Joshua Tree, 1951 is the provocative and mesmerizing experimental portrait of an icon.
Related News
-
Dark/Web Wednesdays: Buffy The Vampire Slayer’s Clare Kramer Joins ‘Eat. Prey. Love.’ Anthology Segment, Production Begins!
19 October 2016 | LRM Online -
Giveaway: Win Joshua Tree, 1951: A Portrait of James Dean on DVD
06 June 2013 | MovieWeb -
DVD Review: 'A Portrait of James Dean'
14 May 2013 | CineVue
User Lists
Related lists from IMDb users
Share this Rating
Title: Joshua Tree, 1951: A Portrait of James Dean (2012)
Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below.
3 wins & 2 nominations.
See more awards »
Learn more
More Like This
Blood Feud
(1978)
Thriller
Director:
Lina Wertmüller
Stars:
Sophia Loren,
Marcello Mastroianni,
Giancarlo Giannini
The Mask of Dimitrios
(1944)
Crime
|
Drama
|
Film-Noir
Director:
Jean Negulesco
Stars:
Peter Lorre,
Sydney Greenstreet,
Zachary Scott
One Nation, One King
(2018)
Drama
|
History
Director:
Pierre Schoeller
Stars:
Gaspard Ulliel,
Adèle Haenel,
Olivier Gourmet
In the Name of
(2013)
Drama
|
Thriller
Director:
Malgorzata Szumowska
Stars:
Andrzej Chyra,
Mateusz Kosciukiewicz,
Maja Ostaszewska
Cyrano de Bergerac
(1950)
Adventure
|
Drama
|
Romance
Director:
Michael Gordon
Stars:
José Ferrer,
Mala Powers,
William Prince
Our Struggles
(2018)
Drama
Director:
Guillaume Senez
Stars:
Romain Duris,
Basile Grunberger,
Lena Girard Voss
Impetus
(2018)
Documentary
Director:
Jennifer Alleyn
Stars:
Jennifer Alleyn,
Pascale Bussières,
Esfir Dyachkov
Sofia
(2018)
Drama
Director:
Meryem Benm'Barek-Aloïsi
Stars:
Maha Alemi,
Lubna Azabal,
Sarah Perles
The Great Darkened Days
(2018)
Drama
|
History
Director:
Maxime Giroux
Stars:
Martin Dubreuil,
Mike Calchera,
Buddy Duress
Biography
|
Drama
|
History
Director:
Maria Schrader
Stars:
Barbara Sukowa,
Tómas Lemarquis,
Valerie Pachner
Adventure
|
Comedy
|
Crime
Director:
Billy Wilder
Stars:
Robert Stephens,
Christopher Lee,
Colin Blakely
Edit
Cast
| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| James Preston | ... | James Dean | |
| Dan Glenn | ... | The Roommate | |
| Clare Grant | ... | Beverly | |
| Erin Daniels | ... | The Roommate's Mother | |
| Rafael Morais | ... | Johny | |
| Edward Singletary | ... | Roger (as Edward Singletary Jr.) | |
| Darri Ingolfsson | ... | James DeWeerd | |
| Edgar Morais | ... | Franco | |
 |
Dalilah Rain | ... | Violet |
| Christopher Higgins | ... | Arthur Rimbaud | |
| Clint Catalyst | ... | Johnny the Bartender | |
|
|
Jay Donnell | ... | Preston |
| Tony Herbert | ... | The Officer | |
| Elizabeth Hirsch-Tauber | ... | Claudia | |
| David Pevsner | ... | The Acting Teacher | |
Edit
Plot Summary
|
Add Synopsis
See All (69) »
Storyline
Joshua Tree, 1951 is the provocative and mesmerizing experimental portrait of an icon. Framed in a series of dreamlike, sometimes hallucinatory vignettes, the film draws on striking textures (velvety black-and-white 35mm, grainy bursts of color), highly stylized form, and the poetry of Arthur Rimbaud to question not only the established narrative of James Dean's life but also the process of star-making itself. Written by Iconoclastic Features
Plot Keywords:
pubic hair | male pubic hair | experimental | deconstruction | sex against a wall |Taglines:
The new motion picture about an outsider icon.Parents Guide:
View content advisory »
Edit
Edit
See more on IMDbPro »
See full technical specs »
Details
Country:
USARelease Date:
1 June 2015 (USA) See more »Also Known As:
A Portrait of James Dean See more »Edit
Box Office
Budget:
$1,000,000 (estimated)Company Credits
Show more on
IMDbPro »
Technical Specs
Runtime:
Sound Mix:
Dolby DigitalAspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1
Edit
Did You Know?
Trivia
Cinematographer Michael Marius Pessah shot the black-and-white sequences on Fuji color film, removing the color in the transfer to create the glossy yet contrasted look. See more »Connections
References Family Theatre: Hill Number One: A Story of Faith and Inspiration (1951) See more »Frequently Asked Questions
This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.Contribute to This Page
On IMDb TV, you can catch Hollywood hits and popular TV series at no cost. Select any poster below to play the movie, totally free!
From my point of view this rather dreamy film-noir mood piece adds little to our understanding of James Dean as an actor. I followed his career at the time in such magazines as Photoplay and Modern Screen, saw all his movies as soon as they came out, and read the clippings avidly. No ordinary fan at the time believed even the slightest hint that he was gay. Indeed, that whole concept as it is now so glibly thrown about had yet to be taken up by Middle America. He was then defined in part by playing opposite Natalie Wood, Julie Harris, and Elizabeth Taylor. Ditto his penchant for fast cars. If there are in fact scenes in his three films that can be interpreted today as demonstrative of overtly erotic interaction with the likes of Sal Mineo or Rock Hudson, they prove very little about the actor himself.
On the other hand, this film is a compelling cinematic portrait constructed around a half-dozen major biographical studies that provide independent evidence of Dean's early career apart from those films. That limited portrait is what the film is about, not all the other loose ends of his professional career. It is a picture made up of second and third-hand stuff as seen through the virtual lens of a Kodak Brownie camera (I had one of those myself at the time). But just because the portrait is presented in a heavily shaded black- and- white panorama of the Mojave Desert purportedly in 1951 is no reason to regard it as historically superior to the more linear and Technicolor alternative that has yet to be filmed.
James Dean deserves a film version of his life that explores more fully his childhood, his teens, his years in New York, his sexuality (admit it, folks, he was gay), his pixie-like sense of humor, his first breakthrough into major films, and the effect he had on both co- workers and contemporary fans. This present film is like a slowly constructed line drawing, moving snail-like across the page.