East of Eden (1955 film)
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| East of Eden | |
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 East of Eden DVD cover |
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| Directed by | Elia Kazan |
| Produced by | Elia Kazan |
| Written by | Paul Osborn, John Steinbeck (uncredited) |
| Starring | James Dean, Raymond Massey, Julie Harris, Burl Ives, Richard Davalos, Jo Van Fleet |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
| Release date(s) | March 9, 1955[1] |
| Running time | 115 min |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
East of Eden is a 1955 film, directed by Elia Kazan, and loosely based on part of the 1952 novel of the same name by US author John Steinbeck.
It stars Julie Harris, James Dean (in his first major screen role), and Raymond Massey; it also features Burl Ives, Richard Davalos and Jo Van Fleet, and was adapted by Paul Osborn and John Steinbeck (uncredited[citation needed]).
Contents |
[edit] Plot
The story is set in 1917, during World War I, in the Central Californian coastal towns of Monterey and Salinas. Cal (James Dean) and Aron (Richard Davalos) are the young adult sons of a modestly successful farmer and wartime draft board chairman named Adam Trask (Raymond Massey). Cal is moody and saddened by his belief that his father does not approve of him and Aron is more popular.
The Trask family has a farm in the fertile Salinas valley. Although both Cal and Aron had been led to believe that their mother had died "and gone to heaven", the opening scene reveals that Cal knows that his mother is still alive, and operates a successful brothel. After the father's idealistic plans for a long-haul vegetable shipping business venture end in a loss of thousands of dollars, Cal decides to enter the bean-growing business, as a way of recouping the money his father lost in the vegetable shipping venture.
Cal hopes this will finally earn him the love and respect of his disapproving father. To do so, he goes to his mother at her brothel to ask to borrow a large sum of money. She reluctantly agrees to assist Cal by lending him five thousand dollars. Although Cal's business venture does go quite well, because the war led to an increase in the value of beans, his father refuses to accept any money earned by war profiteering. His father explains that as the draft board chairman, it would be morally wrong for him to profit from the war. Cal does not understand, and sees his father's refusal to take the gift of the money as just another example of how his father will never approve of him.
[edit] Critical reaction
Bosley Crowther, writing for The New York Times, described the film as having "energy and intensity but little clarity and emotion"; he notes:
- In one respect, it is brilliant. The use that Mr. Kazan has made of CinemaScope and color in capturing expanse and mood in his California settings is almost beyond compare. His views of verdant farmlands in the famous Salinas "salad bowl," sharply focused to the horizon in the sunshine, are fairly fragrant with atmosphere. The strain of troubled people against such backgrounds has a clear and enhanced irony.[1]
But the "stubborn fact is that the people who move about in this film are not sufficiently well established to give point to the anguish through which they go, and the demonstrations of their torment are perceptibly stylized and grotesque." Crowther calls Dean's performance a "mass of histrionic gingerbread" which clearly emulates the style of Marlon Brando.[1]
Fifty years later, Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times was much more positive, saying East of Eden is "not only one of Kazan's richest films and Dean's first significant role, it is also arguably the actor's best performance."[2] The film's depiction of the interaction between Dean and Massey was characterized by Turan as "the paradigmatic generational conflict in all of American film."[2]
[edit] Awards
[edit] Academy Awards 1956
- Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Winner Jo Van Fleet
- Academy Award for Best Actor: Nominated James Dean
- Academy Award for Directing: Nominated Elia Kazan
- Academy Award for Best Writing, screenplay: Nominated Paul Osborn
[edit] BAFTA Awards 1956
- Best Film from Any Source: Nominated
- Best Foreign Actor: Nominated James Dean
- Most Promising Newcomer: Nominated Jo Van Fleet
[edit] Cannes Film Festival 1955
- Winner - Best Dramatic Film, Elia Kazan
[edit] Golden Globes 1956
- Winner - Best Motion Picture Drama
[edit] References
- ^ a b c http://movies2.nytimes.com/mem/movies/review.html?res=EE05E7DF173BB32CA3494CC3B679998E6896
- ^ a b http://www.calendarlive.com/movies/turan/cl-et-deancapsules10jun10,0,15195.story
[edit] External links
- East of Eden: A resource guide to the 1955 film, from the website of a librarian at Quinnipiac University
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn • The Sea of Grass • Boomerang! • Gentleman's Agreement • Pinky • Panic in the Streets • A Streetcar Named Desire • Viva Zapata! • Man on a Tightrope • On the Waterfront • East of Eden • Baby Doll • A Face in the Crowd • Wild River • Splendor in the Grass • America, America • The Arrangement • The Visitors • The Last Tycoon
