Review of East of Eden (1955) by Dustin G — 24 May 2012

The film version of Eden is actually only about a third of the whole novel, choosing to focus mainly on the Cain and Abel-like story of Dean's Cal Trask and his tumultuous relationship with his father Adam. As in the bible story, most of Adam's love is reserved for Cal's brother Aron, while Cal, desperate for his fathers attention and approval, somehow only seems to be able to curry his disappointment.

Leonardo DiCaprio has said that before filming a movie, he watches (or used to anyway) East of Eden again and again, studying Dean's performance. I personally feel this is the lesser of Dean's three starring roles, which isn't to say it's a bad one. Dean is an incredibly naturalistic actor, known for his improvisational style and realistic delivering of dialogue. He reminds me very much of young Marlon Brando. It's perhaps no big surprise that Brando's game changing performance in 1954's On the Waterfront seems to inform the performances that Dean gave a year later.

The movie itself is well told and actually quite a bit darker than you would think for 1955. It's full of the kind of teen angst and anti-authoritarian overtones that would fill Dean's next, most iconic film, Rebel Without A Cause.