James Dean and Elizabeth Taylor Reenact the Crucifixion in a Photo by George Rinhart

March 30, 2018

Photo by George Rinhart

 

It is the way James Dean holds his boots to the ground.  It is a good rendering of the manner in which western civilization has come to understand how Jesus of Nazareth’s feet were nailed to the cross. One foot over the other foot. And there is a certain reverence in the holding of those boots by Dean, 24.

In the photograph, film star, Elizabeth Taylor, 23, as Mary and James Dean, as Jesus of Nazareth, re-enact the passion of the crucifixion on the set of the 1955 production, Giant. This photo had little to do with the movie, Giant, or the 1952 best seller by Edna Ferber which it is based on. Giant is the saga of an oil family in Texas.

The photograph is an enigma. It hangs in the Los Angeles executive offices of Warner Bros, the company that produced and distributed the George Stevens-directed film.

We know only a small portion of the history of the photograph. Getty Images licensed the photo in 1990. The catalogue listing maintains   the photo is from a scene that “was not used in the final version of the movie.” But there was never such a scene in the film. The listing is erroneous. The two stars were probably just monkeying around on the set.

This photo is from George Rinhart, a prolific and prestigious international photographer who shot Gandhi, Queen Elizabeth, and historical events as well as posed “candids” of Hollywood celebrities.

On Giant, George Rinhart, who was not listed as a set photographer (the one who chronicles the day-to-day photography of the production for the movie), was no doubt known as a Special Photographer. That special photographer was paid handsomely, flew into a location for a few days and shot material associated with the star actors and star directors. It was George Rinhart and not Warner Bros who licensed the photo to Getty.

James Dean and Elizabeth Taylor had met on location in Texas. Elizabeth Taylor said they stayed up late at night, told stories, and became friends. James Dean confessed the sad privacies of his life. He never lived through the production of Giant. Dean was killed in a car accident at 24. The production notes revealed Dean’s voice was largely revoiced by another actor in a long, protracted year of post production. Apparently, Dean mumbled through most of the movie.

The secret James Dean revealed to Elizabeth Taylor was that he had been molested by his minister as a child. This was recounted by Kevin Sessums of The Daily Beast in 2011. “I love Jimmy. I’m going to tell you something, but it’s off the record until I die. OK? ” Taylor told Sessums. “When Jimmy was 11 and his mother passed away, he began to be molested by his minister. That haunted him the rest of his life.”

Whenever, I look at this enigmatic photograph by George Rinhart, I sense that haunted soul of James Dean, his reverence to some deeper truth, but also the fear of a religious system where something like this could happen to a kid.

The church, the church of any denomination, was theoretically a “sanctuary” for safe worship. Historically, that has not proved to be the case. As are so many others, I am  fed up with the system and its corruption. Not the truth, but the system that allegedly honors and worships that truth.