Grade: A- | Genre: Drama Summary: Although this film stands untouched as one of the classics of the age, it rests with me as a reminder of the brilliance of the talent present in James Dean. He seemed to carry the uncertainly of a generation in his eyes. What is it about the bad boys that make the girls go weak in the knees? Is it the danger, the mystery, the snake tattoo? Us normal guys may never know, though we can take tips from the eternal bad boy, James Dean. He is getting the proper star treatment on the 50th anniversary of his death. This week, they released all three of his films on special edition DVD that will hopefully spur a new generation of Dean aficionados. While Rebel Without a Cause is the film that resonates in everyone's mind at the mention of his name, East of Eden was the shining moment of his career. He plays bad boy Cal Trask in this Steinbeck translation, which plays like a modern day story of Cain and Abel. It is about one young man's struggle to win his father's love after a lifetime of scorn. He's fighting to know who he is and he brings himself into odds with his brother Aron when Aron's girl starts to fall for Cal. The drama is thick and potent as James Dean gives the performance of his tragically brief career.

The year is 1917 in Salinas, California as the nation braces itself for the inevitable wave of World War I. We peer into the quiet lives of the Trask family. Aron is the good child who is kind hearted and is his father's pride and joy. Then there is Cal who is the bad seed. He dates those easy women, drinks like a camel and he's always kicking up the dust of trouble wherever he goes. Cal is viewed by his father through scornful and disappointed eyes for not being more like his upstanding brother. Their father Adam is a pious, Bible-thumping man who passes judgment down upon Cal like the Lord himself. The question of "why is he so bad when Aron and his father are so good" eats away at Cal like an insatiable itch.

Cal had been told from an early age that his mother died at childbirth. While hanging out at a bar one evening, Cal discovers that she isn't dead after all. She's actually a madam who runs a house of ill repute in the near by town of Monterey. He immediately starts tailing her from place to place, eventually mustering up the courage to see confront her. He then realizes that he is bad because she has passed it along to him. Even though this jolting moment of self-discovery affords him some measure of comfort, it's still his father's love that he hopelessly cries out for. Adam and Aron don't realize where she is so Cal harbors his new secret for his own.

East of Eden Starring: James Dean, Julie Harris, Raymond Massey, Burl Ives, Richard Davalos & Jo Van Fleet Director: Elia Kazan Buy or Rent East of Eden You may also like... Rebel Without a Cause The Grapes of Wrath Legends of the Fall Email this article to a friend

While Cal doggedly chases his father's love, love in every female form seems to be nipping at his heels. One look and all women just melt like chocolate in his hands. He runs around with the girls with looser morals, but his subtle charm catches Aron's soon to be fiancee in his tractor beam. Once he lays the "boy never loved by his father" speech on her, Aron might as well kiss her sweet face goodbye. The two once loving brothers erupt in a furious storm, which shakes the fragile fabric of this tenuous family.

It's amazing that this great film successfully escaped from the DVD vaults at Warner. This is one of my favorite old classic films and after seeing it continually passed over time and again I thought it was destined to die with VHS. It makes you wonder how they decide what gets released and what deteriorates away in the archives? You've got to love the charm of these old pictures because everything is so black and white. Aron is good while Cal is bad and there is no subtext to figuring that point out. They spell it right out for you. These were simpler, more innocent films that carry just as much punch as their R rated counterparts today.

East of Eden is a timeless story that echoes the Biblical tale of long ago. James Dean was nominated for an Academy Award for his work in this picture, along with nominations for best writing, best director and a win for best supporting actress, Jo Van Fleet, who plays the lost mother. Although this film stands untouched as one of the classics of the age, it rests with me as a reminder of the brilliance of the talent present in James Dean. No one did the brooding loner like he did. Dean seemed to carry the uncertainly of a generation in his eyes. It can be argued that since his life was cut short so abruptly in the car accident that he will forever be young and talented in our mind. He never got fat and made crappy paycheck films (Isle of Dr. Moreau) like Marlon Brando finally succumbed to. He never got caught over acting and weighing a film down like Al Pacino has been known to do. Maybe if he had be fortunate enough to live a full life, he may have fallen short of his potential, yet I don't think this would have been the case. I picture him being of similar acting brilliance as Audrey Hepburn who dressed up every film she had a hand in creating and elevated the talent of those who worked with her. We'll never know for certain, but films like East of Eden burn that eternal flame of hope for a man who stepped off this Earth much too soon.