East of Eden

East of Eden, 1955. A teenager is jealous of the love shown to his brother. Directed by Elia Kazan. Written by Paul Osborn, based on a novel by John Steinbeck. Starring James Dean, Julie Harris, Raymond Massey, Richard Davalos & Jo Van Fleet.

Concept: 1/4 (Bad). The book is unfilmable; a faithful adaptation would be about eight hours long, and an unfaithful adaptation is guaranteed to be inferior (this is Steinbeck we're talking about, after all). Focusing on just a small part of the book is a good idea, but why on earth would they pick the end of the book? Bah!
Story: 2/4 (Indifferent). Not only does their "abbreviation" turn the story into a trite love triangle, but it creates plot holes and inconsistencies, and necessitates expanding the story further than it can stretch. This is a 500+ page book - if half your script is completely new material, you're doing something wrong.
Characters: 2/4 (Indifferent). This point would certainly get a "good" rating or better if I hadn't read the book. But I have, so I know how badly Osborn messed things up.
Dialog: 2/4 (Indifferent). A Steinbeck adaptation with dialog that is anything less than amazing? Sad.
Pacing: 3/4 (Good)
Cinematography: 3/4 (Good). It tries too hard, and the color is bad, but I like it well enough.
Special effects/design: 2/4 (Indifferent). Is there some reason James Dean can't wear period clothing? Some sort of contract point about minimum shirt collar size?
Acting: 3/4 (Good). Dean has a great energy, and moves like Toshiro Mifune. At best, everything still feels like a Performance, but it's at least striking.
Music: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Subjective Rating: 6/10 (Okay, 2/4). It could have been a lot worse. I've really got to stop watching adaptations soon after reading the book. It only ever upsets me.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.2/4 (Okay)