When "Back To The Future" came out in 1985 it was 30 years from 1955 (yep, Asians good at math). "Rebel Without a Cause" came out in 1955. The whole time watching the movie, I often wondered who was alive to have walked the Earth at the same time James Dean did. That was pretty bad ass. It's also very stupid. Like if someone here in L.A. knew I was from Cincinnati, they'd ask if I knew so-and-so. Yeah, Cincinnati only has five people (incidentally, this did happen once, and I did happen to know the people).
I don't think people think like this anymore. We're in 2015 now, and going back 30 years...to 1985...we've got no one iconoclastic. I believe it's because they're so accessible. The biggest star then, if we were to consider "legends" was maybe...I dunno...Tom Cruise. But even then, it was at the beginning of his career, and he still walks the Earth. Could be because that era sucked though.
I think it may be because the people today don't marvel at celebrity the same way, since it's oversaturated with people who didn't do shit and are famous. It dilutes the ones that really made an effort to gain notoriety. The tabloids were always the same. Especially in the 50's. There 'aint no kid out there that looks at me and says "Wow!...you were alive when Rob Lowe was walking the Earth." I often did say that about James Dean to people from his generation. Or Marilyn Monroe or pretty much any actor that died before I got interested in movies. I also think there were a certain touch of class that came with these stars. They had a very glamorous persona, and we maybe felt better when we discovered how flawed they were. Nowadays, we know how flawed the are and they never cease to surprise us.
I wonder if there isn't a kid out there that just looks at me and marvels that I'd walked the Earth when Paul Newman was alive.
They didn't come much bigger than Sly Stallone in '85. But as for people that were big and no longer with us, like James Dean? Yeah, that's tough. For better or worse, it's more likely to be guys like River Phoenix and Heath Ledger that young people will take interested in, rather than the likes of Paul Newman (incidentally, one of my favorites, along with Walter Matthau).
ReplyDeleteAh yeah, River for sure. Even though it's hard to imagine ANY new actor now viewing River in the same sense of awe. Or even referencing him. Dean spun off Dennis Hopper, Sean Penn, and even River Phoenix. I would think Brando would have more pull then Dean.
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