My only quarrel with East of Eden - the movie - is that, while excellent, it actually leaves out the first two thirds of the book. This is a tragedy for East of Eden is Steinbeck's masterpiece, a truly epic work with a level of philosophical insight and historical and cultural understanding unmatched in anything else he wrote.
The passages which informed the philosophical outlook - and foundations - of the book take place in a series of incredible and formidably intelligent dialogues between Samuel Hamilton and Lee (by far my favourite character in the book), while en route to (and later, dining in) Adam Trask's house, in the first third of the book. In fact, one of these scenes ends with the two boys, still small children, being named Caleb (who becomes Cal) and Aaron, (who changes the spelling of his name, subsequently, to Aron). Unfortunately, for all of the usual reasons, the movie cut out most of the multi-layered narrative of the book, which left a raw masterpiece, devoid of the depth and nuance of the book.
