Jeunes Gens en colère

Michael Parks, like his counterpart Christopher Jones, is no James Dean. Dean had more depth, and underneath his alienation and rebelliousness were a profound vulnerability and a need for approval. Parks' character Marco has none of these redeeming attributes and merely acts as a cold, selfish vehicle of contempt for authority and traditional values, an all too common theme of 60's films. There was also a great flowering of discovery and a burning desire to improve or expand stultified paradigms... There isn't a lot of motivation for Marco's antisocial behavior...other than a deep-seated hatred of women which is insufficiently explained. Though the camera dwells lovingly on his interesting features in close-ups, it leaves a void where there should be some feeling for the character. He purposely destroys all his relationships without cause or merely out of resentment of the overbearing maternal control of his friend Timothy (sympathetically played by John Leyton). His callous seduction of Timothy's dignified but vulnerable mother (Jennifer Jones) is out of all proportion to his fancied slights and particularly nasty after her befriending him despite her initial dislike. It's hard to generate any care for this empty idol, who's ultimate self-destructive acts do even more damage to those who survive him.

After a four-year absence, Jennifer Jones finally returned to the screen in the 1966 indie British flick The Idol. Her character was randomly supposed to be American, even though she spoke in an affected accent, used English expressions, and had an English son, John Leyton. I wonder why she took the role, unless she happened to be vacationing in England at the time and thought it would be fun to attend a couple of onscreen parties. She also doesn't do much actual acting until her big finale in the second half of the movie. If you love Jonesy like I do and are thinking of turning it off in the beginning because it doesn't seem to feature her at all, you might want to stick it through for her big dramatic scene.

If you don't, though, you're not missing a quality movie. You're missing a low-budget, indie British movie that wouldn't stand the test of time even if anyone remembered it. Jonesy is protective over her son and makes a lot of decisions for him, because he's pretty spineless and never stands up for himself. He has a bad-boy friend, Michael Parks, who thinks he should leave the nest and let Jonesy fend for herself. He dislikes her immediately, and the feeling is mutual. She thinks he's crude, cheap, and disrespectful. Michael is a total recreation of James Dean. At one point, he even staggers towards another character, anguished, with his hands offered like in the "take the money" scene from East of Eden. If he or the director intended an imitation, it was very good. If he just wanted to be his own sexy bad boy in the 1960s, he also succeeded. It would take a lot of guts and rebelliousness to try and seduce Jennifer Jones in 1966. She's wealthy, cultured, mature, and old enough to be his mother - so what does he have to offer? A lot of sex appeal and a daring glint in his eye for her to try and tame him.

If you like films like Alfie and Room at the Top, try this out. You'll probably get a new crush out of it, even if it won't be your new favorite movie. Indie movies in the 1960s weren't known for being wonderful.

Having finally acquired a copy of this film after years of searching, I expected the worst, having heard stories about what a disaster and a piece of trash it is. Instead I found a rather tame, but very dark character study: certainly flawed, but interesting nonetheless and well worth the wait for Jennifer Jones fans. She gives an interesting, complex, disciplined performance, and is very striking looking at this late stage in her career. The movie seems to meander and lose some of its believability from time to time, but it leaves one with a haunted feeling that is hard to shake. Not great stuff, but not the bomb that legend has made it out to be.

As I just watched Wild Seed (1965), I wanted to try with another movie where Michael Parks looked his best and I found it. Someone here compared it with Plan 9 From Outer Space by Ed Wood...C'mon! It's not that terrible. That's an exaggeration. Plan 9 is senseless and terribly acted. Hilariously horrible, though.

The Idol is not the best movie, but not the worse. I love that it was shot in London. The problem here is that I never understood the motivation behind The Idol (Parks). And I believe it's a problem with the script. They don't hint why he is self-destructive and obnoxious towards people around. As some reviewer said here, James Dean had a reason behind his rebelliousness. Here, we're left with nothing, but a bad taste.

I thought I was going to hate Jennifer Jones' character, but then, I kind of understood her point of view of a repressed woman from a different era, who felt a bit thrown-off by the modern generation and their liberties. It was an interesting and entertaining story, but without much explanation by the end.

It looks like a parboiled cross between Douglas Sirk and Michelangelo Antonioni ,with a touch of French nouvelle vague thrown in for good measure.It depicts a spoilt youth playing with trash.None of the young actors became a star afterward,which is easily understandable;for instance,John Layton was supposed to play nineteen-year old Jones' son,and he was already 27 (!) at the time if IMDb informations are accurate.

Jennifer Jones is the only reason why you would watch this boring "psychological" melodrama.She had already worked in GB for "gone to earth" (1949)but Daniel Petrie cannot hold a candle to Michael Powell.Her character(a still attractive middle-age woman who falls for a two-bit James Dean) is nothing short of worthless:only the open ending might make this part a bit original ,but it's too little too late.

One scene is particularly unpleasant nay obnoxious:the would-be drunk idol asks a prostitute to "evaluate" the girls of the party.