EAST OF EDEN
The desperation I face every time I go to the video shop to try and find decent movies gets worse, as I am now up to watching black and white classics. This movie, shot in cinemascope stars James Dean. I have seen another Dean film "Rebel without a cause", which for its time would have been a very very insightful and sharp film, but which now seems slightly outdated (and unintentionally funny at times) because it has been repeated so much. However, East of Eden is a fine film, with really fine acting from all the characters. Dean stars as the younger son who needs to be loved by his father. This is such an overwhelming feeling that he does the craziest things. The movie lets you in on the reasons in a way that makes the film interesting on so many levels. Surprisingly, some of the camera shots feel wrong, and I suspect the 180 degree rule was broken once in this film. One can blame this on the technology back then. However, I found the film very poweful and quite amazingly insightful for its time. Among all the war propoganda film, this film confidently looks at another point of view, and it is for this reason that I think the film has stood the test of time (it's based on a Steinbeck novel). I find that good movies keep you guessing as to what happenned afterwards, and this movie does so as well. If you have run out of first run videos, and have watched Citizen Kane, Casablanca, a few Woody Allen films (I suggest, Bullets over Broadway, Everyone Says I Love You, Take the Money and Run), and want a movie with a decent narrative and underlying psychology which pre-empts Hitchcocks use of it in mainstream film, then head over to East of Eden.
82/100