Charles Smith

superb. chaplin is nothing short of brilliant. goddard was a stone cold fox.

i had just finished reading the book, ashamedly admitting, for the first time. while reading the book, which i found amazing in its depth and breadth, i wondered how anyone could do justice to the magnificence of the book. sadly, my opinion is that the people who made the movie did not even approach justice. different people have different tastes, and i would not propose that i could have written a better screenplay, but so much great material was simply discarded in assembling the movie. ok, some severe editing was going to be necessary, but the arrogance of the screenwriter(s) and director to think that they could create and insert new material into one of the greatest books i have ever read remains shocking. in my opinion, a courageous and competent production company could use east of eden as the backbone of a maxiseries, meaning multiple episodes, connected, but don't try to make a miniseries out of so much great material.