New Jersey Stage 2015 - Issue 11 | Page 34

as an uptight New Yorker with his act together. To Stock, Dean is a trainwreck, a social outsider. The truth is Stock’s life is a mess, a failed marriage and an estranged son the result of his professional drive. On a trip to Dean’s hometown, the actor morphs into the belle of the ball, as socially well adjusted as he could be. While DeHaan was born to portray Dean, it’s Pattinson’s Stock who is the more interesting character here. He’s only slightly NewJerseyStage.com older than Dean, but given the nature of the social changes of 1950s America, he may as well be his grandfather, part of a generation that kept their emotions to themselves. Dean however is a product of a post-war reassessment of masculinity, set, along with Brando, Clift and Garfield, to change the idea of a leading man forever. There’s a generation now that probably doesn’t know who Dean is. Thirty years ago, every cheap diner, and some expen- 2015 - ISSUE 11 ARTICLES 34