East Of Eden Starring Julie Harris, James Dean and Raymond Massey

Fans of James Dean will love this film and though it departs from the book in many, many ways, it has a charm that is uniquely all its own. The performances of the actors are all top notch and the movie is well directed by Elia Kazan and features an Oscar winning performance by Joan Van Fleet as the Mother. James Dean was nominated for his performance and this was the only one of his (3) films that was in theaters while he was still alive. This and the other films, ("Rebel Without A Cause" and "Giant") prove that he was an actor with tremendous potential.
If you want to see a faithful rendition of the book, keep looking elsewhere. This departs lots from the book and purists will hate it. If you just want to see something in the spirit of the book with great acting and other bits of movie magic to boot. this should be for you.

Shockingly bad blu-ray. Despite some shots that remind one of a blu-ray, overall the film looks like your average DVD. Towards the end, many shots are totally out of foucs (or really bad). What's worse, the image looks compressed most of the time. Spoils the fun of watching the movie.
It escapes me why reviewers give this piece of crap 4, 4.5 or 4.8 stars

I just finished reading the book, so the movie was bound to be a little disappointing. But it wisely chose its story from the last part of the book, which was preferable to trying to cram everything in. James Dean was good, but the character was altered from book. In the book Massey's character is the most important, and though the part was shrunken, Massey got him exactly right. The battle between brothers was not exactly true to the book, either, but I suppose it drew people to the theaters.

This is James Dean's first big picture. Definitely a classic, directed by Kazan who essentially gave James Dean his first big break, taking a chance on him. The girl, Julie Harris, for some reason gets top billing here. But James Dean obviously makes this film work. About the widescreen version, I do not own BluRay equipment, and the picture quality is as good as it gets for a 1950's era production. My only criticism is that when I viewed it on a 47" 16:9 aspect ratio TV, the black bars at the top and bottom of the screen are quite thick. This shrinks the viewable screen too much. This is an 'un-enhanced version'. But you would get a better "cinemascopic" effect on a larger, say, 52" or better TV. Still, I recommend East of Eden for the film buff's collection.

Lack of Love Makes People Act Out. Psychologist are only just figuring out this concept, yet this story depicts it pretty dead on.

Only drawbacks are: I think the dialogue is stiff at points, I think the acting is over or under acted at points, but I think that's because of the time this was made and not so much a discredit to the actors or the production.

You can't take your eyes off of James Dean. You can't wait until he's back on screen. He's the pulse to the movie. I guess that's why they called him a "movie star."

To really appreciate the movie - read the book first. It is such a sweeping sage the movie only captures a small part of the story. However, within the confines of the length of the movie, it really captures the spirit of the novel.

Elia Kazan has presented many of America's finest films, from "Streetcar", "On the Waterfront", and the incredible "East of Eden", finally available on DVD in a wonderful 2-disc version in a wide letterbox. In this case, the 2nd disc actually has stuff that is interesting, regarding casting, background info and wonderful commentaries from some remaining cast members (mostly Julie Harris) and Kazan himself. The amazing debut of James Dean, of course, is the #1 reason to have this in your collection. His performance is often improvised, much to Kazan's surprise and delight. He brought out elements in the character that even Kazan hadn't considered. Indeed, Dean is certainly of the Brando school, but there is no mimicry. This is a true original. It's anybody's guess where his career would have gone had he lived. Tabloids painted Dean as some kind of maniac, so I was interested to learn that his fatal accident wasn't his fault. I don't want to give away too much about the extras, because they give so much insight regarding Mr. Dean that I'd rather you enjoy them yourself. I will say that you should watch Raymond Massey in every scene, because Dean improvised almost every scene, and Massey, the seasoned pro, wasn't sure where to go with any scene, a great display by both. As you already know, this film is based on the last third of Steinbeck's novel. At this point, the character of Kate (one of the most manipulative, mean characters in literature) is sitting alone, old and rich, running a successful brothel. Jo Van Fleet, in her first film role, plays Kate with fierce conviction, with generous hints of her meanness. She most deservedly won the Oscar. Her abandoned husband, Adam (Massey) and 2 sons Cal (Dean) and Aaron (Richard Davalos) are only 30 miles away. Cal learns that his birth mother may be around, maverick that he is, and he searches her out. The relationship that develops when Cal finally meets Kate is the catalyst of the first part of the film. His ongoing alienation with his father pretty much covers the second half, some great improvisation and a bewildered Massey. Priceless. Previous reviewers thought Julie Harris was too old to play Abra, but it worked for me (4 years earlier she was nominated for Best Actress for playing a 12 year old in "Member of the Wedding"). I'm sure it's subjective; I've always loved Julie Harris. Massey was wonderful as the father who loved the one son and had no use for the other, which made Cal work harder for that affection. The father/son alienation is very well established. Richard Davalos was great as Aaron, and I'm not sure what happened to his career. Then there's Lois Smith...Kate's barmaid/servant; so wonderful as Nicholson's sister in "5 Easy Pieces", and later loads of fun as Aunt Meg in "Twister". Too much to say about this very complicated, compelling film adaptation, except that Kazan made this after his testimony to the House of Unamerican Activities, where he tattled on his colleagues. His integrity was challenged in Hollywood after that, but he stil received a nomination for this film. He would receive another in 1963 for his very personal "America America"; later settled for an honorary Oscar a few years ago for lifetime achievement. His body of work is most certainly respectable and deserving of recognition, but many remembered and it was an embarrassing Academy moment. This creates a great argument about when art should be separated from politics. One interesting thing about James Dean, which was a "Jeopardy!" question a few years ago...he is the only person to be Oscar nominated twice, posthumously (it took a year after he finished "Giant" before it was released).Regarding "Rebel Without a Cause"? It was an updated version of Dean's performance in "East of Eden", but the alienation was differently presented by Nicholas Ray, and Dean had 2 loving but bewildered parents. Any film aficianado or James Dean fan should have this DVD of "East of Eden". It's so beautifully photographed, and presented so well by Mr. Kazan.