The Complete James Dean Collection (DVD)

Most often my interest in an actor is limited to what his/her next film will be, rarely am I interested in their personal life outside of movies, but with James Dean there is just something about him that rouses curiosity. Obviously the fact that he died at the age of 24, just as his fame was rising and he had finished his third and final motion picture (Giant), has a lot to do with his legendary and iconic status, but along with Dean's magnificent talent comes an equally magnificent and intriguing life story.

Dean gives off a look of a pretty boy/tough guy but in his acting he simply melts into this fragile character that you would never expect, but ultimately believe, as Dean can make or break a scene depending on how he delivers a line. Dean was the complete movie star, a man that would be immortalized in today's world of celebrity stardom, and pretty much is, even though he passed away almost 50 years ago.

The James Dean Collection by Warner Bros. celebrates the life of Dean as it offers for the first time on Special Edition DVD Rebel Without a Cause and East of Eden along with the previously released epic picture Giant, which starred Dean along with Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor.

All three movies come as 2-disc special editions boasting hours of special features and while Giant's special features focus for the most part on director George Stevens you will certainly get your fill of Dean lore from Rebel and Eden, then again, if you are like me you are still wanting more.

First to Giant, easily the best of the three films, and Dean's best performance as he goes from a young man looking for a chance in Texas to a 60-year-old oil tycoon in this 201-minute epic. Like I said before, most of the features on this disc center around the great filmmaking talents of director George Stevens, but when Dean's name is mentioned it is worth the listen, as is everything else on this disc including the audio commentary with George Stevens Jr., critic Stephen Farber and screenwriter Ivan Moffat.

Disc two of Giant holds two documentaries focused on the making of the film, a look at the New York and Hollywood premieres, photo galleries, trailers and then the best feature on any of the discs... documents sent back and forth between Jack Warner and the filmmakers. These documents detail the status of the film through its ups and downs, the money to be paid its three stars (Dean, Taylor and Hudson), the amount of money the film was going over budget, the time constraints on when it was going to be finished and on and on... it is literally cinematic history and it is a lot of fun to check out.

Next up is Rebel Without a Cause, Dean's second film and the film in which Dean delivers the classic line, "You're tearing me apart!" Along with the feature film you will get an audio commentary with Douglas L. Rathgeb, author of the book of the same name, a couple of documentaries, additional scenes, vintage Dean commercials and then the best of the bunch... screen tests and wardrobe tests.

You may wonder how wardrobe tests could be considered the best, but after you watch the documentaries on the film and learn a little bit about the filming of the movie and then go check out the wardrobe tests they simply become classic James Dean. Warner Bros. has perfectly crafted this DVD and its features making it a blast to watch as each feature plays off the prior.

Finally, is my least favorite of Dean's films East of Eden from famed director Elia Kazan. I just didn't really click with this story and while it isn't anything about the acting that I particularly disliked it was just the story itself that left me wanting more. With that said however, disc two of Eden has the best documentaries of the whole set as the 50th Anniversary Documentary on the making of the film and the vintage doc called "Forever James Dean" tap directly into the Dean phenomenon. This is partially due to the way East of Eden hits so close to home with Dean's true life and dealings with his own father that the making of the film revealed so much about Dean and his feelings. This one also comes with additional scenes, wardrobe, costume and design tests.

One thing I should mention before closing is the one issue I did have with the new editions of Rebel and Eden and that is with the audio tracks. Warner went ahead and remastered the audio into 5.1 Dolby and, unfortunately, it doesn't always sync up with the actor's mouths, on top of that it is noticeably louder than the ambient and background noise in several scenes and it is a bit distracting. While this is a relatively trivial issue for the casual viewer, some of you more die hard fans with home theater systems may feel the same way I did. I just thought it was worth a mention.

All that said, there isn't anything else bad I can say about this set, I loved it immensely. The chance to learn more about Dean and enjoy these three classic films and have them as my own is quite a thrill. James Dean would be 74 now if he had not passed on, only a year younger than Clint Eastwood, just imagine what he would have accomplished in his lifetime and what we would have seen on screen had his life not been tragically cut short. Not only would Dean have delivered several fantastic performances and motion pictures he would have also pushed other actors such as Marlon Brando to do their best, maybe we would have even seen more of Brando, because Lord knows Marlon wouldn't have let Dean steal all the fame.