But Will The Unified Theory Explain This?

Last autumn I saw Psycho for the first time, and my reaction was to wonder what the fuss was all about. I'm sure it was scarisome when it was first released, but how it has retained its reputation for frightening is beyond me. Granted, I knew the basics of plot and character, but not how those were actually woven into a story. I felt a singular lack of the tension for which Hitchcock is noted. I was underwhelemed. (To add injury to insult, it was a morning screening, and I trusted the public transit "trip planner" to get me there in the least possible time: but they gave rotten directions to one of the stops, I missed my bus, and ended up paying $13 for a cab ride – because who knew when I'd have another chance to see Psycho on the big screen? Two months later, in fact – at the same theater.)

I bring this up because I have finally seen some of James Dean's films (two, to be exact: Rebel Without a Cause and East of Eden), and my reaction was similar in style, namely: where did the idea of James Dean as the iconic 1950s bad boy come from? Even Fonzie was wilder. Dean's characters are sensitive, confused young men, sort of like what I imagine Alan Alda's Capt. Pierce would have been like as a teenager in the '50s. (BTW – how come I never knew that Dean's dad in Rebel was Thurston Howell III of Gilligan's Island? I didn't know the famous plane-destroying-gremlin episode of Twilight Zone starred William Shatner until I saw it, either. Did you know that The Wizard of Oz's Wicked Witch of the West has a role in the original 13 Ghosts? [And I'm supposed to be edumacated.])

My second question, upon seeing them, is why Rebel is the quintessential Dean flick now. I assume it's because Americans want action, ACTION, ACTION!!! East is far and away the better film – better story, better character development, better cinematography. In some ways, though, Rebel seemed to me as though it might be better on the stage. Parts of it certainly would do quite well. But East is the Dean film to see.

[A stern reminder: people who enter the screening room after the movie has begun (the movie, not the trailers) don't get to disturb seated patrons by asking one to move so that they can sit together. If it's important that you and your companion sit together, get there on time.]