What If?

joe d

This is really a great movie and quite under-rated. Richard Thomas is really into his character and his performance quite absorbing.

At that age we all tend to imitate and identify actors as being the superficial characters they portray on the screen. In 9/30/55 when telling others that James Dean had died, most treat it as it should be - a sad piece of news about a celebrity they didn't know personally. When Billie Jean, the only other individual who "understands" (and unfortunately woke up to reality through a tragic accident) screams for him to stop carrying on about "rebel" and Dean, her mother yells that "rebel" was just a movie. But Jimmy J. just didn't get it.

So I wonder how Jimmy J. would have reacted had Billie Jean's mom confronted him with facts much harsher than rebel just being a movie? That James Dean was acting and what he saw on the screen was not Dean slamming a door or begging for his father to show him love but simply words written by screenwriters and reactions created by directors? That Jimmy J. had no idea of what the real James Dean was like? How could he ignore reality and continue his obsessive identification of Dean upon realizing the James Dean he conjured up in his head (through the portrayal of Cal and James Stark) actually never existed?

I think it would have lent to a different ending than him driving to California to find out more about Dean from family and friends. My own guess is that it would have ended much more tragic with Jimmy J, confused by his inability to ignore the truth but still not willing to accept reality, unintentionally driving his motorcycle into oblivion.

score 9/10

joe d 17 April 2007

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1639367/