After testing various performers (including a newcomer named Paul Newman), Elia Kazan went with the unknown James Dean, a move that immediately yielded dividends.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 10, 2023

The film is set in 1917 but Dean feels completely modern and contemporary, a boy not quite comfortable in his body.

| Jun 11, 2023

Jimmy Dean, as they called him, will stand the test of time due to his powerful on-screen presence because once a star is born on celluloid, they live on forever.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Apr 6, 2023

True to what made Dean the iconic symbol of that era's youth, his troubling and intricate performance as Cal Trask is ripe with the disaffected emotions that made him controversial to the old guard and beloved by the younger generation of his day.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Aug 14, 2022

I was much more sensitive, on a second viewing, to Kazan's sincerity and the undeniable lyrical power of his mise-en-scene, which, though probably too willful or conscious, is elevated from within by its powerful grounding in art as well as life.

| Dec 8, 2021

Elia Kazan has mastered Cinemascope. Whatever its faults, East of Eden, at least keeps moving visually with its story.

| Feb 3, 2021

Frequently smart, engaging, emotional, and intermittently historical (presenting various attitudes toward international conflicts, patriotism, profits, and foreigners).

| Original Score: 8/10 | Aug 18, 2020

The film ends on a flagrant miscalculation which typifies Kazan at his worst.

| Mar 17, 2020

Book-based classic has violence, drinking, mature themes.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 6, 2019

James Dean is decidedly the highlight of the film. His Method acting techniques and uninhibited performing style cause him to stand out among the more conventional cast.

| Original Score: 3.4/5 | Aug 28, 2018

East of Eden deals with inner conflict; the entire story could be played out in a living room. Instead it sprawls all over the eye-filling landscape and the real action is padded ...

| Jan 30, 2018

It's far from a dull movie, but it's certainly a very strange one; it's an enshrinement of the mixed-up kid.

| Jan 3, 2018

Rich historical detail and good visuals make interesting film.

| Nov 28, 2015

Catches fire in the clashes between Dean (as the bad brother) and Raymond Massey as his stiff-necked dad.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 14, 2014

a reaction to our plutocracy's values and a further case for Dean as the sainted figure of rebellion that would fuel the generational schism of the '60s.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | May 11, 2011

Fine James Dean vehicle, one of few that put him into immortality.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Mar 20, 2008

Kazan had the bad sense to leave out the best parts from the lengthy book.

| Original Score: C+ | Dec 2, 2007

John Steinbeck's painful biblical allegory -- Genesis replayed in Monterey, California, circa 1917 -- is more palatable on the screen, thanks to the down-to-earth performances of James Dean as Cal/Cain and Richard Davalos as Aron/Abel.

| Nov 1, 2007

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Sep 17, 2006

James Dean's finest performance

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Feb 17, 2006