Rebel style : cinematic heroes of the 1950's

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 from their work, came to the forefront of filmmaking.

This "rebel style" brought a completely new attitude and look to the screen: the leather jacket and provocative stare of Brando, the proletariat clothes and broodingly cool demeanor of 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 rebel style.