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Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Oh, sibling rivalry. It can be a thing that makes brothers hate each other. Brothers or sisters not only compete with each other but also have family members that compare them to each other. A family could have a saint for a child, and then their sibling could be a black sheep. Sometimes, I think that is what my brother and I went through. I was a stellar student who excelled in sports, and my brother could care less about school. I say this because we are successful in our own ways. My brother is an OUTSTANDING chef who can make almost anything. I can’t cook to save my turtle’s life. Yet, we have no rivalry between each other. He does his thing, and I do mine.
There have been a ton of sibling rivalries in history. You can find one in sports, politics, film, or whatever. What do you think is the one that started it all? How about the tale of Cain and Abel? You know the biblical story. The two sons of Adam and Eve: Cain was the firstborn and a farmer. His brother Abel was a shepherd. I don’t know the whole story, but for some reason, the brothers had to make a sacrifice to God, and for some reason, God favored Abel’s sacrifice instead of Cain’s. This led to Cain going off the deep end and murdered Abel. In retaliation, God punished Cain by condemning him to a life of wandering. Well, East of Eden somewhat takes sibling rivalry and the story of Cain and Abel and turns it into an entertaining film.
Directed by Elia Kazan and loosely based on the fourth and final part of the 1952 novel of the same name by John Steinbeck. The plot line is loosely based on the biblical story of Cain and Abel. Set in 1917 in the central California coastal towns of Monterey and Salinas, Cal (Dean) and Aron (Davalos) are the young adult sons of a farmer and highly religious Adam Trask (Massey). Cal is a strange young man who is moody, unhappy, bitter, and thinks he is one of the most sinful people on earth. The dude is the family’s black sheep and feels he has no place. In contrast, his brother Aron seems perfect in every possible way. Adam’s favorite is Aron, and Cal desperately tries to get love and affection from his father. Adam has raised the boys by himself, telling them their mother dies after giving birth to Cal. As America is leading to their entry into the war, Adam loses almost all of his fortune trying to ship refrigerated lettuce to New York. Wanting to help his father, Cal decides to grow a bean farm. He asks for a loan from one person, his mother, Kate (Van Fleet), who operates a brothel in nearby Monterey. His mother resembles Cal in everyone in attitude and rebelliousness. With the money secured, Cal starts his bean farm and makes a killing from selling it, as the war has made him profitable. When Cal tries to give the money to his father, he rebuffs him. Soon Cal needs to decide to try to get his father’s love or skip town.
Even though the story is loosely based on Cain and Abel, no one killed the other. Instead, it is a story of trying to get someone’s love and getting out of the shadow of your more popular brother. I felt for Cal because dude tried so hard. Yea, he was strange and did things that made you scratch your head. It showed that he was angry because he felt he had no place in the world. When Adam buys the ice farm, Cal listens to his brother and his brother’s girlfriend, Abra; he flips out and throws ice down a chute. Another example was when his father’s farm needed to load the lettuce on the train. Yea, Cal took a coal chute, but he was trying to help his pops. It seemed like anything he did was not good enough. It failed over and over again to just get a little attention. Homeboy started a freakin bean farm to only help his father, and he gets scolded. I’m going to say it now that Adam was an okay father.
Then the issues between the brothers. Adam is such a perfect-minded person that his mind couldn’t take failure. When Adam lost everything, you saw the slow seeds of doubt and the cracks of perfection slowly break within him. He thinks he has the perfect relationship only for his girl, Abra, to start liking Cal. It seems like Cal wants affection from his father but is free in all other areas. Cal did Aron dirty when he introduced him to his mother. This sent Aron into another orbit as he completely lost his freakin mind. Dude got wasted and joined the army. The most terrifying sight was when dude burst his head through the train window and started laughing like he was the Joker.
I want to say that the acting was great as it brought this story to life. James Dean as Caleb Trask was outstanding. This is my first James Dean film, and I was surprised because I had heard so much about him. Many people said that he tried to copy Marlan Brando and his voice was very similar. Yet, he was strange as Cal and looked like someone who tried his best to get his father’s love and approval.
Julie Harris as Abra Bacon was a sweet edition who LOVED Aron but soon saw him boring. She was the intermediary between Cal and Adam. She tried her best to mend the relationship and support Cal significantly. It’s crazy to see her this way at the end because she was throwing major shade at Cal at the beginning of the film. I have to give it up to Richard Davalos as Aron Trask. Homeboy was straight-up “perfect” in every way. When Aron lost his mind, Davalos made sure that he crazily showed him. He showed that Aron lost his freakin mind. Even though she was in the film for a while, Jo Van Fleet as Kate Ames/Cathy Trask was AMAZING. Why? She straight up didn’t care if she owned a brothel. She strolled through the street because she was getting paid and yet seemed haunted as she seemed drunk at night. Van Fleet showed such anger but control in herself as Kate. A woman that wouldn’t be held down by any man.
East of Eden is that film that was a pleasant surprise to me. It made me think about how siblings fight or get along. James Dean was great as the son who wanted his father’s approval. Give this film a chance as I believe it is the last film that Dean was ever part of before his death.
