SNAPSHOTS AND REFLECTIONS: A LAST AFFAIR WITH MONTGOMERY CLIFT AND JAMES DEAN
Seductive and inscrutable, Clift and Dean continue to fascinate, an allure that fuels the two one-acts developed and performed by Scott Denny and Rob Benedict in Snapshots and Reflections: A Last Affair With Montgomery Clift and James Dean, Roadworks’ 115-minute late-night offering. Easily handsome enough to recall their subjects, these actors establish the parallels between the two instinctual, intense screen stars. Clift and Dean began their careers with successes on Broadway and, based on their looks as much as on talent, gained quick entree to Hollywood (Clift’s films also strongly influenced Dean’s). Single-heartedly devoted to exploring their art, both bucked the studio system, fighting against the typecasting and image making forced on them. Both were bisexual, hard-drinking, socially awkward, and accident-prone. (Within a year, each crashed a car–Dean actually made a highway-safety film before he died, at 24, in a two-car collision).
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Benedict conveys how much calculation went into the natural ease of Dean’s three film performances: East of Eden, Rebel Without a Cause, and Giant. He also shows how frustrated Dean became at the way the critics twisted his image to suit their theories and at inevitable–often invidious–comparisons to Brando. Brimming with restless energy, Benedict tears around the theater and changes costumes in what seems like a flash. This young, skilled actor easily suggests Dean’s most heartbreaking legacy–the broken promise of a career cut short. When Dean grandly promises, “My best is yet to come,” it’s painful to think he might have been right.
