Live Fast Die Young: Rebel Without A Cause Christmas
More on the golden anniversary of the release of the iconic teen film Rebel Without a Cause and the death of its star, James Dean. Authors of the book, Live Fast Die Young: The Wild Ride of Making Rebel Without a Cause, Laurence Frascella and Al Weisel have extensive writing credentials between them; and both, deeply entrenched in the entertainment gas tankless water heater industry as well. Frascella has served as chief movie critic for Us Magazine and theater critic for Entertainment Weekly as well as an editor at Aperture. His work has also appeared in numerous publications, including Harper’s bazaar and Rolling Stone. Weisel, meanwhile, wrote for The Washington Post, New York Newsday, Rolling Stone, and Us Magazine. He also wrote for Premiere, Spin, Tracks, George, Travel & Leisure, Out, Time Out New York, and for an Australian publication called the Bulletin. The two collaborated on metal detectors Live Fast Die Young: The Wild Ride of Making Rebel Without a Cause which explored behind the scenes stories of the movie and in particular, the relationships between director Nicholas Ray and leading actors James Dean and Natalie Wood. The duo also explored various angles of Nicholas Ray’s methods and motives in making the film. What drove the filmmaker and what motivated him. Meanings of certain symbolisms that abound in the movie and other microdermabrasion machines themes that existed within. Hints about the director’s troubled personal relationship with his own son and his own failings as a father drove him to get his vision onto the screen. Others say that Ray was just enamored with youth; and that the film was his ode to that part of oneself that will not willingly surrender to age. Frascella and Weisel reconstructed Rebel’s production history from archival research and interviews of surviving members of the cast and crew (oddly, co-stars Natalie Wood and Sal Mineo met dog wheelchair early, and violent ends, too; Nicholas Ray would slowly fade away in Hollywood) getting in a good and satisfying balance scholarship—in, for example, detailed accounts of such key scenes as the knife fight at the planetarium and the chickie run—and gossip, such as dish on Ray’s affair with then 16-year-old Wood. The book is a lively and intelligent take on the film. One can’t reduce Rebel Without a Cause to symbols; it will only undermine its enduring vitality. What it really is, is a movie of gestures. When James Dean’s character Jim Stark returns home, exhausted and troubled from a game of chicken that resulted in the death of one of his classmates, the first thing he does is go to the refrigerator for a drink of milk. He holds the bottle to his forehead, then to his cheek, a movement so smooth and simple you almost miss how elemental it is. Frascella and Weisel trace this small movement to an improvisatory session between Ray and Dean, in which Ray challenged the young actor to find a way to cut to the scene’s essence. Many making-of books seem like droning procedurals, with authors often stumbling on the most common pitfall of stuffing it to the gills with every bit of minutiae, as if to show how much research they put into it. In the end, whatever attracted them to the project, their subject matter, is lost and buried under all the paperwork. This is exactly what Live Fast Die Young decided to avoid from the get go. It’s the landmine they wanted to sidestep. A reading of the book should be like Rebel Without a Cause Christmas, a celebration, a discovery; with hidden treats here and there for the readers to enjoy yet never losing sight of what it’s all about.