East of Eden

One of the few films that touch me deeply. I think it's a great film. It was directed by Elia Kazan- the guy infamous for naming Holywood collegues for being Communists or Communist sympathizers in the McCarthy period to keep him from the blacklisted list. Politics aside, it's still a great film.



That's the first film of James Dean that I've seen but I must agree that he is one of the greatest movie stars in the last century.
I may pick up the book by Steinbeck to read someday. It is interesting to know how the characters are portrayed in the book. It is said that the movie is only partially based on the the book.
And what we can learn from that movie: Love and forgiveness. Sound like in the Testament, doesn't it? Well, the name of the novel was actually taken from the Book of Genesis "And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden."  But you don't have to be a Christian to understand that love and forgiveness are essential in human relations, or in a certain sense, they are what define human being.

Will watch "Rebel without a cause" one day.

And here is Steinbeck's opinion about the film, based on the book he himself considered his lifetime's greatest although most critics may not agree.

" Steinbeck himself approved of what Kazan had done. He told the New York Herald Tribune he was “overwhelmed with what they had done.”
“*I think it might be the best film I ever saw,” the author went on. “*I don’t think the fact of my having written the book has anything to do with that connection.* They have not translated my book.* Translations rarely succeed.* But they have taken the theme and story and set them down in a different medium. What I saw was familiar and true but fresh and new to me. It is a fine thing, and I am grateful.”