Sal was on the line-up for the final day of the Carmel Art & Film Festival and with director James Franco doing a Q&A before the screening they were pretty much guaranteed a full house. And by speaking before the film, telling his intentions and motivation for making this film, he locked the audience in.
On stage he said that his intention was to show the last day of Sal Mineo's life...without narration or explanation. This wasn't an essay, as he said.
Sal Mineo had seen his star rise with two Academy Award nominations before he was 20. And then it burst. He kept trying, but he quickly became stereo-typed and the public turned away. He kept moving forward and believed in his talent and that's what this film is truly about... exemplified by his confidence, as he was one of the first actors to be open with the public about his sexuality even when that honesty was a career killer in every field.
And that was one of the intriguing things about this bio-pic. Growing up in that era, when the news of his death was reported, I absolutely remember the implication. It was reported that he died in an alley behind his apartment and robbery wasn't suspected as a motivation.
Even as a kid I knew what THAT meant. And I believed it to this day. Until I saw this film
In the Q@A James Franco spoke of how the film was "slow" on purpose.
What I think he meant, is that he wanted to contrast against the eternal question, "What would you do if you knew this was the last day of your life?" If you're healthy you'll never know. You'll wake up, brush your teeth, call your friends, have yet another moment where your mom completely pisses you off and you'll go to work.
And no where in there, in your "last meal" or your last phone call, will you know that that's the end.
James Franco was right in his description of his film. It IS slow. And at first it might drive you crazy (how interesting is YOUR life when you wake up, scratch your ass, make the coffee then brush our teeth?) But it is the mundane aspects of all of our daily lives that leads up to the power of this film.
Val Lauren is remarkable in this film. He plays the passion and arrogance of Sal Mineo, an actor who believed in himself but was on the wain, in perfect, perfect notes. Which means, as an audience member I was thinking "get over your damn self" for a lot of the movie.
BUT...through Val's performance and James' direction you actually DO get through those feelings to a place where every time Sal parks his car (in the "alley" that implied gay sex in the news reports of his death, but was in reality, the parking spaces for his apartment building), you have a feeling of dread.
And a defining sequence of Sal rehearsing the play he was about to open at the Westwood Playhouse, P.S. Your Cat is Dead, shows, at least through Val performing Sal performing the burglar, that it's clear that Sal had the goods as an actor even though he lost it all. But not because of his talent.
I know Sal is just a movie. And I KNOW not everyone will like it.
BUT.
James Franco created a portrait of an artist about to rise again. A man who felt his life turning back to the direction he felt he was fundamentally meant to express.
And then he drove home and parked his car. And met his destiny.
And now the review. I started off tired. Move it along, I thought. And I kept thinking that for the first half of the movie.
And then I surrendered and thought, "What a sweet guy." And then I thought, "What a talented guy." And then I thought, "DON'T park your car in that alley!!!"
The movie has stayed with me. I'll ALWAYS remember this when I re-watch Sal Mineo's films. Whether you like him or not, this film makes you a partner to a fellow human being's last day on earth.
And with the final shots, I mean that literally.
And here's the whole point of the spoiler alert:
So stop reading, by the way....all the above is referenced before the credits so there were NO spoilers needed for anything I said above.
The final shots of the movie, the actual news footage of Sal's death with actual footage of Sal dead on the pavement followed by a beautiful, beautiful close-up of the real Sal Mineo as he was interviewed about how it felt to play his death scene in Rebel Without a Cause...
...Man. Whether you like this film or not, I guarantee you will feel like you know Sal Mineo as a brother whenever you watch the real actor at the height of his career in Rebel Without a Cause.
