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The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

James Dean died in September 1955, leaving behind him mystery, legacy… and eternal youth. Indeed, we'd never know what was eating that spirit torn between the tumultuous torments of young age and the realm of coming adulthood, but we know though that the tragically abrupt end to his lightning way to success turned, Dean into an instant icon. He'd be to youth what Marilyn Monroe was to glamour, John Wayne to Western and Hitchcock to thrills.His first film, "East of Eden", moves in the same circle than "Rebel Without a Cause" but in the polar side. If Jim Stark in "Rebel" faced the emasculation of his father and drove his own self like a racing car that would ultimately crash into the wall of reality, Cal Trask's father doesn't quite lack authority but perhaps something more life-impacting: love. Cal Trask is like the counterpart of Jim Stark, the rebellion is the tool for the former, the end for the latter, and both are directed toward the father… or the authority figure. And are you surprised that the two names' anagrams are exactly the same? It's never about Stark or Trask, but about James Dean.Dean inhabited his roles because they inhabited his life already. Dean had lost his mother at the age of nine and had no connection whatsoever with his father who worked in Los Angeles while he grew up in Indiana. In an especially poignant moment, facing the disapproval of his father, and the rejection of his gift, Cal tries to embrace him but his hands can barely reach his father's neck. It's physically painful to watch, but it gives us enough time to measure the desperation in Cal, facing the incapability to reach his father Adam, a farm-owner who didn't only plant lettuce in his grounds but also the seeds of his younger son's jealousy. He's played by the towering Raymond Massey.Adam is a stiff man, who loves both God and his son Aron (Richard Cavados) but can't duplicate that feeling toward Cal. It is left open to interpretation whether Cal grew these awkward mannerisms and emotional secrecy from the lack of paternal love or whether Adam seemed to favor Aron because of his odd behavior. But there are two certitudes; Adam could only love Cal if he was like Aron. Interestingly, Massey didn't get along with Dean who kept on teasing him and improvising his lines, the clash between the old-school and the new generation drove an interesting feud that Kazan expertly exploited for the film. Cal couldn't be like Aron even if he tried, just like Dean.But the awkwardness of Dean finally pays off in the terrifyingly poignant third act, in "Rebel" Dean incarnated a son who killed the father (symbolically) not to disappoint himself, in "Eden", it's the very fear of disappointment that drove Cal for most of the film, and many so-called rebellious kids where fearing disappointment like plague and only became rebels by rebelling from their own ties, once they realized the efforts would be fruitless. There is some Freudian parricide so to speak in "East of Eden", but the original 1952 novel, by John Steinbeck, is also a retelling of the story of Abel and Cain, it's also a brother's story with a rivalry caused by women. Starting with the most significant one: he Cal and Aron's mother, who fled from Adam's virtuous grip in Salinas and went to the 'east of Eden', in Monterey, a fishing port where she lead a successful brothel. She's played by Jo Van Fleet.Obviously, Cal inherited that 'dark side' from Kate, but when she finally tells her story, we start to see goodness in her, or at least, attenuating circumstances, and through a mirror effect, in Cal too. And the well-meaning Adam becomes a Biblical tyrant who tried to mold everyone under his own vision of family, to the point of lying to his son Aron and telling her that she went to heaven. The other female player is Aron's fiancée Abra (Julie Harris). She's a respectful and optimist girl who had her deal of troubles in the past, enough to be able to see goodness in Cal when he tries to please his gather and jealousy in Aron's when he suspects some ill behavior from his brother. Abra could have cemented the family, but there are just too many conflicts to expect a happy ending.Basically, envy, wrath, jealousy run in the family, and create many hellish situations paved by the best intentions, even the only money Cal can earn for his father will be deemed as dirty and unholy and will provoke the breakdown we all expected. Indeed, watching "East of Eden" is like knowing a ticking bomb will soon explode and the anticipation of a family meltdown is magnificently conveyed by the nervous, awkward but electrifying performance of James Dean. Elia Kazan contributed to cinema in many ways, but besides Brando who changed the face of acting, Dean was his best gift to the world. Dean was a newcomer, an unknown face, but when Kazan saw him and had a few exchanges, he knew Dean had Cal in him, he knew his life experience created that odd concoction of delicacy, shyness and rebellion.Many critics found his acting weird, difficult to enjoy or too mimicking his then-idol Brando. But there's a lightness of being in Dean I can't find in the steaming passion of Brando, Dean still tries to fit in his environment, conveying an ahead-of-its-time brilliant embodiment of vulnerability, something new but that holds up very well today, and that Academy members were clairvoyant enough to notice, and give Dean the first posthumous nomination of Oscar history.Unfortunately, "East of Eden" was the only film he could see released, by the time the two others came, he was history, and a legend.

Although some of his other books receive more acclaim and readership ("The Grapes of Wrath," "Of Mice and Men," "The Winter of Our Discontent"), John Steinbeck said that "East of Eden" was the novel that he lived to write. Indeed, the moralism of his writing reached broader and deeper in Eden than in any of his other works. The story here is set mainly in Steinbeck's beloved Salinas Valley and Monterey County.Warner Brothers did a commendable job in bringing the story to life on the silver screen. It condensed a 600-page novel into a two–hour film, yet kept all of the main elements of the drama. The title for the story comes from the Bible. Genesis 4:16 reads, "Cain then left the Lord's presence and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden." The plot of the story is a modern Cain and Abel tale, and it is repeated within succeeding generations. In the Bible, Cain brought "some of the fruits of the soil" to offer the Lord. Abel brought "the best of the firstlings," or "some of the firstlings and their fat portions." The latter were more pleasing to God. So, Cain did so-so, average, but Abel went out of his way to give the best to the Lord. God didn't love Cain any less -- he was just most pleased with Abel's offering. Yet Cain succumbed to pride, greed, envy, anger and lust. Most know the story of "East of Eden" or will find other reviews that discuss the plot. So, my remarks here are brief and cover some things not mentioned. Seeing this film again after many years, on a DVD, I had the advantage of extras that included some deleted scenes. I think one inclusion would have made the film perfect – the scene of Cal and Aron in their room after they had argued outside and Cal said that Aron was "the one he wanted" referring to his father's favoritism, as he saw it. Without that sequence, we see Cal suddenly perking up, pitching in and being Mr. good-guy helping his father. But, there's no real explanation or background to let us know why he would change. I don't know why they deleted that scene – it made the perfect fit and segue with Aron and Cal talking and Aron explaining in a way that Cal could understand. I don't think that would have made the movie too long in itself. James Dean had the largest role, as Cal, and was the male lead. And, yes, he was a new young and hot star of the time. All of the acting is excellent, including Dean's. But, I think the very best performances in this movie were by Julie Harris as Abra, Jo Van Fleet as Kate, and Raymond Massey as Adam. Richard Davalos, as Aron, wasn't far behind; and Van Fleet's performance was most deserving of the Oscar she won. James Dean made one more film after this – "Giant," which came out in October 1956. He wasn't alive to see it, because he was killed in a highway accident on Sept. 30, 1955. He had just finished filming for "Giant." That was just five months after "East of Eden" hit theaters. It's interesting to note that the site of Dean's accident was a few miles east of Paso Robles, California. That's at the southern end of the Salinas Valley of Steinbeck's "East of Eden."Those interested in Steinbeck should enjoy a visit to the National Steinbeck Center. It's a marvelous museum in downtown Salinas, CA.

Based on a John Steinbeck novel, Elia Kazan's "East of Eden" stars James Dean as Cal, the son of entrepreneur Adam Trask. Cal feuds with his younger brother and father, both of whom perceive Cal to be "bad". Also deemed "bad" is Cal's mother, the owner of a local brothel.As Kazan has truncated Steinbeck's novel, each character's actions and motivations become slightly cartoonish. Adam himself is portrayed as a religious fundamentalist, so scarred by his now absent wife that he deems everything unsavoury to be a "mark of wickedness". Psychologically abused by his judgemental father, Cal embarks on an unhealthy quest to both find his mother and earn daddy's favour."East of Eden" is filled with artificial, exaggerated oppositions, trite melodrama and strained allusions to the Biblical story of Cain and Abel. On the flip-side, it's beautifully shot, boasts amazing wide-screen photography and contains a number of interesting passages. Elevating things further is Dean's performance. Dean would act in only three films before dying at the age of 24 ("Giant", "East of Eden", "Rebel Without a Cause"). In each of these films, he played sensitive, troubled young men. These characters are outsiders, idealists, confused, ashamed and filled with a burning desire to belong. More than this, their on-screen suffering seemed to echo Dean's own off-screen troubles.Dean's performance in "East of Eden" has been called "groundbreaking", but it wasn't really. Brando and Montgomery Clift were already making waves as Method Acting Mega Stars, and Paul Newman and others would soon do so as well. What Dean did well was popularise a certain turn-of-the-century teenage archetype; all adolescent ache and emotional turbulence. And as Dean was immortalised as an adolescent and never allowed to grow up, his characters only seemed more doomed. As the years went by, his three performances would accumulate almost mythological proportions. This sentimental necrophilia would blind fans to Dean's flaws – his obvious attempts to mimic Brando, his overly mopey scenery-chewing etc – but in a way is also wholly deserved. "East of Eden" boasts gorgeous colour cinematography by Ted McCord, a lush score by Leonard Rosenman, and fine performances by Julie Harris and Jo Van Fleet.7.5/10 – See "Marjorie Morningstar", "Some Came Running" and "Rebel Without a Cause".

This Warner Brothers production probably was James Dean's greatest feat. In this character study, he comes across excellently as the bitter brother Cal (Caleb) Trask who is, for all practical purposes, unloved and rejected. When he is supposed to be hostile, he is very much this way toward his brother Aron, played superbly by Richard Davalos. Raymond Massey, definitely an outstanding actor, as the father Adam Trask was one you wanted to hate because of his bitterness and hard-cored hate toward the youngest son Cal, while at the same time he definitely wanted everyone to know that he loved Aron. It's only fair and more accurate to say that the movie is based on only a part of John Steinbeck's outstanding novel. It doesn't deal with Adam Trask as a baby and young boy, and later the man who was abandoned by his wife Cathy. In turn, it doesn't deal with Cathy as the promiscuous person who was this way even as a girl. Still, it is an outstanding production. Again, the story addressed the matter of hypocrisy, since Adam and Aron were allegedly the Christians in the family. They were, again, however, hypocrites since they didn't really love Cal. In the story, in their early days of marriage Cathy Trask left Adam because he was, in a sense, claiming to be so good. Though Jo Van Fleet did not act in any "outstanding" movie, she was very capable in this movie as the madam which Cathy Trask became. She should be given credit for this, despite the role of the base person she portrayed. It can be, as has been, considered a modern-day parody of the story of Cain and Abel. In one scene, after a gift Cal gave his father Adam was rejected, which spurned Cal to kill his brother, after the "killing" (which was actually a nervous breakdown on Aron's part after Cal one day "introduced" Aron to their mother) when Adam asks Cal where Aron was, Cal answers by saying he didn't know and then says in a smart-aleck manner that he was not his brother's keeper. (Of course, the "modern day" was 1917 in northern California.) Again, it was an excellent character study, and a superb role for Dean which only he could have patentedly played. And too, it was a great masterpiece for the producer Elia Kazan. The pristine beauty of northern California was impressive. Because of the beautiful scenery, the excellent acting, and the probing story, this great production is considered something of a classic.