Today is Levi Strauss’ birthday. It’s also the final week of Oscar predictions before the Academy Awards on March 4th. While Canadian nominees like Christopher Plummer will likely not be donning a “Canadian tuxedos” on the red carpet, denim has still very much been a part of the Oscars.
In honor of Levi Strauss and the blue jeans he’s provided America for the last 165 years, here’s a list of damn fine denim moments in cinematic history.
Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961)
You can’t think of Breakfast at Tiffany’s without seeing Audrey Hepburn’s high chignon and cigarette holder. These, along with her sunglasses and “Little Black Dress,” complete the look of socialite Holly Golightly, Hepburn’s most memorable and identifiable role, but it’s the glimpse we get of the real Lula Mae Barnes from Texas as she strums a guitar on her fire escape wearing denim pedal pushers and a terry cloth turban that stays with us. Accompanied by Hepburn’s singing of “Moon River,” which went on to win Best Original Song, the city window serenade makes for one of the sweetest scenes in the legendary romantic comedy.
Audrey Hepburn performing “Moon River,” which won an Academy Award for Best Original Song
Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Obviously cowboys were going to make this list with their requisite uniform of denim shirt and jeans. Before the film’s release, distributor Focus Features had already recouped their budgets thanks to foreign sales. Once film critics were widely praising it throughout its awards campaign and boosted box office sales, Brokeback Mountain became a verifiable hit rising far above its crude media reference as the “gay cowboy movie.” Critics, cast and crew all disagreed on the classification of sexuality of the films two protagonists, Jack (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Ennis (Heath Ledger) but the essence of the Annie Proulx short story adaptation may lie is symbolized in a dirty, bloodied bit of denim. When Ennis goes to the home of Jack and finds that Jack has kept Ennis’ blood-stained shirt on a hanger, layered beneath his own, Ennis clutches the shirts which telegraph the tragic romantics’ emotions louder than any words could.
Ennis (Heath Ledger) embraces his and Jack’s shirts in Brokeback Mountain.
The film won three Academy Awards from its eight nominations, losing Best Picture to Crash which caused much controversy. A decade later, The Hollywood Reporter polled Academy members on controversial past results and Brokeback Mountain had won the revote.
Drive (2011)
The unnamed Hollywood stunt driver’s most iconic clothing would have to be the scorpion jacket, a fan favorite during Halloween, but it’s unsurprising that the Canadian-born Gosling looked both dreamy and dreadful sporting his Canadian tuxedo with dark-washed slim Levi’s 511s and an indigo jacket that can take a lick if you find yourself in an elevator brawl or evading the police.
Ryan Gosling as the unnamed Hollywood stuntdriver moonlighting as a getaway driver.
Surprisingly, despite praise for the direction and performances, Drive only earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Achievement in Sound Editing.
Ghost (1990)
If Roadhouse were represented at the Academy Awards, I’d just share video of Patrick Swayze in mom jeans roundhouse kicking someone through a table. But it’s impossible to ignore his role of Sam Wheat wearing only jeans that hug Demi Moore behind a pottery wheel. The film went on to win two Academy Awards but is forever attached to “Unchained Melody” and anyone’s cute and unoriginal reply of “ditto” to their loved ones.
Clay-spattered couple Molly Jensen (Demi Moore) and Sam Wheat (Patrick Swayze) in 1990’s Ghost.
Giant (1956)
You’re crazy if you thought James Dean wouldn’t make this list, considering he personified Levi’s 501, helping to influence America’s youth fashion. As Jett Rink, he is donned in the customary denim that make his ranch duties manageable. Eventually striking oil, his newly acquired wealth results in a wardrobe change but he had already been immortalized as forever cool in this 3rd feature film of his which earned George Stevens an Oscar for Best Director. Giant was nominated for a total of ten Academy Awards including Best Actor in a Leading Role for Dean (his second consecutive posthumous nomination) and Best Costume Design, Color (likely due to the denim).
James Dean posing on set of “Giant” in Marfa, TX. Photo: Michael Ochs
Grease (1978)
While bell-bottoms and flaring collars were rapidly taking over fashion, the 70’s also marked the wave of nostalgia for the 50’s with shows and films like “Happy Days” and American Graffiti. Possibly no other film from the 70’s has inspired more Halloween costumes than Grease has (and continues to do) thanks to the Pink Ladies and T-Birds. It’s your choice to accessorize with boots or Chuck Taylors with cuffed 501s (but really, why would you dress up as anyone other than Danny Zuko or Kenickie Murdoch?)
Nominated for Best Music, Original Song.
Danny Zuko (John Travolta) and his fellow T-Birds on the high school bleachers in Grease.
Inherent Vice (2014)
Joaquin’s freewheeling character Doc Sportello is not your average private investigator. His work attire consists of a multi-colored flannel shirt, frayed and faded jeans, and a pair of “mandals,” which are only swapped out for actual footwear when he’s in disguise. His beach bum look would not at all be out of place 20-30 years later in every American dorm room but in a memorably weird scene in a complicated film that demands repeat viewings, it’s fun to see that Sportello adds a denim jacket when acting professional and meeting with local detective “Bigfoot” played by Josh Brolin.
Nominated for two Academy Awards, including Best Achievement in Costume Design.
Joaquin Phoenix and Josh Brolin in Inherent Vice, the psychedelic crime caper by Paul Thomas Anderson based on the Thomas Pynchon novel.
No Country for Old Men (2007)
Set in Texas, it’s no surprise there’s an abundance of denim, but what makes this film’s usage so memorable are the choices the film allows such as the style of its primary antagonist Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem). A dark hat villain if there ever was one but at no point actually wears black – it’s his dark wash denim jacket with dark shirt and pants that make him more conspicuous against the sun-bleached environments through which he passes. He literally darkens your door so best to stay clear if you see him approaching with a coin.
Winner of four Academy Awards (of eight nominations).
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
Jack can make anything cool and he sure looks it whether he’s in hospital whites or his chambray shirt and leather jacket trying to throw the rock to Chief for the easy lay-up. The ensemble is perfect from his (likely) US Navy issued watch cap to his Red Wing boots – in between you’ll see the faded Levi’s 501s he wears, which you can still find today. (see “Rebel Without a Cause” below). Nominated for nine Academy Awards and winner of the Big Five categories (Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, and Best Writing).
R.P McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) playing cards with fellow patients in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Rear Window (1954)
While it would’ve been memorable for James Stewart to roll a pair of jeans over his leg casts, it’s the final moment that leaves us with as satisfied a smile as the one seen on Lisa Fremont (Grace Kelly) as she opens up a Harper’s Bazaar. Hitchcock ties in another keyway into the plotlines as Lisa’s husband, now with two leg casts, falls asleep in his chair, the camera moves along her slim-fit rolled pedal pushers to her reading, showing us that she literally is the one wearing the pants in the relationship.
Nominated for four Academy Awards.
Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
A rebellious young man with a troubled past comes to a new town, finding friends and enemies. Nominated for three Academy Awards but would soon be immortalized in the pantheon of teenage films thanks to James Dean. While the jeans worn here were actually from Lee, Levi’s responded to the public demand with their 1955 cut – the seminal shrink-to-fit jean with a straight leg cut and a button fly that has remained modern (or classic?) for over 60 years. What viewers didn’t realize is that all of the denim used in the film was overdyed to produce that unreal vibrant blue, as using Technicolor would’ve made the actual blue appear muddy green in the final prints.
Jim Stark (James Dean) after a late night in Rebel Without a Cause.
Thelma & Louise (1991)
Brad Pitt gets too much attention for his role in Thelma and Louise. Despite being the clad in denim JD whose “cute butt” enables Thelma’s sexual reawakening, it’s the ladies’ use of denim that not only provides a stylish look along this road movie that stays with you but is yet another layer of symbolism into a film chock full of feminist moments. As the film progresses, Thelma’s look adds more denim, including a makeshift necktie from JD’s torn denim sleeves, and evolves further away from the damsel in the peasant dress and into the defiant and confident woman she actually is.
Of its six nominations, the film earned only a single Oscar for Best Writing – Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen.
Thelma (Geena Davis) takes aim at an officer in Thelma & Louise
Honorable Mention
The list adhered to films that were represented at the Academy Awards, which explains the absence of a certain pair of magical traveling pants, but these entries are too beloved not to at least mention:
Badlands (1973)
Terence Malick’s debut feature film is a haunting hybrid of the road movie and gangster genres that Bonnie & Clyde ignited just seven years earlier. Set in the 50’s, the dawn of the American teenager, Martin Sheen plays young Kit Carruthers, resembling a James Dean clad in denim jeans and jacket (and rolled shorts when fishing a river), the quintessential uniform of his generation. Loosely based on the murderous rampage of real-life teen couple Charles Starkweather and girlfriend Caril Ann Fugate, Badlands rides the edge of fairy tale teenage romance with the tinkering xylophone score playing off the brutality of trigger-happy Kit who politely minds his manners while pointing guns in faces. Aggressively creating their own legend, the doomed romance drives straight into the heart of America’s dreams and nightmares.
With Kit’s denim possibly serving as the film’s biggest touchpoint to American youth culture, it should’ve won an award just for being the earliest reference we can find for this unique way of putting on a jacket – still used today by this writer’s nephews.
The Breakfast Club (1985)
The most iconic high school rebel of the 80s would of course wear rough denim. John Bender’s oversized jacket is a perfect vehicle for hiding dope if Johnson’s underwear is nowhere around and has plenty of mobility for when you need to raise a triumphant fist in the air.
The Outsiders (1983)
While Greasers were the poor gang who could afford cheap threads like denim, it’s safe to say their fashion choices were, retrospectively, the epitome of cool of that generation. Thankfully, their sartorial influences today didn’t also include over-greased hair.
