Miscellaneous Movie Musings

innerSpaceman · 06-28-2009, 09:25 AM

East of Eden was a bizarrity. I thought I'd seen bits and pieces, but it turns out I was thinking of "Giant," James Dean's third film. I'm not impressed with his brief ouvre of work, though he is a brooding bit of sex, isn't he?

Claptrap 50's quasi-Freudian pop psychology permeates. Oddly, this is only the 2nd film I've ever seen featuring Julie Harris ... and the other one, The Haunting, is also a claptrap 50's quasi-Freudian pop psychfest (underpinning a damn good ghost story).

Here, though, the underpinning was front and center. Gak. Well, it wasn't horrible ... but yeah, an over-the-top Caine and Abel melodrama. James' yumminess is the only thing to recommend the film, imo ... so it will be "interesting" to see what they come up with for the remake to be released next year.

BTW, was Abra Kadabra a standard magician's phrase in Steinbeck's day? If so, I am puzzled why he named a main character "Abra." It was very distracting.

06-28-2009, 09:25 AM	#11
innerSpaceman Kink of Swank Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Inner Space Posts: 13,075	East of Eden was a bizarrity. I thought I'd seen bits and pieces, but it turns out I was thinking of "Giant," James Dean's third film. I'm not impressed with his brief ouvre of work, though he is a brooding bit of sex, isn't he? Claptrap 50's quasi-Freudian pop psychology permeates. Oddly, this is only the 2nd film I've ever seen featuring Julie Harris ... and the other one, The Haunting, is also a claptrap 50's quasi-Freudian pop psychfest (underpinning a damn good ghost story). Here, though, the underpinning was front and center. Gak. Well, it wasn't horrible ... but yeah, an over-the-top Caine and Abel melodrama. James' yumminess is the only thing to recommend the film, imo ... so it will be "interesting" to see what they come up with for the remake to be released next year. BTW, was Abra Kadabra a standard magician's phrase in Steinbeck's day? If so, I am puzzled why he named a main character "Abra." It was very distracting.
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