The James Dean Story

Two years after the death of the 24-year-old actor in a car crash, THE JAMES DEAN STORY appeared on the nation's screens, where it reinforced the myth and fed the cult that had grown around the talented young maverick. Suffused with romantic melancholy, the film betrayed none of the cool, modernist detachment that later became associated with its co-director, Robert Altman.

Because its subject died so young, THE JAMES DEAN STORY did not have to strain to cover all the key phases of his life. Following the death of his mother, nine-year-old Jimmy Dean comes to the small farm town of Fairmount, Indiana, to be raised by an uncle and aunt. As an adolescent, he devel...