, sharing the ups and downs of Dean's moods and Bast's inability to relate well to them? The film as a description of Dean from the outside? How much of the interior of Dean could be gained from the writing of the film, Mc Hattie's performance?

5. The significance of the drama, psychology of dreams and their personifying aspects of the dreamer? The psychoanalyst and his interviewing of Bast and Bast talking out his dreams and their complexity? The significance of the sanatorium, Dean already dead, the nurses taking him away, Dean's pleading, the coffin? The significance of Bast's worrying that he had let Dean down again? The framework of the dream and its being drawn together at the end?

6. The portrait of Dean in his early years - acting in Macbeth, an opinionated young man, the encounter with the agent and his knowing how the wheeler-dealing of Hollywood worked, sexuality? His brashness in getting the apartment? Relationship with Ray and the weekend away? Jan and his humiliation of her after her reaction to his recital of Hamlet? The acting, the training especially the actor's studio style, the soliloquy of Hamlet, the fight with Bill Bast and its intensity? The personality of the man training them and his coping with the fight?

7. The women in James Dean's life? Boy and the weekend away, the humiliation of Jan, Dizzy and the threefold friendship, the suggestion of disappointment at Pier Angeli's wedding? Dean's moods? his masks, his loneliness? The scene at the carnival, the shooting gallery, the cushion with 'Mother' on it? The significance of his mother and his relationship with women? The climax to this period with Bast going and the hurt that this gave him? Could Bast have done otherwise?

8. The transition to New York and Dean's settling in there, the feeling in the encounter between the two friends and their playing Toro? The build-up to the audition and the acting with Chris? The audition and its success? The style of the actor's studio? (The significance of his fear and running away before the audition and his returning on time?) The device of Bast's reading the letter to his family about his success and the visualizing of Dean's life in New York - especially his theories in going out to experience the various people in Times Square - the lower parts of life? Dean on the contrary able to mix with the circles of show business, his anecdote about Schoenberg? The climax of this section of his life with the long rendition of the sequence from 'The Little Prince', the significance of the fox, of seeing with the heart and not seeing the externals? Bast's understanding of this and not understanding it? The importance of the theory of taming? The dramatic way in which this long sequence was filmed and its impact on the audience?

9. Life in New York, the friendship with Dissy, the collage of their happy times together? The theory? The holiday together, Dean seeing his family again and being at home? His comment on Hollywood being phoney and New York being ugly? The sequence of the meal together, the shooting at home? The receiving of the news, and the riding of the bike - sign of the times? The visit to his mother's grave?

10. The theme of homosexuality? His questions of Bast? his theory about experiencing everything? (and the film's device of having the actors semi-nude and the suggestion of homosexuality?) His purpose in sending Bast to the Astor Bar and being picked up? The suggestion for Dean's own behaviour?

11. His success in the play, his reaction to the newspapers? His success in films and the preview of East of Eden? His vanity, his growing sense of isolation and the long talk and its significance with Bast on his return to Hollywood? His sitting in the bath and realising the quality of Dean's skill and his fulfilling his dreams? The effect on himself?

12. Reva Randall and her comments on Dean's behaviour on the set of Giant? his weirdo friends and behaviour? The visualizing of this? Bast's trying to understand? His talking about reality and studying reality for art? The significance of the sequence with Arlene and her explanation of her accident and Dean's touching her leg?

13. The importance of fans and the growing cult of Dean? The sequence with Norma and his talking, his explaining that it was a role that he took and yet her responding to the role and to him? Identifying with him? His theory about loving life and respecting death? The comments on the characters that he portrayed and their sense of alienation? The indication of the cult? The grief for his death? The build-up to his death - his hopes for the future, somebody up there, like Bast's writing a play for him, his going off in the car and the suddenness of his death (with the Incidents and personalities of his life flashing before him?) Did he have a death wish or not? A success drive?

14. The significance of the film finishing with the dream? The violent aftermath of the ambulance people coming to take him away, his tearing at the doer, their bashing his fingers, his plea to be saved, his statement that he trusted Bast? Bast's explanation of his living on when Dean was dead and his not having experienced his love for him? The significance of the final comment on the landscape from the Little Prince?

15. How interesting a portrait of a Hollywood star? Insight into the artist actor, into Hollywood and theatre, of the fifties, human nature?