Review of East of Eden (1955) by Kyle V — 04 Sep 2009

A movie rich in emotion, deep in characters and their struggles within themselves. East of Eden is the story of the struggle of Cal, a boy who's wild and doesn't do well with authority. The reason for this being the antagonism he has towards his father and his brother, Aaron. As Cal tries to find the answers to winning his father's love, he gets taken down a path that leads only into more problems and troubles. But as they say, you can't expect the daisies and roses without first going through the briars and brush.

The characters are well defined in this classic directed by Elia Kazan, who's also known for On the Waterfront and A Streetcar Named Desire.

James Dean appears in his first film role and brings the character of Cal to life through body language and the boyish actions and antics that is needed to capture the essence of the character. Many would complain that there's never been a movie that's made guys look so whiny and emo in all of the 50's. But, let's face it, it's a bunch of teenage angst and growing up, trying to find out who you really are, is all apart of it. Elia Kazan wasn't necessarily known before this as the kind of director to direct a very teenager-oriented tale of coming-of-age, but has been known to capture the innermost struggles of Man in many of his previous works, and that is what this film needed more than anything.

Kazan uses several interesting techniques to make the atmosphere work FOR the characters in his film. using long distance shots, wide shots, dutch angles (including one very neat dutch angle that follows James Dean as he's swinging in a swing set talking to his father that I liked very much) and uses perception to his advantage not only to show the scope of the rural landscape, but also to show the scope of struggles between the characters. This is also one of the few films shot in color in the 50's that actually USED color effectively, instead of distracting from the film's photographic beauty. It takes a talented director to keep emotion, plot, cinematography,color and atmosphere all together without losing one or the other, which is why I have to admire Elia Kazan alot as a film maker for being able to not lose any luster in any of the elements of the film.

I'm interested in reading the Steinbeck novel now. I don't know how well the film follows the novel. If I did read the novel firs,t my opinion might be different on the film (Because we ALL know what I think of "A Clockwork Orange" compared to the book) But in this case, I'm glad I watched the film first so I wouldnt be distracted by the story being right.

Overall, another fantastic movie from the 50's that left me on the verge on near tears and sent several emotional chills up my spine. Definately one for any list of great films.