East of Eden (1981, Complete 3 parts)

Director: Harvey Hart
Stars: Timothy Bottoms, Jane Seymour, Bruce Boxleitner, Karen Allen

Connecticut, 1863. Union soldier Cyrus Task (Warren Oates), has returned from The War Between the States to his farm after losing his leg to a Rebel bullet. His wife (Nellie Bellflower), a devoutly religious woman, is scornful of Cyrus' phoney boasting about his brief war exploits, but is unable to deal with the knowledge that Cyrus has given her a sexually transmitted disease ("Cupid's itch," as the doctor calls it). Humiliated before God, she commits suicide by drowning herself in the farm's pond. Cyrus, at a loss how to raise his infant son, Adam, remarries and has another son, Charles. As grown young men, Adam (Timothy Bottoms) and Charles (Bruce Boxleitner) continue a destructive sibling rivalry, exacerbated by their competition for the love of their distant father. Charles, at times cruel and vindictive towards the weaker, kinder Adam, eventually stays with the farm while Adam is forced against his will to join the Army to fight Indians out West. Cyrus, meanwhile, has built his false war stories up into a thriving literary career, which segues into a government job in Washington, fighting for pension rights for Civil War veterans.

The most faithful screen adaptation of the acclaimed bestseller, John Steinbeck's East of Eden, debuts on DVD from Acorn Media on March 3, 2009. This lavish six-hour production is a timeless American classic and captures the full, epic sweep of the Nobel Prize-winner's masterpiece. The stellar cast features Jane Seymour, Lloyd Bridges, Timothy Bottoms, Bruce Boxleitner, Warren Oates, Sam Bottoms, Karen Allen, and Anne Baxter. The award-winning miniseries aired on ABC in 1981 and won Golden Globes for best miniseries and best actress for Jane Seymour (Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman). Special features include a new, exclusive interview with Ms. Seymour.

Acclaimed author John Steinbeck (The Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Men) considered East of Eden his quintessential novel. At more than six hours, this sumptuous production brings Steinbeck's bestseller to the screen more fully and faithfully than any other adaptation.

Spanning the Civil War through World War I, the story follows three generations of the tumultuous Trask family as it explores the nature of good and evil, the origin of sin, and the hope of reconciliation. The cast includes patriarch Cyrus (Warren Oates); his feuding sons, Adam and Charles (Timothy Bottoms, Bruce Boxleitner); and quarrelsome grandsons, Aron and Cal (Hart Bochner, Sam Bottoms). Through these men's lives slithers Cathy (Jane Seymour) a she-serpent who holds their love and enmity.

The multimillion-dollar production filmed on location in gorgeous Salinas, California, and won an Emmy® for best art direction and Golden Globes for best miniseries and best actress.

Despite playing nearly 100 different characters in her forty-year career, Ms. Seymour told Oprah Winfrey in 2003 that she considers her role in East of Eden "the best role of my career." In the interview, Oprah said about Ms Seymour's portrayal, "I think there was no other Kate. In my mind, you personified all that she was and captured that in a way that I still marvel." Oprah relaunched her book club in 2003 with the East of Eden novel as her first selection.

www.broadwayworld.com

This is by far the best version of Steinbeck's "East of Eden" ever made; far, far better than the superficial James Dean version, which was little more than a vehicle for the then popular teen idol. (Contrary to all the Hollywood hype I never thought much of Dean as an actor.)

Steinbeck has always been my favorite American novelist; and "East of Eden" is, in my opinion, his finest work - superior even to "The Grapes of Wrath." It is a substantive and timeless work, in which Steinbeck transcends his earlier novels, bounded as they are by his conception of the nobility of the poor. Here, in "East of Eden" he goes beyond his earlier sociological obsessions with poverty, exploitation and radical politics to explore somthing much deeper: character, the essence of good and evil, betrayal and guilt. This is a book of Biblical proportions, based on the story of Cain and Abel; and the meaning of God's pronouncement upon Cain.

All of which is captured beautifully in this TV mini series; just as it is ignored, overlooked or simply not grasped in the James Dean movie. Needless to say this version is true to Steinbeck's conception. And the many memorable performances by the cast - Jane Seymour, Timothy Bottoms, Bruce Boxleiter, Lloyd Bridges, Soon-Tek Oh, Sam Bottoms, Hart Bochner, Karen Allen -(a number of which I can still visualize in my mind 25 years later) bring clarity to the meaning of Steinbeck's story - something one can rarely say about contemporary Hollywood acting.

A movie not to be missed.

Donald J. Keck, amazon.com

This was produced during ABC's Golden Age of great miniseries, which began with Roots and ended with War and Rememberance. But, IMHO this was the apex of their efforts. "East of Eden" is storytelling on the grandest scale possible, an epic tale of multigenerational sibling rivalry that covers decades, and thousands of miles of American terrain. Yet, it still retains the intimacy of family relationships as the Trask family is cursed to repeat the lessons of Genesis time and again. The film is chock-full of amazing performance, especially from Timothy Bottoms who is more than up to the Herculean task of portraying Adam Trask over a lifetime, from a weak-willed teenager to a pillar of his community and from Soon Tek-Oh who is able to take the stereotype of the pigdin-speaking Chinese houseboy and turn it on its ear. But this adaptation surely belongs to Jane Seymour. She gives a mesmerizing performance that not only rivals Vivian Leigh as Scarlett O'Hara, but surpasses it; It is my all-time favorite performance by an actress in any medium. She was one of the greatest actresses of the latter half of the 20th Century, you will be quite amazed if your point of reference for her is only Dr. Quinn!

IMDB Reviewer

More in My Blog