We end our 2023-2024 classic film series on Great Directors with “East of Eden,” directed by Elia Kazan, a director about whom Roger Ebert stated, “More than any other single person, he presided over the modernization of American film acting.”

Kazan was one of the three founders of The Actor’s Studio, and recruited Lee Strasberg who became its artistic director. Using an entirely new approach to acting, “The Method,” actors trained at the Studio were told to reach inside themselves to find emotions to call upon for the characters they were playing. The result was a realism never seen before on the American screen. When movie goers saw performances by Marlon Brando in “On the Waterfront” and “A Streetcar Named Desire” or James Dean in our selection, “East of Eden,” they were watching searing, messy, raw emotions that had never been seen before on screen and that would totally change the face of acting.

As for the stars of “East of Eden,” it was said that Kazan basically picked the whole cast from The Actor’s Studio. And, of course, the most well-known of those actors was James Dean. Of the three films Dean made before his death, “Eden” was Dean’s first leading role and his character, Cal Trask, was mirrored in the other two roles he played, Jim Stark in “Rebel Without a Cause” and Jett Rink in “Giant.” Writing in the Hollywood Reporter in February 1955, Jack Moffitt commented, “the box office asset that is most important is the debut, in the leading role, of a handsome and dynamic young actor named James Dean. This is the boy who is apt to captivate the typical movie fans whether or not they like tragic stories. He is that rare thing, a young actor who is a great actor and the troubled eloquence with which he puts over the problems of misunderstood youth may lead to his being accepted by young audiences as a sort of symbol of their generation.” As a testament to that last prediction, I, myself, had a James Dean poster over my college dorm room bed (and, in full disclosure, one of Brando, in his motorcycle jacket, over the door).

“East of Eden” is Kazan’s adaptation of John Steinbeck’s epic novel and tells the story of Cal Trask (James Dean), the son of a California farmer (Raymond Massey), who feels that his father cares only about his brother, Aron (Richard Davalos). When Cal embarks on a business venture to gain the favor of his dad, he finds himself dealing with his estranged mother (Jo Van Fleet), now the owner of a brothel, and tensions in the family rise even further when he begins to fall for Aron's girlfriend, Abra (Julie Harris).

“East of Eden” will be showing at 2 p.m. on Thursday, March 14 and Saturday, March 16, with introductory video commentary by Bates College film professor and Harbor Theater friend, Dr. Jon Cavallero