Saturday 15 October 2016

517 East of Eden


First  viewed  : 21  September  1981

This  one's  come  around  a  bit  earlier  than  I  was  expecting.  I  only  saw  a  brief  part  of  the  second  episode  of  this  epic  mini-series  first  time  round . It  was  repeated  in  the  summer  of  1985  and  although  coming  in  at  more  or  less  the  same  point  I  watched  it  through  to  the  end. That  was  when  I  fell  in  love  with  Karen  Allen.

The  series  was  an  adaptation  of  John  Steinbeck's  epic  novel,  re-telling  the  Cain  and  Abel  story  over  two  generations  of  the  Trask  family  from  the  American  Civil  War  to  World  War One . It  was  dramatised  in  three  lengthy  episodes, its  scale  allowing  it  to  be  much  more  faithful  to  the book  than  the  1955  James  Dean  film. Production  values  were  high and  it  was  largely  well  cast. I  say  largely  because  unfortunately the  leading  role  of  high-minded  Adam  Trask  went  to  Timothy  Bottoms  who  seems  to  think  looking  down  your  nose  with  a  solemn  expression  constitutes  acting.

Adam  is  one  of  the  two  sons  of  tyrannical  hypocrite  Cyrus  Trask  ( Warren  Oates ). He  is  the favoured  one  despite  being  placid  and  easy-going  in  contrast  to  hotheaded  workaholic  Charles ( Bruce  Boxleitner ) . The  brothers  have  a  fearsome  fight  before  Adam  is  dragooned  into  the Army  by  his  father. Finding  the  strength  to  defy  the  old  man,  Adam  becomes  a  wanderer before  returning  to  the  family  farm  after  Cyrus's  death  for  reconciliation  with  Charles. Their father's  corruption  has  made  them  both  rich.

After  a  brief  period  of  harmony,  they  are  finally  pulled  apart  by  the  appearance  of  Cathy  ( Jane  Seymour )  who  Adam  takes  in  after  being  found  beaten  close  to  death. We  have  already seen  that  she  is  a  liar, whore  and  murderess  whose  assailant  Edwards   ( Howard  Duff  )  was her  whoremaster . Charles  can  see  her  for  what  she  is  but  Adam  falls  in  love  with  her, gets married  and  moves  to  California  leaving  Charles  behind  for  good.

After  failing  to  abort  her  pregnancy , Cathy  deserts  Adam  after  giving  birth  to  twins  Caleb  ( Sam  Bottoms, a  better  actor  than  his  brother  ) and  Aron  ( Hart  Bochner )  and , through   another  murder,  becomes  a  brothel  madam. Adam  is  destroyed  but  his  friends  kick  him  into some  sort  of   shape . However  he  becomes  just  as  guilty  of  favouring  one  son  over  the other  as  his  father  and  the  destructive  cycle  begins  again.  Karen  Allen  plays  Abra , Aron's virginal  girlfriend.

Seymour  won  a  Golden  Globe  for  her  stunning  portrayal  of  the  irredeemably  evil  Cathy  making  her  a  hot  property  in  the  US. Her  performance  contributes  to  the  dark  tragedy  of  the  story  and  although  we'll  be  covering  some  quite  terrible  US  mini-series  over  the  next  few  years  this  one  is  worth  catching.

No comments:

Post a Comment