Elia Kazan’s 1955 adaptation of East of Eden is a bold prestige melodrama of the sort Hollywood rarely makes these days. It’s a sumptuously produced throwback, featuring a tormented, screen-searing performance from James Dean that was instantly and tragically iconic.
As a filmed version of John Steinbeck‘s classic novel, however, Kazan’s East of Eden borders on dreadful. The two-hour film takes the Biblical sprawl and generational richness of the book and, in tackling only its final third, reduces it to an earnestly felt love story laced with occasional daddy issues. It’s so divorced from the best aspects of the source material that it barely earns its title at all.
East...
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