East of Eden is a film about relationships, love and the difference between good and evil. Throughout the film we constantly question the meaning of 'Bad'. What is bad? The word is used a lot by Cal, a character based on Cain from the Biblical Story Cain and Abel, a tale of two brother, sons of Adam and Eve who compete for the love of God, much like Cal and Aron's relationship with their father.
Cal struggles to understand why his father loves Aron so much more than him and so rebels coursing those around him to think him evil and 'bad'. Cal's intentions often are not bad however the way he does things are bad, the money he gets from his mother is from a Brothel and the money he makes is from profits from war, but Cal's intentions are pure and good. So does that make Cal good?
It is interesting to see the character development of Cal, at the start of the film Cal is a rebel, Everything he does is wrong but by the end of the film Cal becomes almost saint like, looking after his father in his sick bed. Whereas Aron changes to a complete opposite, starts out good and saint like, he can do no wrong, but by the end of the film Aron becomes something completely different, unrecognizable to his father. Its as if in order for Cal to become good Aron must become bad. The father can only choose one son to love the most. This theme is often repeated in biblical story's and story's from other cultures, such as Joseph being the favorite son of Jacob.
It is not only the love of their father that the brothers are competing over, it is also the love of a woman, Abra. As Cal and Aron changed and almost swap roles and personality's Abra changes her feelings for the brothers, Much like the father does. Throughout the film Abra acts as a confident for Cal which is exactly what causes Aron's downfall, Abra and the discovery that his mother is alive (and running a brothel) turn him mad. He seems possessed.
The film leaves us still questioning good and bad. Is Cal is good now, what happens to Aron? Is he to die at war? Had Cal turned good for good?
No comments:
Post a Comment