September 30, 1955 from a store. They evade the police and have a party near the Arkansas River, where Jimmy J. grows upset that his friends do not understand the depth of his grief. When Frank asks how Jimmy J. can care so much about someone he has never met, Jimmy J. explains that he has seen "East of Eden" four times, and Billie Jean claims to have seen it 22 times; they were anticipating the release of James Dean's two other films, "Rebel Without a Cause" later that month and "Giant" the following year. Jimmy J. and Billie Jean met seeing "East
Nicolas Cage acting because he "wanted to be James Dean. I saw him in "Rebel Without a Cause", "East of Eden". Nothing affected me—no rock song, no classical music—the way Dean affected me in "Eden". It blew my mind. I was like, 'That's what I want to do'." At fifteen years old he tried to convince his uncle, Francis Ford Coppola, to give him a screen test, telling him "I'll show you acting." His outburst was met with "silence in the car". By this stage of his career, Coppola had already directed Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, Gene Hackman and Robert De Niro.