The first of James Dean’s three films, 1955’s East of Eden adapts a John Steinbeck novel. It starts with some geographical information as it informs us that “in northern California, the Santa Lucia Mountains, dark and brooding, stand like a wall between the peaceful agricultural town of Salinas and the rough and tumble fishing port of Monterey 15 miles away.”

Set in 1917, the film uses those locations to introduce us oddball Salinas teen Cal Trask (Dean). He feels inferior to “perfect” brother Aron (Richard Davalos), and it doesn’t help that their father Adam (Raymond Massie) clearly favors Aron.

After Adam loses his fortune, Cal starts his own successful business. However, he finds money can’t buy daddy’s love and he struggles with other interpersonal domains, especially when he learns his allegedly-deceased mother Kate (Jo Van Fleet) actually remains alive.

Nearly 70 years after his death, James Dean remains a pop culture icon, and East of Eden reminds us why. During his brief time in movies, he perfectly captured a sense of awkward cool.

Actually, in many ways, Dean made for an unlikely teen idol sort simply because he displayed such a flawed personality, as he wasn’t suave or sophisticated. Not only did his rough edges show, but he accentuated them and made the flaws a prominent part of his characters.

As Cal, Dean presents an unusually mumbly, stammering, navel-gazing style. He borders on becoming too mannered and self-conscious but manages to stay honest instead.

Cal may not be quite as iconic as Dean’s portrayal of Jim Stark in Rebel Without a Cause. Nonetheless, he’s an effective and compelling presence here.

Eden creates a mostly intriguing character drama, but not one without its flaws. Happily, it doesn’t play up the mystery of Kate’s identity for too long, as it touches on this area just enough to lure us in but then it drops the boom and focuses on the various dynamics and relationships to keep our interest.

This is a good approach since it becomes obvious pretty quickly that Kate is Cal’s mom, so attempts to prolong the suspense would feel contrived and tedious. Most of Eden unravels slowly, which means it doesn’t tip its hand too quickly but also doesn’t keep us annoyingly in the dark.

One weakness comes from the various character arcs. The personalities seen in the first act differ greatly by the movie’s conclusion, and it doesn’t handle those transitions terribly well.

Cal changes his sullen ways awfully quickly, and that turn prompts former golden boy Aron to become morose and vengeful. I accept these alterations to a degree, though I’m not sure I believe that decades of behavior would change quite so abruptly.

The problem stems from the rapidity with which this occurs. As shown here, the two boys flop personalities without much time involved.

Actually, the main supporting characters change radically as well. Though Cal initially gives her the creeps, Abra warms up to him in the blink of an eye, and Adam also goes from stern to jolly without much prompting. Again, I can accept character growth, but the quickness with which this occurs in the movie seems tough to believe.

I guess that’s what comes with the territory when you adapt a 600-page book, as you lose the ability to develop smooth characterizations. Actually, although I never read Eden, I learned that the movie drops a lot more than that.

Apparently the book initially focuses on the story of Adam as a young man, whereas the movie totally skips all of that. I won’t criticize the flick for that, as it’d have to run four hours to cover all that material - and it’d still probably seem too rushed.

As Eden starts to concentrate more on the Cal/Aron/Abra love triangle, it loses track of the others too much. Adam and Kate turn into little more than plot devices, and the story occasionally loses focus. Some of this relates to the issues with the characters and their changes, as the variations make it tougher to keep things on track.

Geez - all of these comments make it sound like I didn’t care for East of Eden. That’s not the case, however.

The movie remains consistently entertaining, and the strong performances - especially from Dean - help make it a good piece of work. I find some fault with its storytelling and characterizations, but overall, the film comes across as involving and compelling.

East of Eden appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.55:1 on this 4K UHD Disc. Overall, I felt pleased with the presentation.

Sharpness usually looked solid, as the flick usually presented a nicely distinctive and detailed picture. Some of the photographic techniques occasionally resulted in soft shots, but those remained in the minority; most of the movie seemed accurate and well-defined.

No issues with jagged edges or shimmering occurred, and I saw no edge haloes. Digital noise reduction didn’t appear to mar the transfer, and the flick came with no print flaws.

Eden came with a fairly natural palette that looked well-represented and full. HDR gave the tones extra oomph and range.

Blacks came across as nicely deep and rich, while low-light shots demonstrated good clarity and definition, even with some murky day for night shots. HDR brought added power and emphasis to contrast and whites. Across the board, the movie looked pretty nice.

Dowconverted to Dolby TrueHD 7.1, the Dolby Atmos soundtrack of East of Eden seemed more than satisfactory given its age, and the soundfield offered a surprisingly broad experience. A great deal of localized speech occurred, and the score presented nice stereo delineation.

Effects weren’t a major factor in the proceedings, but they also popped up in the appropriate spots. The whole thing could be somewhat “speaker specific” at times, but given the fact that the vast majority of movies from the era only featured monaural audio, I didn’t take this as a negative.

Surround usage remained minor. Music demonstrated some light reinforcement, and occasional effects material popped up as well.

Nothing too exciting occurred, but the rears fleshed out things decently. Again, the track was definitely stronger than usual for a flick from 1955.

Audio quality showed its age but seemed fine overall. The score often sounded moderately robust, though highs lacked great clarity.

Speech was decent. Some weak dubbing made lines a bit flat and dull at times. Nonetheless, the dialogue usually sounded appropriate.

Effects demonstrated fair reproduction given their vintage. They didn’t boast great clarity, but they came with reasonable accuracy and heft. Nothing here dazzled, but the audio remained more than adequate for its era.

How did the 4K UHD compare to the original Blu-ray from 2013? Audio seemed largely similar, though the Atmos remix might’ve been a bit better integrated.

As for visuals, the 4K boasted stronger colors and blacks, with minor improvements in terms of delineation. HDR became the biggest step up here, and that made the 4K the superior product.

In terms of extras, we find an audio commentary with film critic Richard Schickel. Because of his record, I greet Schickel commentaries with trepidation; he’s created an awful lot of mediocre tracks.

A sense of déjà vu greeted me as I listened to another Schickel discussion that only occasionally became involving. Schickel gets into notes about the cast, crew and their backgrounds, Kazan’s methods, Dean’s acting style, using the Cinemascope frame, and his interpretation, analysis and criticism of the film.

Those latter elements strongly dominated the piece. Schickel tossed out occasional notes about the production and its participants, but he usually stayed with his critique.

As with Schickel’s prior commentaries, he occasionally tossed out insightful tidbits, but not with great frequency. Instead, Schickel often just mentioned obvious elements or narrated the movie.

A few of his remarks were thought provoking, but not many of them. Quite a lot of dead air mar the discussion and it becomes pretty tedious.

Note that although the Blu-ray included a bunch of additional extras. All go absent here, and oddly, Warner didn’t include a Blu-ray with the package.

East of Eden would remain interesting simply for its historical value. Happily, despite its flaws, it offers a frequently compelling tale with a mix of positives highlighted by some strong performances. The 4K UHD delivers very good picture and audio along with a lackluster audio commentary. I doubt Eden ever looked better than it does on this fine 4K UHD.

To rate this film visit the original review of EAST OF EDEN