Melodrama

This movie is somewhat autobiographical. I was a senior at the University of Central Arkansas, Conway, in 1977 when it was filmed on campus. Bridges was an alumnus of UCA (in his days it was Ark. State Teachers Coll.). I got to watch some of the scenes filmed on campus. One Saturday morning they made us remove our cars from the dormitory parking lot because they could only have pre-1955 vehicles in the scenes and they were filming right outside our dorm. I took some photos of the Universal tractor trailer rigs (there was about 15 of them) parked around campus and I also took some shots of them filming the scene of the marching band practicing on the field. They were all actually members of the UCA band. Some of my classmates got bit parts in the film. The guys had to get short haircuts (this was the 70's and long hair for men was still in). Anyway, Bridges told the press that the film reflected a lot of his own personal reaction to the death of James Dean. He had a hard time getting the film made because Universal didn't seem all that enthusiastic about this project. The film subsequently got some good reviews from the likes of Time magazine but it flopped at the theaters and was long forgotten. I saw it only once several years ago on VHS. I missed the theatrical release. It is great that it is finally being discovered.
Tom from Arkansas

I was thinking the exact same thing when it took so long to put the flames out.I was channel surfing last night with nothing on late night TV and I saw this one. Never saw it before in my life. I liked it.I thought it gave a pretty good depiction of what teenagers stuck in a small town would act like. Movie stars are all they have to obsess over and the death of one of them would shake teenagers up.The Goth make-up was a bit over the top for 1955 though.I was too young to remember James Dean myself. I was born a few weeks before he died.