72
Metascore
11 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100TV Guide MagazineTV Guide MagazineA powerful film whose influence can be seen in Hud and most other antihero films, East of Eden is masterfully directed by Kazan. All the principals give riveting performances, but it was Dean who emerged as an overnight sensation. Eden also features a quintessentially hardbitten performance from Van Fleet, who won an Oscar for her pains.
- 90Film ThreatFilm ThreatNever in the history of movies was a film so absolutely enraptured by its subject than East of Eden is with Dean. The camera desperately records his every twist and turn of emotion as if preserving it were of the utmost importance.
- 90Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranLos Angeles TimesKenneth TuranNot only one of Kazan's richest films and Dean's first significant role, it is also arguably the actor's best performance. [10 June 2005, p.E12]
- 80EmpireWilliam ThomasEmpireWilliam ThomasSteinbeck himself praised it for reaching the parts his book couldn't. Need a better endorsement?
- 70Chicago ReaderDave KehrChicago ReaderDave KehrJohn Steinbeck's painful biblical allegory—Genesis replayed in Monterey, California, circa 1917—is more palatable on the screen, thanks to the down-to-earth performances of James Dean as Cal/Cain and Richard Davalos as Aron/Abel.
- 63Slant MagazineSlant MagazineEven viewers who acknowledge Kazan’s lack of visual imagination usually concede that nobody got better performances out of actors, but this last vestige of his reputation is in real need of examination.
- 60The New YorkerPauline KaelThe New YorkerPauline KaelIt’s far from a dull movie, but it’s certainly a very strange one; it’s an enshrinement of the mixed-up kid. Here and in Rebel Without a Cause, Dean seems to go just about as far as anybody can in acting misunderstood.
- 60Time OutTime OutAs long-winded and bloated with biblical allegory as the original. That said, it's a film of great performances, atmospheric photography, and a sure sense of period and place (the California farmlands at the time of World War I).
- 50The New York TimesBosley CrowtherThe New York TimesBosley CrowtherIn short, there is energy and intensity but little clarity and emotion in this film. It is like a great, green iceberg: mammoth and imposing but very cold.