Review of East of Eden (1955) by Curtis K — 14 Dec 2007

I still have no doubt in my mind that East of Eden is the best film I've ever seen. Dean's performance is my absolute favorite of all-time. He is so incredible at displaying emotions and it's literally painful to watch him break down and just cry.

The birthday scene and the end really pull on my strings. Honestly, I don't think I would have liked it as much if it weren't for his performance. The story of how he is left in the shadow, not being loved and consequently not having his feelings and why he is the way he is being taken into account.

He's considered a careless wreck of a young man with no regards for anyone but in reality he's a caring and loving man who will do anything to get the approval of his partial father. His character is clearly the most fascinating and rich in provocativeness.

The rest of the cast is great as well; aiding in making the film even greater. Though, I must say that Fleet did give a rich supporting performance that succeeded that of the other cast members. Kazan is obviously an extremely talented director and adds a great deal to Eden's greatness.

He lets the actors do their job without being too in their face about it. In addition, the script is finely written other than the fact that it can be slightly unrealistic at times, but never enough to truly take away from the film.

It truly is a film that defines cinema and it certainly deserves more admiration than it gets. It's also a film about the oldest and one of the most devastating ideas, brother against brother. No matter how simple the concept may seem you can't deny that Steinbeck made it so much more than that and translating it onto screen with so much talent was the best thing that could have happened.

Especially for a person like me who found such profoundness in its execution.