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East of Eden (1955) | |
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Background
James Dean represents the unappreciated son Cal (representing Cain) who vies against his dull, stuffy brother Aron (representing Abel) for the affections of their father. The maligned Cain character, representing the unlikeable and outcast Kazan himself (for naming names before the HUAC Committee in 1952), becomes the hero of this film. As the poster stated, "Sometimes you can't tell who's good and who's bad!..." (This was the only one of James Dean's three major films released before his death.) The film, set in 1917 at a time just before the US entry into World War I, portrays the relationship between insecure, tortured, neurotic loner Caleb "Cal" Trask (James Dean, his first major role and film) and his dutiful, favored brother Aron (Richard Davalos) - twin sons. Their father is a stern, hardened, devoutly religious, self-righteous man, Adam (Raymond Massey), a lettuce farmer living with his family in Salinas, California. The StoryBible-reading father Adam loses his temper at Cal for "the iniquities of his sins," and shouts: "You have no repentance. You're bad, through and through, bad." Cal replies:
He knows his father lied to the children that their mother had died and tells him he believes his mother Kate (Jo Van Fleet) is alive. He asks if she is bad, knowing she is a brothel madam in nearby Monterey. He justifies to himself why his father loves Aron more than him:
Cal also worships Abra (Julie Harris), his brother Aron's sweetheart. Next to a lettuce field, when a Mexican field worker who is interested in Cal interrupts a talk he is having with Abra, she advises him to tell the jealous woman that she is his brother's girl, but Cal counters with: "I don't have to explain anything to anybody." In a dramatic scene, he speaks to his mother in Monterey, telling her he is more like her. He asks her why she abandoned Adam and the family. She responds:
She praises her own successful brothel business and the town's hypocrites: "I've got the toughest house on the coast - and the finest clientele. Yeah! Half the stinking city hall go there." Cal requests and receives $5,000 from her to finance an investment in profitable beans, to aid his father who has failed in a costly scheme to refrigerate lettuce (and to "buy" his father's love). In the memorable "Ferris wheel" scene, Abra confides and confesses to Cal that she thinks she isn't good enough for Aron. Their intimate conversation leads to a kiss, but then she pulls back immediately: "I love Aron, I do, really I do," hurting Cal tremendously. In the film's most memorable scene, the birthday gift scene at his father's surprise birthday, Adam joyfully accepts the announcement of the engagement of Aron and Abra as a birthday present - and blesses their news. Then, he rejects Cal's gift of earnings (an investment on bean futures "at five cents, and the war came along and the price went sky high") to help restore the family's lost resources - for all the money his father lost in the lettuce business. His father declines for lofty moral reasons:
Filmed with a slanted camera angle, Cal (with aching and self-pity) completely breaks down with the money splayed out in his hand as he attempts to hug his father. When empathetic Abra comforts him in his grief outside the house under a weeping willow tree, Aron threatens him:
Cal retaliates by revealing "the truth," taking Aron to their mother and revealing the secret lies about their mother and her sinful profession.
The good Aron falls apart, and Adam suffers a stroke. Abra tries to explain to bed-ridden Adam why Cal behaved like he did:
Her words bring about a reconciliation between Cal and his father, and Cal sits at his father's bedside to care for him. Adam asks Cal to stay with him and care for him, instead of the detested nurse. Cal tells Abra the good news: "He said, 'Don't get anybody else.' He said, 'You stay with me and you take care of me.'" And then Cal and Abra fully kiss for the first time as the film concludes. |