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East of Eden
East of Eden DVD cover
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
Music by	Leonard Rosenman
Cinematography	Ted D. McCord
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date(s)	March 9, 1955[1]
Running time	115 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
All Movie Guide profile
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 1 Plot 2 Filming Dates 3 Critical reaction 4 Awards 4.1 Academy Awards 1956 4.2 BAFTA Awards 1956 4.3 Cannes Film Festival 1955 4.4 Golden Globes 1956 5 References 6 External links

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). 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" (or East of Eden. In fact, Adam is a deeply religious man) , 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 high 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; then he tells Cal to tend him himself.

27 May 1954 - 13 August 1954

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]

• 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

• Best Film from Any Source: Nominated
• Best Foreign Actor: Nominated James Dean
• Most Promising Newcomer: Nominated Jo Van Fleet

• Winner - Best Dramatic Film, Elia Kazan

• Winner - Best Motion Picture Drama

1. ^ ^{a b c} http://movies2.nytimes.com/mem/movies/review.html?res=EE05E7DF173BB32CA3494CC3B679998E6896
2. ^ ^{a b} http://www.calendarlive.com/movies/turan/cl-et-deancapsules10jun10,0,15195.story

• East of Eden: A resource guide to the 1955 film, from the website of a librarian at Quinnipiac University

v • d • e Films directed by Elia Kazan

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945) • The Sea of Grass (1947) • Boomerang! (1947) • Gentleman's Agreement (1947) • Pinky (1949) • Panic in the Streets (1950) • A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) • Viva Zapata! (1952) • Man on a Tightrope (1953) • On the Waterfront (1954) • East of Eden (1955) • Baby Doll (1956) • A Face in the Crowd (1957) • Wild River (1960) • Splendor in the Grass (1961) • America, America (1963) • The Arrangement (1969) • The Visitors (1972) • The Last Tycoon (1976)