Movie Review #4 - East of Eden

                    East of Eden (1955)

Director: Elia Kazan

Cast: James Dean, Julie Harris, Raymond Massey, Richard Davalos, Jo Van Fleet

Running Time: Warner Bros.

Production Co.: 115 minutes
Academy Award Nominations:

Best Supporting Actress-Jo Van Fleet

Best Actor-James Dean
Best Directing-Elia Kazan
Best Writing (Adapted Screnplay)-Paul Osborn

Based on John Steinbeck's book with the same title, East of Eden is a story of Cain and Abel. Young Cal Trask (Dean) seeks his fathers (Massey) love. Meanwhile he envies his brother (Davalos) because his father loves him and not Cal. There is a lot in this movie which i will not spoil so go see it for yourself.

This is my personal favorite of James Dean. Rebel Without A Cause is his most famous, one that is good but not great. Giant is very interesting but as i said good but not great. East of Eden is something different. Dean is very raw as an emotionally hurting boy. I think his performance was very convincing and richly deserved an Oscar nomination. I've never been that great a fan of Dean because he always seemed to try to be Brando. This movie was the only one released while James Dean was alive. Raymond Massey is good, as usual, as the strict, religious father. The cast is good and does a good job of acting.