Appendix 3.2: Sample films - synopses and character lists
DOCTOR AT SEA UK 56
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36 |
Chef in Bellos restaurant_________________________ |
4_____ |
EAST OF EDEN dir Kazan US 1955
The film is set during a few months before and after America
entered the first world war in 1917. The narrative concerns
the Trask family, Adam and his two sons Aaron and Caleb; the
biblical reference of the title is developed in the opposition
proposed between the two youths. Yet while plot events centre
round the efforts of the confused and disturbed adolescent Cal
(James Dean) to discover himself and to win his father’s love,
Cal’s story is also suggested as a metaphor for the process of
self discovery of the nation as a whole - that is America in
the early twentieth century. This is the time, historically,
when the economic bases for American dominance over the ∙free'
world were being laid, when British hegemony in world trade
was successfully challenged by the United States. The
relevance of this self assessment to post world war two, post
McCarthy America is clear: an exploration of the question
•what is America?’ being discreetly positioned in the distant
past of nearly half a century ago. Hence the constant
preoccupation, in the film, with definitions of good and evil,
with law and convention, and hence also the dominant
preoccupation of the film - the morality of money and profit -
since US hegemony in the 1950s was based, precisely, on the
concept of the free market. Cal and Aaron, twin sons of Adam
Trask, must find their place in the world. Aaron is ’good’;
loved by Adam and also by Abra whom he expects to marry as
soon as he is through with 'that darn school∙. As his
distress at the immorality of war indicates, he is in many
ways a replica of Adam. Cal, on the other hand, defines
himself and is defined by both Adam and Aaron at different
points in the film as 'bad'. Yet Cal's point of view is
privileged in the plot's unfolding, and the audience is
invited to sympathise with him. Thus the simple and old
fashioned - the old American way - understanding of good and
bad (right and wrong) is problematised and the audience is
offered a more pragmatically based understanding of the
opposition good:bad. The theme of this opposition, given
principally through the device of the twin boys, is announced
in an opening credit which locates the action in the twin
towns of Monterey and Salinas, separated by the 'dark and
brooding Santa Lucia mountains' which 'stand like a wall'
between them.
It is Cal who bridges the gap between Monterey and Salinas.
His curiosity leads him to Monterey where he discovers his
mother, now the owner of a thriving bar∕brothel 'on the
outskirts of town' simply known as 'Kate's place'. His desire
to please his father is demonstrated in his efforts with the
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