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East of Eden (1955 film)
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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).
Although set in early twentieth century Monterey, California, much of the film was actually shot on location in Mendocino, California. Some scenes were filmed in the Salinas Valley.
Plot
The story is set in 1917, during World War I, in the central California coastal towns of Monterey and Salinas.
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Encyclopedia
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).
Although set in early twentieth century Monterey, California, much of the film was actually shot on location in Mendocino, California. Some scenes were filmed in the Salinas Valley.
Plot
The story is set in 1917, during World War I, in the central California coastal towns of Monterey and Salinas. Cal (Caleb) (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). Adam is a deeply religious man. Cal is moody and embittered by his belief that his father loves only Aron.
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, owning and running 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. He knows that if the United States enters the war, the price of beans will skyrocket. Cal hopes this will finally earn him the love and respect of his father. He goes to his mother Kate (Jo Van Fleet) to ask to borrow the capital he needs. She reluctantly lends him the five thousand dollars.
Meanwhile, Aron's girlfriend Abra (Julie Harris) finds herself attracted to Cal.
Cal's business goes quite well. He makes a birthday present of the money to his father. However, Adam refuses to accept any money earned by war profiteering. Cal does not understand, and sees his father's refusal to accept the gift as just another rejection. When the distraught Cal leaves the room, Abra goes after him, to console him as best she can. Aron follows and orders Cal to stay away from her.
In anger, Cal takes his brother to see their mother, then returns home alone. When his father demands to know where his brother is, Cal tells him. The shock drives the pacifistic Aron to get drunk and then board a troop train to enlist in the army. When Sam (Burl Ives), the sheriff, brings the news, Adam rushes to the train station in a futile attempt to dissuade him.
The old man then suffers a stroke, which leaves him paralyzed and unable to communicate. Cal tries to talk to him, but gets no response and leaves the bedroom. Abra pleads with Adam to show Cal some affection before it is too late. Then she drags Cal back into the room. When Cal makes his last bid for acceptance before leaving town, his father manages to speak. He tells his son to get rid of the annoying nurse and not to get anyone else, but to stay and take care of him himself.
Filming Dates
27 May 1954 - 13 August 1954
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.
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.
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." 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."
Awards
Academy Awards 1956
BAFTA Awards 1956
- Best Film from Any Source: Nominated
- Best Foreign Actor: Nominated James Dean
- Most Promising Newcomer: Nominated Jo Van Fleet
Cannes Film Festival 1955
- Winner - Best Dramatic Film, Elia Kazan
Golden Globes 1956
- Winner - Best Motion Picture Drama
External links
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