..Gary
Dretzka
..Noah
Forrest
..Leonard
Klady
..R.J.
Matson
..David
Poland
..Douglas
Pratt
..Ray
Pride
..Michael
Wilmington
Rebel Without A Cause
Directed by Nicolas Ray
The James Dean movie that connected most directly with the hearts of his teenaged fans, Rebel without a Cause, has been released by Warner Home Video as a Two-Disc Special Edition (68323, $27). Warner has had a standard single-platter release (14069, $20) available for several years. Dean plays a restless teen in a new town, who is frustrated by his parents' self-involved distractions and alienated from the other kids at his new school. In the end, however, he ends up acting just like his parents when he tries to solve a crisis peacefully after bonding with two other kids, played by Natalie Wood and Sal Mineo. Directed with visual flair by Nicolas Ray, the 1955 feature offers little more than a basic melodrama, but Dean is in such command of his ability to communicate his character's inner turmoil that you are riveted by his presence every moment he is on the screen, and totally oblivious to any shortcoming (why doesn't the kid just stop the car when his jacket gets caught on the door handle?) the film might possess. The film was shot in Cinemascope with a dynamic, modernist attitude that complemented Dean's presence brilliantly and underscored the subliminal sense of revolution that it was conveying to its target audience.
Both presentations are in letterboxed format only, with an aspect ratio of about 2.35:1 and an accommodation for enhanced 16:9 playback. The color transfer is improved on the new release. Fleshtones are warmer and other hues are a touch deeper and brighter. The picture is a little soft now and then, probably an idiosyncrasy of the original cinematography, but seems otherwise immaculate. The sound was remastered for 5.1-channel Dolby Digital a while ago and is presented that way on both DVDs, giving the music the dimensional feel of a large film theater. Whether it is an improvement in the transfer or simply an improvement in DVD encoding technology, the audio track on the new release has a slightly richer, deeper feel to it. The film runs 111 minutes. Both DVDs have alternate French audio tracks in mono and optional English and French subtitles. The new DVD has Spanish subtitles, as well.
The older DVD comes with text profiles of Dean, Wood and Ray, a trailer, and a good 9-minute retrospective documentary from the Nineties that focuses on then newly discovered outtakes and deleted scenes. Although some footage is repeated, there are 22 minutes of excerpts from a Warner television show hosted by Gig Young promoting the film, including terrific interviews with Dean, Wood and co-star Jim Backus.
The first platter of the new Special Edition holds a trailer and features a commentary track by film historian Douglas L. Rathgeb. He provides some background information about the shoot and the filmmakers, a critical analysis of the film, and odds and ends about how it was created. "Here, [Ray] suggested to Jim, 'If you want to let some of the air out, or get your temperature down, why don't you just kick the desk and get some of it out of you.' So he's actually kicking the desk. You can see the mark he just made with his foot. He's also physically hurting himself at this moment. He is pounding his hands. There is music in the background for only one reason, and that is that at the previews, the audience started to laugh in this scene. It was nervous laughter, but it spoiled the effect that they wanted in the film, so they asked Leonard Rosenman, who was the composer, to write that music to cover up the possibility of the audience laughing."
The second platter contains a terrific 1974 TV documentary entitled Forever James Dean, directed by Jack Haley, Jr. Hosted by Peter Lawford, the 66-minute program features lovely interviews with Sammy Davis, Jr. (who hung out with Dean quite a bit), Wood, Mineo, Rosenman (who had roomed with him) and others. There are rare clips from some of his TV appearances, so even though the basic story of his three film appearances is presented for the umpteenth time, the program is fresh and full of fascinating insights. There is also an excellent 36-minute retrospective documentary that gives you an overview of the film's creation and fills in points that Rathgeb passed over. It includes an interview with Dennis Hopper, who explains that his part was severely trimmed in the film because he was having an affair with Wood at the same time that Ray was. The 22-minute Gig Young footage appears as well, along with 6 minutes of interesting screen tests for the stars, with sound; 5 minutes of black-and-white wardrobe tests, also with sound and interesting dynamics among cast members as they hang out and pose for the camera; and 23 minutes of silent deleted footage, including alternate beginnings and endings, and the footage that was shot in black and white before the decision was made to switch to color.
July 20 , 2005
DVD Roundup: This Week's DVD Releases
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