A series of writings on films that I feel are essential for film lovers, coupled with films that are important to me. Spoilers for those who haven't seen the film.
Seeing James Dean in Elia Kazan's East of Eden, Dean's first role of only three movies before his death at 24, I can't help but wish we could've had 5 more movies with this guy, 10, 20, 30, at least just one more. An intensely poignant actor, maybe in large part because of his death, Dean's acting hero was Marlon Brando and like Brando, Dean, in his acting, was attempting something more visceral, internal and unpredictable than what audiences had been accustomed to in regards to screen acting. While there's a debate about whether Dean matched or could've matched Brando's greatness I think there was definitely something there in Dean. He has an peculiar quality as an actor, quirky and mysterious, in on a private joke with himself but still incredibly sincere. Dean's unpredictability, even improvising lines in his scenes with Raymond Massey, who plays Dean's pious and stern father, didn't go over well with Massey who came to despise Dean. Kazan, being of sort of "Method Director," liked actors having the same off screen relationship they did on and encouraged Dean to antagonize Massey. Of the relationship between Dean and Massey, Kazan said
He simply couldn't stand the sight of the kid, dreaded every day he worked with him. "You never know what he's going to say or do!" Ray said. "Make him read the lines the way they're written." Jimmy knew that Ray was scornful of him, and he responded with sullenness he didn't cover. This was an antagonism I didn't try to heal; I aggravated it. I'm ashamed to say- well not ashamed; everything goes n directing a movie- I didn't conceal from Jimmy or Ray what they thought of each other, made it plain to each of them. The screen was alive with precisely what I wanted; they detested each other. Casting should tell the story of a film without words; this casting did. It was a problem that went on to the end, and I made uses of it until the end.
In the film Dean plays Cal Trask, the teenage son of farmer Adam Trask (Massey.), living in 1914 Salinas. Since they were children Cal and his brother Aron (Richard Davalos) believed their mother to be deceased. By film's beginning Cal has discovered his mother may be the the nearby town's "madam," operating a brothel out of bar-Kate (Jo Van Fleet.) Aron has an easier relationship with his father, him being the more responsible and level-headed of the brothers. Cal is more wayward and unruly, frustrating Adam, whom, as I mentioned earlier, is very pious. Cal begins to emphasize with Adam's dream of a refrigerated long-haul vegetable shipping expedition, which ends disastrously, costing Adam his fortune, to which Cal plans to pay him back through the bean growing business. The upcoming war will skyrocket the prices, making Cal a war profiteer.
Based on John Steinbeck's sprawling novel, the film takes the last third of the novel, relegating the relationship of Adam and Kate to offscreen backstory. Kazan did this largely because he wasn't interested in the earlier parts of the novel. It's believed Kazan's own troubled relationship with his father led to focus on the father-son dynamic. Kazan was also occupied with the idea of dramatic unity and adhered to screenwriter John Howard Lawson's theory that unity came from climax. In 1933 Lawson had helped form the Screen Writers' Guild and was one of the "Hollywood Ten," the initial group of Hollywood filmmakers asked to testify in regards to communist influence in Hollywood. They refused to testify and were blacklisted. Lawson wrote- uncredited- the script for Cry The Beloved Country and then to turned to scholarship, teaching at California universities. He was never "unblacklisted" and of course we know this ties in to Kazan's own personal and professional life. But more on that later.
Steinbeck had written the screenplay for Kazan's Viva Zapata!, which chronicles the Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata, played by Brando. Kazan and Steinbeck worked on a treatment for East of Eden but in a letter to Steinbeck, Kazan outlined how he felt another screenwriter was needed to properly give proper dramatic life and stricture to the screenplay. Kazan felt Viva Zapata! didn't quite work, and believed those problems started on the page. He suggested Bob Ardrey or Paul Osborn (who eventually wrote the script). It was also in this letter that Kazan put forward the idea centralizing Cal even more.
It was Osborn who actually recommended Dean to Kazan. Dean had played an Arab boy in a production of Andre Gide's The Immoralist. Kazan had told Jack Warner, head of Warner Bros. at the time, that he wanted to go with an unknown for Cal, to which Warner obliged. In an interview with George Stevens, Jr. 20 years later, Kazan said Warner probably wouldn't do that now, adding that no one would. Having an unknown quality immediately makes Cal more enticing, even now with Dean's legendary status. It was the beginning of the legend. We're thrown in to the story and automatically something's clearly different and off about this boy. Why is he following this woman? By starting later in the story does create a sense of ambiguity regarding who the Cal character is and who this woman is in relationship to him. It also allows us to be more in Cal's headspace. We, like him, are entranced and curious about who this woman is.
Dean wasn't consistent as an actor, with Kazan saying "Jimmy would either get the scene immediately, without any detailed direction- that was 95 percent of the time- or he couldn't get it at all." Kazan felt Dean "had the most natural talent after Brando" but he didn't have technique or training and couldn't play outside his range. Despite criticisms labelled at Dean that he was just imitating Brando Kazan didn't feel they were comparable: "Dean was a cripple, anyway, inside- he was not like Brando. People compared them but there was no similarity. He was a far, far, sicker kid. And Brando's not sick, he's just troubled."
Dean's lack of training or technique ends up being a boon of sorts, maybe a double-edged boon. His offbeat-ness contrasts decidedly well with the other actors, making Cal feel all the more unusual compared to everyone else. I would argue Dean's performance brings the movie to life in a way a more experienced or refined actor wouldn't have. On the DVD/Blu Ray commentary, the late Time Magazine film critic Richard Schickel says Dean's best scenes are with Julie Harris, who plays Abra, who's dating Aron but begins to become attracted to Cal. Schickel says these scenes with Harris show Dean as less mannered than the rest of the film. Harris has a maturity as an actress that counterbalances Dean's moodiness. We see the good in Cal through her eyes.
The question of who is good and bad runs through the film. Cal tells Kate Aron is good like the father, whereas Cal is bad like the mother. When Cal asks Adam what his mother was like, if she was bad, Adam responds by saying she was lacking in kindness and compassion, hateful towards everyone. In her short screentime Fleet- in her film debut that won her the Best Supporting Actress Oscar- makes Kate the most compelling and unusual character outside of Cal, a sardonic, bitter woman full of pride and independence. When Cal asks her why she left she says it was because Adam tried to hold her down, and no one holds her down.
Cal pays back his father, which is good, but does so through war profiteering, which Adam vehemently disagrees with, refusing the money. Cal's reaction to Adam's rejection is one Dean's most unusual acting choices, though one that highlights Cal's continuing immaturity. Brando was considered for the role of Cal but was considered too old. The same goes for Montgomery Clift being considered for Aron. Paul Newman was also a finalist for Cal. If Brando and Clift were 10-15 years younger they'd probably be perfect but I agree they were too old. Coming off On the Waterfront, it would've been weird Brando playing a teenager. I can see Newman- again, if he was 10 years younger- doing it. He likely plays up the bitterness and resentment even more. I often wonder if Dean takes some of those prime Newman roles if he had lived. Dean was supposed to star in Someone Up There Likes Me before his death, with Newman taking over
Clift likely makes Aron more memorable than Davalos though in general Aron feels underdeveloped and without texture. To be fair, Aron is a difficult character to work with because he acts primarily as the good son to Cal's "bad" son and just maybe isn't that interesting.
Kazan is one of the most important and controversial figures in 20th Century film, heralded for contributions to both the art of theatre and film, despised for his naming of names in front of HUAC in the 1950s. When he received an honorary Oscar in 1999, many refused to stand and clap. Regardless of his actions the continuing relevancy, impact and influence of his work cannot be denied. Brando's early impact is hard to separate from his work with Kazan Aside from The Godfather, Brando's most iconic works came from his work with Kazan. He was directed by Kazan both on stage and on film with A Streetcar Named Desire, and my favourite performance of Brando is in Kazan's On the Waterfront, which I think is Kazan's masterpiece. His granddaughter, Zoe Kazan, wrote the new East of Eden miniseries on Netflix.
On the commentary, Schickel remarks that while Kazan was never considered a great visual stylist by critics, he did master the early Cinemascope format. Cinemascope was still in its infancy and East of Eden was Kazan's first film in the format, as well as hiss first film in colour . The film is the closest I think Kazan got to making an epic feeling kind of film on a visual level. On an more intimae level, one of the shots that stands out the most to me is the hallway to Kate's office in the back of the bar.
It represents the darker world Cal is entering, the part of his life that's been kept in the shadows, hidden by his father. Kazan's use of canted ("Dutch") angles don't completely work but they show Kazan taking a chance with something more expressionistic. similar to how in On the Waterfront, Kazan blends the docudrama and noir style.
Ted McCord shot East of Eden but almost backed out because he had never shot in CinemaScope before. Kazan told him this is why he wanted him, because he had no preconceived notions of about the format and Kazan wanted McCord to use his imagination. Kazan didn't want any kind of "formula." The tilted angles were a first for CinemaScope, which as a format was largely used to draw audiences from TV back to the movie theatre. In an American Cinematographer article back when the film was released, the use of canted angles and the approach to it was described:
Perhaps the most startling innovation is the way he tilted or angled the CinemaScope camera in order to achieve a more compelling composition when shooting the dramatic scene where the father is having a heart-to-heart talk with his troublesome son, Cal. The two are seated at the family dining room table — the father at the far end, and son at the side, in left foreground. To bring the two dramatically into prominence in a tight, widescreen closeup, McCord moved his camera around to place the table diagonally in the CinemaScope frame, then tilted the camera to one side so that the wide rectangular area of the CinemaScope frame would tightly fit the composition. In this way, the father was given visual dominance in the scene that could not have been accomplished in any other way. It is something that never before had been tried with the CinemaScope camera, undoubtedly because of the ultra widescreen format. McCord’s imaginative treatment here sets a pattern sure to be followed by others.
Kazan described himself as a poetic realist or "essentialist." Kazan's film combine gritty social realism and method style acting with something others have called lyrical. As a visual stylist I think he's somewhat underappreciated, maybe largely because his films are often remembered so much because of their performances. But On the Waterfront, East of Eden and Wild River are visually alive films with a great sense of place, people and feeling.
Talking to Stevens, Kazan said he felt East of Eden was the closest to perfect of all his films. As with Dean, there's an unfilled sense of greatness about. It is great but also maybe doesn't completely live up to what it could be. Maybe it needed to be longer and tell more of the book's story, I don't know. I do love its final moments: Adam has had a stroke after Aron has had a mental breakdown after discovering who his mother is and goes off to war. Cal was so jealous he broke his brother mentally. But now he dedicates himself to caring for his father. For all the bad, Cal ends the story being good. He sits in a chair in his father's bedroom, with Abra leaving them together. The music swells and punches, and we fade to black. Dean would die six months later but on screen Cal lives on, grows maybe to old age. That's the beauty of film- actors live on even after they're gone.
