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the previous night, watching it four times so that he could tell her all the details. He recounts how the movie parallels his own life and explains that he is responsible for Billie Jean's injuries in the same way that Dean's character is responsible for Plato's death. He asks her forgiveness, as he
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Returning to his dormitory, Jimmy J. is surprised that his mother, little brother and aunt have come to take him to a movie. His mother is disappointed by his dirty appearance and worries that he will end up a loser like his estranged father. Jimmy J. calls Billie Jean and invites her to
Charlotte's
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Fellow student Eugene joins Jimmy J. and Hanley as they leave the campus once again, and they stop to pick up Billie Jean, finding her dressed like the character
Vampira (a real-life paramour of James Dean), wearing heavy makeup and a black cape. She attempts to seduce Jimmy J., but he rebuffs her.
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Jimmy J. calls his friend Billie Jean, a working-class girl who also admires Dean. Jimmy J. takes his girlfriend
Charlotte, his roommate Hanley and another college couple, Frank and his girlfriend Pat, off-campus in Jimmy J's car. They buy some food at a local grocery store and Jimmy J. steals some
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in the hope of ending her muteness. Speaking for the first time, Billie Jean yells at him to "stop it," begs not to be sent to the sanitorium, and demands that he shatter her mirrors so that she cannot see her scarred body. He obliges her and breaks the mirrors. Her mother enters, sees the damaged
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statuette out of mud, strips to his underwear, covers himself in dirt and wet sand, and conducts a ceremony to summon Dean's spirit. He perceives a dog barking in the distance as a sign. The police arrive, but the group escapes back to town, where Frank and Pat tell Jimmy J. that he is disturbed.
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called the film "... funny, solemn, dead-on-accurate." While he said that the film, "lacks the edge of satire that can make the difference between a good film and a great one, between a film that is somehow in thrall to its sentiments instead of being in charm of them," he also states that the
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Three weeks later at the homecoming parade, Jimmy J. arrives on a motorcycle, sees
Charlotte riding a float and climbs aboard to speak with her. He confronts her for breaking up with him, kisses her, and climbs down. Hanley spots Jimmy J. and greets him warmly as Frank and Pat ride past in the
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Filming was delayed for a year after
Richard Thomas broke his ankle in a motorcycle accident. The original cast included some Arkansas-based actors, such as an actor assigned to the part of Eugene, but with the delay in filming the actor had grown out of the part and it was recast with Dennis
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At
Charlotte's house, Billie Jean darkens the room, lights candles and clears the furniture. When Charlotte and Jimmy J. are alone, she confronts him about Billie Jean, but he states that, though he is untrustworthy like his father, he has not had sex with Billie Jean. When the group uses a
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in
California around the same time that Jimmy J. was viewing the film. He runs to the local radio station, desperate to learn the details. The radio disk jockey, while reading the morning news on-air, makes a brief announcement of James Dean's death.
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furniture, and upon hearing Billie Jean's cries not to be committed, gets mad that Jimmy J. has revealed her intentions, and joins her daughter in telling Jimmy J. that life is not a movie. Jimmy J. leaves.
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is leaving for
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Watching the homecoming football game from a distance, Jimmy J. watches
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Jimmy J. visits Billie Jean, who is home from the hospital and has not spoken since the accident. She is nearly covered in bandages. Jimmy J. confesses that he went to see
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parade, with Frank yelling that he thought that Jimmy J. had been kicked out of school. Eugene is also at the parade as part of the marching band and waves to Jimmy J.
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house that evening for the séance. Coach Haynes arrives at the dorm to confront Jimmy J., disciplining him for leaving football practice that morning.
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four times, and that the absent Billie Jean has seen it 22 times, and they have been anticipating the release of Dean's
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alone in a theater. The next day at football practice, he hears that the film's star,
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and her cape catches on fire, leaving her badly burned.
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This article is about the 1977 film. For the date, see
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701:American coming-of-age drama films
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756:Films produced by Jerry Weintraub
706:Cultural depictions of James Dean
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636:The China Syndrome
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48:Please help
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425:Lisa Blount
377:candelabrum
262:101 minutes
163:Produced by
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691:1977 films
685:Categories
491:References
463:Production
323:James Dean
297:drama film
155:Written by
106:April 2021
76:newspapers
448:as Eugene
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275:Language
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243:1977-08
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671:(1988)
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