What if James Dean had survived on that fateful day in September of 1955? It’s something many film enthusiasts have wondered at one time or another. How many Oscars would he have won? Would he have gone on to direct films like he had hoped? What if he had portrayed the role of Rocky Graziano in Somebody Up There Likes Me like he was supposed to – would Paul Newman even be a known name today? This commercial for a South African investment firm, which I stumbled upon courtesy of Cinematical, takes a look at that scenario. It is equal parts cool and touching.













Not only is that beautiful, it’s effective. I sometimes wonder how different the world would be if certain people had lived on (JFK, Freddie Mercury, John Lennon). I imagine the entertainment world might look different if Dean had survived.
I suspect they were heavily influenced by the vo narration in Assassination of Jesse James.