East of Eden (1955)

Director:

Elia Kazan

Writers:

John Steinbeck (novel)
Paul Osborn (screenplay)

Release Date:

10 April 1955 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

The searing classic of paradise lost.

Plot:

In the Salinas Valley, in and around World War I, Cal Trask feels he must compete against overwhelming...

Plot Keywords:

Farm | Freight Train | Ferris Wheel | Father Son Relationship | Driving Lesson

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 7 wins & 9 nominations

Cast

Julie Harris	...	Abra
James Dean	...	Cal Trask
Raymond Massey	...	Adam Trask
Burl Ives	...	Sam the Sheriff
Richard Davalos	...	Aron Trask
Jo Van Fleet	...	Kate
Albert Dekker	...	Will Hamilton
Lois Smith	...	Anne
Harold Gordon	...	Gustav Albrecht
Nick Dennis	...	Rantani

Also Known As:

John Steinbeck's East of Eden (USA) (complete title)

MPAA:

Rated PG for thematic elements and some violent content. (2005 re-issue)

Runtime:

115 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Warnercolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.55 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Perspecta Sound encoding) (35 mm optical prints) | 4-Track Stereo (35 mm magnetic prints) (RCA Sound Recording)

Certification:

Portugal:M/12 | UK:PG (video rating) | Sweden:15 | UK:AA (1976) (cut) | Germany:16 | USA:Approved (PCA #17086) | Peru:14 | Spain:13 | Iceland:L | Argentina:13 | Australia:PG | Chile:14 | Finland:K-16 | South Korea:15 | Sweden:11 (re-release) | Switzerland:16 (canton of the Grisons) | USA:PG (2005 re-issue)

Filming Locations:

Cape Mendocino, California, USA

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

James Dean would provoke Raymond Massey off-camera so that the elder actor would hate him and he could get into character easier.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: Early in the movie after Cal rides the train to Salina, you can see a modern day automobile in the upper right of the scene showing the view of a field.

Quotes:

Abra: But you must give him some sign, Mr. Trask, some sign that you love him... or he'll never be a man. All his life he'll feel guilty and alone unless you release him.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Destination Earth (1956)

James Dean embodied the confused attitudes of a generation...

James Dean plays Cal, a son of Adam Trask (Raymond Massey) who feels unloved and unwanted by his stern father, a situation not helped by Adam's apparent acceptance of Cal's brother... Cal suspects that his mother, long believed dead, is the madame of a local brothel, and when this is confirmed, the young man is convinced that he has found the reason why he is bad...

His awkward, unhelpful attempts to find himself and come to terms with his situation led young audiences to identify with him immediately, an identification that was compounded by his role in 'Rebel Without a Cause' where again, only with more violence, he rebelled against his middle class family...

The impact he had made on the anxious, unhappy youth of that time was confirmed as much by his death as by the style and abandon of his life..

Dean was a youth who rebelled against the riches of the American Dream, though he finally denounced it all in a reckless moment... Dean therefore embodied the confused attitudes of a generation who had never suffered through the Depression and rejected the acquisitive attitudes of their parents, while at the same time they hankered after the American Dream... Dean gave physical form to the perplexing confusion of ideals, that haunted the majority of postwar American youth...