Rebel Style

Between the end of World War II and the election of John F. Kennedy there was a tremendous shift in Hollywood film: a fresh wave of actors (with Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, Paul Newman, and James Dean) whose talent and lives seemed to be inseparable in their work, came to the forefront of film-making. This Rebel style brought a completely new attitude and look to the screen. The leather jacket and provocative stare of a Brando, and the prole clothes and the broodingly cool demeanor of a Clift became the aesthetic correlative of an American version of the existentialist view of life. G. Bruce Boyer analyzes the sartorial and philosophical revolution brought about by the representatives of this first counterculture, and the evolution of the Rebel style.