East of Eden Movie Review | Sanity Blog

Warner Bros. has been one of Hollywood’s flagship studios now for a century. Producing memorable characters, films, and franchises. I have always loved the Warner Bros brand, from their Super-Man films, to Tim Burton’s Batman, Beetlejuice, Joe Dante’s Gremlins in the 1980s to Unforgiven, The Lethal Weapon sequels and The Matrix in the 1990s, The Dark knight Trilogy and Harry Potter films in the 2000s to Mad Max: Fury Road, The DCEU and many others in the 2010s. Warner Bros. track record is very impressive, but a lot of the studio's classics that made it what it is today, are not talked about nearly enough.

The studio celebrates its 100th year anniversary this year and to celebrate, has been releasing some of the best and most recognisable titles on 4K Ultra High Definition (4K UHD). In April we saw the re-release of the Superman sequels on 4K along with ‘Maltese Falcon’, ‘Rebel Without A Cause’ and ‘Cool Hand Luke’. Now in July and August, we are getting more great titles with the re-release of the John Wayne, Western classic ‘Rio Bravo’, another James Dean film, ‘East of Eden’ Bruce Lee’s classic 1973 martial arts masterpiece ‘Enter the Dragon’, and National Lampoon’s classic Chevy Chase comedy, ‘Vacation’. If you’re a film fan you best be saving for these ones, because you will want them in your collection!

To celebrate this month’s releases ‘Rio Bravo’, ‘East of Eden’ and ‘Enter the Dragon’, I will be reviewing each of these tiles on 4K UHD. The third and final movie review in this series (for now) is the James Dean starring, Eliza Kazan directed, ‘East of Eden’. So, let’s get stuck into it!

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, James Dean is one of the best actors of all time and was taken from us far too soon. Only starring in 3 major motion pictures, ‘Giant’, ‘Rebel Without a Cause’ and of course ‘East of Eden’, which earned the actor a posthumous Academy Award (Oscar) nomination, along with ‘Giant’. ‘East of Eden’ based on the novel by literary genius John Steinbeck, follows two brothers in the 1910s, who struggle to maintain their strict fathers' favour as an old secret about their long absent mother comes to light. It’s a simple tale that is brought to life by all the filmmaking elements that we sometimes take for granted.

‘East of Eden’ is, in my opinion, James Dean’s most dramatic performance. Here he is able to really showcase his range as an actor, going to dramatic depths that he has definitely touched on in his other films and in vastly different ways, but for me, not to the extent he does in this film. Dean was acting well above his age, showcasing talent that some actors never reach, or if they do, in the twilight of their career. His presence and acclaim prove that James Dean was in fact, a generational talent and one of the best to ever do it!

Elia Kazan’s direction is also superb. The veteran director has made his mark on Hollywood with classics such as ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ (1951) and ‘On the Waterfront’ (1954). He knows how to utilise some of the best actors of all time working with Marlon Brando on multiple occasions and James Dean. Their collaboration here will go down as one of the best of all time. ‘East of Eden’ is well-worth the watch, especially on 4K UHD. The film grain is kept intact, which is a huge positive for me in terms of restoration, with improved colour and sound making this a fantastic upgrade!

‘East of Eden’ is a masterpiece, tour-de-force, classic, all of the above and one of the best films from the 1950s to me. Its 4K remaster is glorious, showcasing the power of these amazing 4K remasters and the art behind restoring and re-mastering film. The 4K platform feels like it was made for these types of releases and ‘East of Eden’ is a great example of how amazing these releases can be. Shop for ‘East of Eden’ on 4K UHD below and shop all the other fantastic 100-year anniversary titles from Warner Bros. you won’t want to miss out on these ones and subscribe to Sanity's mailing list so you don't miss out on future titles with 'Batman: Mask of The Phantasm' arriving in September and the late, great William Friedkin's horror masterpiece 'The Exorcist' arriving just in time for Halloween in October. There's still plenty more to come! Happy shopping and long live physical media!

Buy East of Eden on 4K UHD here

Christopher Pattison wrote this blog post for Sanity. See more from Chris here