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.