WORLD TOUR Day 4 - Salinas + Monterey, CA
BEFORE: I got a little off course last night, but it was in the interests of trying to make this chain work out both geographically and occasionally thematically as well. It ain't easy. Tonight's choice is a no-brainer, though, because like "The Grapes of Wrath" it's also based on a Steinbeck novel set in California that involves farming. That's too many similarities to pass on.
Plus, Henry Fonda was also in "How the West Was Won" with Raymond Massey (last seen in "Abe Lincoln in Illinois"), so I'm keeping the actor chain going as well.
THE PLOT: In the Salinas Valley, in and around World War I, Cal Trask feels he must compete against overwhelming odds with his brother Aron for the love of their father Adam.
AFTER: This World Tour idea is rapidly devolving into something like "Complaining About the Classics". Kids, if you've got to write a report on this novel for school, and it has to be a certain number of words long, make sure that you start it with "East of Eden is a very, very, very, very, very very long book." That's 13 words right there, and your English teacher will appreciate your insight, and your honesty.
It doesn't seem right somehow that I've watched so many movies in the last 4 years, and I've only watched one of James Dean's three major big-screen performances, so this seems long overdue somehow. And in "Giant", he didn't really get to flex his acting muscles much - mostly he just stumbled around and acted drunk.
The film chose to focus on just the last few chapters of Steinbeck's novel, which conveniently places more focus on James Dean's character, but still the movie feels kind of unfinished. It seems like the movie studio figured that most of the women in the audience (and probably some of the men as well) would be so focused on the hunky James Dean that they'd ignore the fact that 2/3 of the novel's story was missing. Actually, I believe the film threw out the majority of the novel's storyline at the request of the National Federation of Teachers, so that English teachers around the country could tell which kids read the entire book, and which ones only watched the movie. That is a true fact, which I just made up.
Dean plays the "bad" son here, but is he truly evil, or just misunderstood? I mean, you give a kid a label like that and it kind of sticks, and then you start looking for evidence that bolsters the nickname. Really he's just a moody teen with a distant, unapproving father. The exploration of good vs. evil throught the medium of two sons does seem to go back a ways, if you want to make a biblical analogy out of it.
In fact, I don't see how you CAN'T read this one as a knock-off of the Book of Genesis, since the father's name is Adam, Cal = Cain and Aron = Abel, and mom's a fallen woman - it's amazing to me that the film didn't show her eating an apple at any point. It's all a bit obvious, especially when the characters themselves point out the similarities.
James Dean seems to handle most of the heavy lifting, acting-wise - but his signature move seems to be to shut down when overwhelmed with emotions, and to physically double over as if in pain, as opposed to, say, showing emotion with his face. It's a choice. I guess it beats the mumbling and stumbling that he did in "Giant", but I'm still not sure that I see the appeal. As with "The Grapes of Wrath", I didn't realize the lives of farmers could be so darn melodramatic. This Steinbeck fellow seems like a real downer, and you can tell your English teacher I said so.
DISTANCE TRAVELED TODAY: 103 miles / 166 km (Fresno to Salinas)
DISTANCE TRAVELED SO FAR: 261 miles / 421 km
Also starring Julie Harris (last seen in "Requiem For a Heavyweight"), Burl Ives (last seen in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof"), Richard Davalos, Jo Van Fleet.
RATING: 5 out of 10 blocks of ice
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