James Dean: Forever Young is a documentary about the brief but memorable career of the now iconic James Dean.It focuses much attention on his early work for television, and utilizes a variety of archival footage in order to ale the tale of the young man who gained immortality with only three feature films to his credit.A brief career. A timeless stardom. In just three major movie roles namely:The East Of Eden;The Giant; and The Rebel Without A Cause, James Dean became an icon for the ages. Now his legacy shines even brighter thanks to this fascinating film.It was definitely well-researched and definitive.A must-see for a James Dean fan.

"James Dean: Forever Young" is a good but not great documentary about one of the most enigmatic stars in Hollywood history. It's free of the usual talking heads (one British film about him in the early 1970's was promoted as the last one made when both Natalie Wood and Sal Mineo were still alive and available for interviews) and it focuses mostly on Dean himself via his surviving work on live TV shows and screen tests. It presents a sanitized version of his life, ignoring his sexuality almost completely (the real Dean was almost certainly Bisexual and his relationships with older men were probably quite a bit more than the innocent "mentoring" ones they're presented as here) and also leaving out his interest in horror films (as a teenager he played the Frankenstein monster in an amateur play, he hung out with Maila "Vampira" Nurmi of "Plan Nine from Outer Space" infamy, and the film in which he planned to make his debut as director, as well as starring, was an adaptation of "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" he had asked his friend, screenwriter Bill Bast — a name unmentioned in this movie even though Bast published the first book ever written about Dean — to write for him). What was really most frustrating about this film was that it showed off the sheer extent of Dean's legacy — a LOT more of his acting survives than the three starring films we've known for over half a century — and at the same time offered it only in tantalizing clips. It's about time that whatever rights holders are involved got together for a COMPLETE (or nearly so) presentation of Dean's surviving TV work on DVD so Dean's fans can have a complete picture of his work and can see the performances that have been left to rot in vaults all these many years. James Dean did a lot more than just three big movies, and the tragedy of his early death only underscores the need for a complete and respectful presentation of ALL the work he actually DID leave behind.

If you're a James Dean fan and only really know him from the three films that brought him fame, you'll be interested in seeing how he kept busy before that big break in EAST OF EDEN ('55).As interesting as these early TV clips are, none of them are set up in a way that helps us follow what is going on. Seen out of context it's difficult to assess just how well Dean is doing in his various roles, but it does appear that he had already adopted all of the quirky mannerisms he displayed in his major films. His method acting is on full display in all of the '50s TV work he did, including episodes with Ronald Reagan and Geraldine Page. It would have been interesting to know why Louis Jourdan had little to do with him during their Broadway appearance in "The Immoralist." It's a fact that is quickly mentioned and then dropped by narrator Martin Sheen.His test with Paul Newman for EAST OF EDEN to see whether they could play brothers in the John Steinbeck drama is one of the more interesting highlights. And ironically, his willingness to appear with Gig Young in a short about driver safety shortly before Dean's death in an auto accident leaves an indelible impression.For fans of the actor, an interesting glimpse of his personality before and during the height of stardom, but not an incisive full-bodied portrait of the actor at work.

I love James Dean, so it's disappointing that I've yet to find a truly great documentary about the man. On the plus side, this documentary has lots of rare footage, especially of his lesser known film and television appearances. I saw a lot of stuff I hadn't seen before. Unfortunately, this is a very basic documentary, the kind of thing you'd expect to get free, tacked on somewhere as a DVD extra. In fact, I'd initially heard this was to be included with the recent James Dean DVD box that came out. It probably would have played better there, but on its own it seems weak. First off, it actually opens with a montage set to Rod Stewart's song "Forever Young". Not only does the song seem terribly out of place, but it also seems like the kind of thing Dean himself would have disliked. We're also subjected to Jim Croce's "I Got A Name" as Jimmy drives to his death. You know the one, where he sings "movin' me down the highway" repeatedly in overly earnest seventies singer songwriter style. And why do we hear Paul McCartney's "Mull Of Kintyre" over the closing credits? All this, plus no interviews, just Martin Sheen narrating in a "then Jimmy acted in this" mode. As a collection of rare clips, this is intriguing for Dean fans. Other than that, it offers little insight into a fascinating life.