James Dean: Live Fast, Die Young

James Dean: Race With Destiny (a.k.a James Dean: Live Fast, Die Young) is a terrible movie that disgraces a screen legend. The production values are painfully low, and coupled with the shoddy acting, the resulting feel is that you're watching a soap opera. And a bad one, at that.

Why anyone though Casper Van Dien could play James Dean evades me. He was fine in "Sleepy Hollow," and other films, but this is clearly not a role for him. To make matters worse, his performance is terrible. The film portrays Dean as a rude buffoon. Although I have seen "Rebel Without A Cause," I don't know much about Dean himself, but I've often heard he was actually quite shy. If this is in fact the case, the film severely misrepresents him.

The script is also poor, complete with ridiculous stereotypes such as Pier Angeli's mother saying "bonjourno," and "gratzi" every 25 seconds, as though the viewer needs to be reassured that she's Italian. There are also visual blunders. In the opening sequence, Dean is in the middle of a race, and happens to be sporting a modern racing helmet, instead of a 1950s one. Things like that might have been excusable if the overall production was better, but it isn't.

Instead of suffering through this terrible affair, check out "James Dean," starring James Franco. That film is great in its own right, but it's downright genius compared to this waste of time.

I'd like to say first that the makers of this film and Casper Van Dien have no idea who James Dean is. All they know is that he was an actor that was madly in love with Pier Angeli and drove fast. This movie is pathetic. The direction is terrible, the writing is horrible, the music is annoying, and the acting is horrendous. This movie is not about James Dean, so don't be fooled. It's about some idiot that dresses like and calls himself James Dean. Instead of getting James Dean you get a guy that sounds like a whiny little kid and who constantly gets speeding tickets. Seriously, Casper Van Dien cannot act for his life. If someone had a gun to his head and said act like James Dean, he'd be dead as soon as he opened his mouth. If I were Casper I'd be too ashamed to even look at myself in the mirror. That guy is really pathetic and should be ashamed of himself. Whoever thought it was a good idea to make this movie or to even get Casper Van Dien to play James Dean, is a moron. Everyone who made this movie should be shot. I don't even know if you'd call it a movie. It's like the whole thing is one big practical joke. The whole time I was watching this movie I was shocked at how bad it was. It would be a joke to even compare this movie to the James Franco movie about James Dean. All I'm going to say is see the Franco movie. See that great movie and see James Dean's movies. But avoid this trash. This movie is just so pathetic it's not even funny.

This despite its title is a love story rather than a biopic of James Dean . The film starts with a voice over from Pier Angeli and the first 40 minutes revolves around her romance with James Dean which is a severe disappointment if you`re watching this expecting to learn much about the legend that was James Dean . The only bits that rise above mediocre is when the film ignores the love story and concentrates on Dean`s career , his fireworks with the Hollywood film makers , and his explanation on " Group dynamics " to a young gang leader . But that`s not enough to save the film from being a waste of time . And I`d just like to add my voice to the chorus that if it wasn`t for the inclusion of a few swear words I would have staked my life that this was a TVM . It contains all the production values and flaws that TVMs are infamous for

Although "James Dean: Live Fast, Die Young" is a very poorly rated film on IMDB, I chose to watch it anyway because it turns out to be Robert Mitchum's last film...even though, sadly, he's only a bit player in this movie.

The film is about the final couple of years in James Dean's life. In particular, it focuses on his relationship with actress Pier Angeli, but also in the short time after this to his untimely death. A few bigger name stars appear in the film (Mike Connors, Robert Mitchum and Connie Stevens) but most of the film rests on Casper Van Dien as Dean.

So is it any good? Well, the casting was iffy. The actors chosen to play Dean and Angeli were pretty good matches to the actual people. Mike Connors looked absolutely nothing like the head of Warner Brothers, Jack Warner. I assume they simply could get Connors so they stuck him in this role....same with Mitchum.

How about the rest of the film? Well, the story is reasonably close to the truth this portion of the lives of Angeli and Dean, though the film never mentions or alludes to Dean's being bisexual (see IMDB trivia for more on this) and this does seem like a big omission. The acting is okay...perhaps a bit too brooding as I had a hard time believing Dean was always this way in real life. Perhaps he was an obnoxious and whiny guy as you see in much of the movie....but if that wasn't him, then the film is a bit of a disservice to his memory. I just don't know about this, though the character being THAT broody and hard to like made the film a bit tough to continue watching. Overall, a film that die-hard fans of Dean will enjoy...others, perhaps, might just wanna skip this one.

Try as he may Casper Van Dien could not overcome the bad casting as James Dean in James Dean: Race With Destiny. I'm not sure anyone could have played the part and not be criticized as Dean has become such an iconic figure for America's young.

He does his best, but the guy who played such an All American hero as John Rico in Starship Troopers and made a terrifically hunky screen Tarzan is just too white bread for the part of James Dean. Van Dien just does not suggest a rebel persona that would be so essential to playing Dean. Maybe the late River Phoenix or Leonardo DiCaprio might have done justice to the role, but they themselves have some rather fixed images.

The story line is about roughly the last year of Dean's 24 year time on earth. We meet him first making East of Eden and driving folks like Jack Warner and director Elia Kazan crazy with his driving. When not successful in wooing Pier Angeli, Dean courts other women like an up and coming Ursula Andress and spends his time racing his motorcycle or his automobile.

If we're to believe this, all might have gone well for Dean and Angeli had they been able to settle down and marry. Sad to say though Dean could not overcome the handicap of not being Italian. Pier Angeli and her sister Marisa Pavan were dominated by their mother in the same way as Jean Harlow was, as Natalie Wood was. Diane Ladd plays the domineering mother and she's got a husband picked out for Pier in the person of singer Vic Damone. Jimmy's willing to become the best Catholic ever, but can't change his ancestry.

Of course one big flaw in this film is that it completely ignores James Dean's other sexual side. It's been reported in any number of places that Dean had a gay side to him. That might have been more of a problem than not being Italian.

Casper Van Dien's wife at the time, Carrie Mitchum plays Pier Angeli. She is the granddaughter of that other screen icon Robert Mitchum and the Van Diens got Mitchum to play a couple of scenes as director George Stevens of Giant. In a few months Mitchum would be no longer with us and it's horrifying to see the ravages of lung cancer in him.

Though I think Casper Van Dien was miscast as James Dean, I'm not sure even the alternatives I mentioned could have stood up to the criticism leveled at this film. James Dean still looms large in our collective conscious, maybe too large.