Review of East of Eden (1955) by Jennifer S — 14 Nov 2009

Within the contours of a well-placed, deeply laired, gorgeously captured drama that often threatens a sudden poetic cinemaplay, Elia Kazan strings in a film that has a definite consciousness of its timescape, of its characters and of its own primitive literary context.

James Dean is at once endearing in the archetype of the angry young man, albeit in a slightly less theatrical setting, and the audience laps up in sympathy for him and him alone by the end. War is a small hushed rumour in this film, occasionally manifested in small squalors within the mainland amidst farmers.

What is remarkable is the reality of the characters rather than their stories, booted by their performances which makes the complicacy within the script deeply affecting. A remarkable film, one that you will feel deeply and talk about for years to come.

We know an entire nation did.