James Dean died in September 1955, leaving behind him mystery, legacy
and eternal youth. Indeed, we'd never know what was eating that spirit torn between the tumultuous torments of young age and the realm of coming adulthood, but we know though that the tragically abrupt end to his lightning way to success turned, Dean into an instant icon. He'd be to youth what Marilyn Monroe was to glamour, John Wayne to Western and Hitchcock to thrills.
His first film, "East of Eden", moves in the same circle than "Rebel Without a Cause" but in the polar side. If Jim Stark in "Rebel" faced the emasculation of his father and drove his own self like a racing car that would ultimately crash into the wall of reality, Cal Trask's father doesn't quite lack authority but perhaps something more life-impacting: love. Cal Trask is like the counterpart of Jim Stark, the rebellion is the tool for the former, the end for the latter, and both are directed toward the father
or the authority figure. And are you surprised that the two names' anagrams are exactly the same? It's never about Stark or Trask, but about James Dean.
Dean inhabited his roles because they inhabited his life already. Dean had lost his mother at the age of nine and had no connection whatsoever with his father who worked in Los Angeles while he grew up in Indiana. In an especially poignant moment, facing the disapproval of his father, and the rejection of his gift, Cal tries to embrace him but his hands can barely reach his father's neck. It's physically painful to watch, but it gives us enough time to measure the desperation in Cal, facing the incapability to reach his father Adam, a farm-owner who didn't only plant lettuce in his grounds but also the seeds of his younger son's jealousy. He's played by the towering Raymond Massey.
Adam is a stiff man, who loves both God and his son Aron (Richard Cavados) but can't duplicate that feeling toward Cal. It is left open to interpretation whether Cal grew these awkward mannerisms and emotional secrecy from the lack of paternal love or whether Adam seemed to favor Aron because of his odd behavior. But there are two certitudes; Adam could only love Cal if he was like Aron. Interestingly, Massey didn't get along with Dean who kept on teasing him and improvising his lines, the clash between the old-school and the new generation drove an interesting feud that Kazan expertly exploited for the film. Cal couldn't be like Aron even if he tried, just like Dean.
But the awkwardness of Dean finally pays off in the terrifyingly poignant third act, in "Rebel" Dean incarnated a son who killed the father (symbolically) not to disappoint himself, in "Eden", it's the very fear of disappointment that drove Cal for most of the film, and many so-called rebellious kids where fearing disappointment like plague and only became rebels by rebelling from their own ties, once they realized the efforts would be fruitless. There is some Freudian parricide so to speak in "East of Eden", but the original 1952 novel, by John Steinbeck, is also a retelling of the story of Abel and Cain, it's also a brother's story with a rivalry caused by women. Starting with the most significant one: he Cal and Aron's mother, who fled from Adam's virtuous grip in Salinas and went to the 'east of Eden', in Monterey, a fishing port where she lead a successful brothel. She's played by Jo Van Fleet.
Obviously, Cal inherited that 'dark side' from Kate, but when she finally tells her story, we start to see goodness in her, or at least, attenuating circumstances, and through a mirror effect, in Cal too. And the well-meaning Adam becomes a Biblical tyrant who tried to mold everyone under his own vision of family, to the point of lying to his son Aron and telling her that she went to heaven. The other female player is Aron's fiancée Abra (Julie Harris). She's a respectful and optimist girl who had her deal of troubles in the past, enough to be able to see goodness in Cal when he tries to please his gather and jealousy in Aron's when he suspects some ill behavior from his brother. Abra could have cemented the family, but there are just too many conflicts to expect a happy ending.
Basically, envy, wrath, jealousy run in the family, and create many hellish situations paved by the best intentions, even the only money Cal can earn for his father will be deemed as dirty and unholy and will provoke the breakdown we all expected. Indeed, watching "East of Eden" is like knowing a ticking bomb will soon explode and the anticipation of a family meltdown is magnificently conveyed by the nervous, awkward but electrifying performance of James Dean. Elia Kazan contributed to cinema in many ways, but besides Brando who changed the face of acting, Dean was his best gift to the world. Dean was a newcomer, an unknown face, but when Kazan saw him and had a few exchanges, he knew Dean had Cal in him, he knew his life experience created that odd concoction of delicacy, shyness and rebellion.
Many critics found his acting weird, difficult to enjoy or too mimicking his then-idol Brando. But there's a lightness of being in Dean I can't find in the steaming passion of Brando, Dean still tries to fit in his environment, conveying an ahead-of-its-time brilliant embodiment of vulnerability, something new but that holds up very well today, and that Academy members were clairvoyant enough to notice, and give Dean the first posthumous nomination of Oscar history.
Unfortunately, "East of Eden" was the only film he could see released, by the time the two others came, he was history, and a legend.
