Review of East of Eden (1955) by Kevin J — 03 Aug 2011

A film of moments, the acting seems at times, like other Kazan films of this period, hammy and overdone, which is not necessarily a bad thing. In the early parts of the film, Dean's Cal Trask seems like a teenage prototype of Klaus Kinski; his skulking carrying with it a very real menace of physical violence and emotional over-spill. Like his estranged mother, Cal lives in the moment, his morals, and his temper are a direct reaction to his environment, and this is why he carries out some of the things which lead to disaster for the Trasks. We are lured into comparing Cal to his brother and father, who have ultimate morals which cannot be violated, no matter what the ends might be. Here is a conflict which Steinbeck is relating to the problems facing the America of the Trasks: impending war along with the nascent period of free market economics. Steinbeck, writing almost thirty years after this, had seen America involved in two world wars, a stock market crash and a devastating depression; in short, Steinbeck had seen, like Sassoon and Owen in Britain, how many had profited enormously from the lives of others in WWI, and here is his response (note how the elder Trask talks about his life of isolation on the farm, and how he now wants to do something selfless, even if the chances of succeeding are slim). Whether or not Steinbeck is successful is another matter...

There's a lot here thematically, with Kazan remaining quite faithful to the second half of the book, and it is visually stunning, using the great valleys backdrop to powerful affect (there's a particularly good shot of the father's lettuce train leaving the village train station, with the jagged Californian mountains in the background). However, it has aged, and at times the corniness can grate even the most understanding of modern viewers. Not to be written off, this is a great watch, and if you can look the other way at times and ignore the Cain and Abel allegory (which is a red herring, by the way), then there remains, on the whole, incredible performances in a thematically rich and visually stunning piece of cinema.