It is my belief that if James Dean had lived, he would have been cast as Brick (with Liz) in CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF and would have been sensational.
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"Why do people always laugh in the wrong places?"
--Martin Van Buren
In a way, Dean would've been perfect--though he was rather slight and wouldn't really be believable as a football star. I also don't really feel confident enough to judge based on Dean's brief resume.
Some of the same goes for Monty Clift--he was so serious, I don't know if he'd be able to carry off the "football star" aspect of role. There might be no one better for that than Paul Newman.
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HAHAHA! Are you kissing me, "But that's really a non-issue. Brick's sport could be anything, and I don't think it would matter.
First of all, it is the South, were football IS A BIG DEAL! Football is used to represent masulinity, both in real life and in the play.
Can you imagin how Big Daddy would feel if Brick played soccor? or lacross?
No, it has to be football.
omg...James Dean in this movie would've been AWESOME!!!
Newman didn't do much for me in this movie...in fact, he really hasn't done anything for me in any of his movies like Butch Cassidy, Cool Hand Luke, The Hustler, etc.
Maybe I've got to see The Sting...
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Paul Newman and James Dean in the 50's were always competing with each other for roles which is probably why this question was raised at all. This film started Newman's career and without it who knows what would of happened to him, in which case I'm glad he got the role because Paul Newman not only became one of the greatest actors ever, but used his fame to help the less fortunate.
Dean's death actually helped Newman, because the two would of been neck and neck for every role which says a lot for each actor today looking back on their abilities. Dean was more animated. Newman was totally understated. And both were brilliant. And if you put Dean in every role Newman had after Dean's death, its easily to imagine a more lively but similar performance.
All in all, Newman is great.
Dean would of been good too, but without seeing his actual performance in the role: maybe not as good, maybe better. It could go either way.
But Ben Gazarra is the one who embodied the performance on stage, and is also an excellent actor. Sadly he didn't rise to legend like Newman or Dean, and is forgotten in these conversations.
But considering he MADE this role on stage, he probably would of killed Dean or Newman in the movie version. And might of become an iconic actor had he made more commercially acceptable films like CAT.
Gazarra is still known today as an important actor, especially when looking at independent and risky films(Cassavetes, Bogdonovich, Gallo, etc). He always lurked on the fringes of mainstream popularity despite being one of Hollywood's finest actors with Newman and Dean.
He played the role to utter perfection, and I cannot imagine anyone else playing the role, other than Newman.
shareDean's vulnerability combined with his projection of ticking-bomb repressed emotions would have been very good for Brick.
However, I agree with the people who have said that his smaller stature and thinner build would make the stud football star (so dominant that he could carry a substandard friend / teammate at the pro level) aspect of the role a tough sell; and that, in the context of Southern American society of the 1950s the selection of football as the sport is important. It's a somewhat different setting (Chicagoans in the 1930s), but it is not completely irrelevant to remember the attitudes implicit in a gymnasium exchange between James Garner and Alex Karras in Victor / Victoria:
Garner: "I can't believe you're gay. You were the meanest, roughest, toughest, sonuvabitchin football player I ever saw."
Karras: "Yeah, well, if you didn't want the guys to call you 'queer' you became a mean, rough, tough, sonuvabitchin football player."
(As the V/V reference might bring to mind, boxing might project a sufficiently macho image. However, it is complete non-starter because of the required team element between Brick and Skipper.)
Also, I think that Dean, who would have been 27 in Cat, probably would have been too young for Brick, who is an already-retired-from-playing 30 year old. It's not that I think that actors need to be exactly the same age as their characters, and I know that a three year difference isn't all that much. However, in this particular case ....... Dean was always especially young looking; remember that it was only three years before Cat that he was playing a high school kid in Rebel Without a Cause. Also, it is important that Brick is already retired and "can't do what he used to do". Frankly, even 30 seems to be on the young end of the range for him to be retired, given how good he is described as having been.
PS: TCT, since your writing appears so literate otherwise, I thought that I would mention a nitpicky pet peeve that I usually try to ignore (though it always still makes me shake my head). It isn't "could of" or "would of" or "should of". It should be "could've", "would've", or "should've" (the contractions of "could have", "would have", and "should have"). The preposition "of" does not make any sense there.
Hey now. Lacrosse is a pretty brutal sport. And it's been around a lot longer than football.
Would James Dean have gone well with Elizabeth Taylor though? if they were paired up. In a way Paul Newman was good like that but Im not sure how James Dean would have gone in that aspect.
As for Montgomery Clift, some aspects of Brick would have worked for him but not as the complete pack as Paul Newman was. James Dean is closer but same reasoning. A mix of Dean and Clift would have been interesting.
Exactly I can't see Dean and Liz Taylor pairing up but of course James Dean would have been perfect for the role of Brick I've always thought Newman was unfit for it nevertheless he did a great job, anyway Dean could have drawn from his controversial sexuality to shape the character, I mean Dean was bisexual in real life and probably he have had problems relating to his sexuality well this kind of inner tension could have come out giving authenticity to the character.
Waht about Marlon Brando as Brick? He and Liz Taylor paired up in Reflections of a Golden Eye where Brando plays a gay too they were a well-matched couple and in the 50s Brando would have passed for a football player plausibly.
Even though he only made three movies, I never saw the 'greatness' in Dean's acting. I thought he overacted in all of them.
"If I don't suit chu, you kin cut mah thoat!"
I hope this classic is never re-made but it possibly will be.
Who might play Brick now ? few could match Newman's intensity and skills but.....I speculate Tom Cruise, Mark Wahlberg, Channing Tatum,Colin Egglesfield?
Anyone else out there care to put forward a name?
I speculate Tom Cruise, Mark Wahlberg, Channing Tatum,Colin Egglesfield?