Giganten

Based on a novel by Edna Ferber, Giant is an appropriately Texas-sized western/generational saga that parallels familial evolution with the changing socio-economic nature of the United States over an approximately 30-year period from the 1920s through the film's present, and by extension, a turn of the (20th) century mentality segueing into a more contemporary outlook. It is filled with excellent writing, fabulous direction and technical elements, outstanding performances, gorgeous photography, and plenty of depth via subtly implied philosophical ideas.

At its heart, Giant is the story of Jordan "Bick" Benedict (Rock Hudson), heir, along with his sister, Luz (Mercedes McCambridge) to a family cattle ranch that exceeds half a million acres. As the film opens, Bick has traveled to Maryland, ostensibly to purchase a horse from Dr. Horace Lynnton, who has a sizeable ranch of his own, but also perhaps to search for a wife. Whether the latter was his initial intention or not, he ends up finding a spouse in Dr. Lynnton's opinionated and somewhat irascible but beautiful daughter, Leslie (Elizabeth Taylor). Bick moves Leslie from the rolling green pastures that she calls home to the huge, dusty plains of Reata, his Texas ranch.

In the process, she ends up turning his world upside down. Luz sees Leslie as a threat to their routine, an interpretation that Leslie doesn't exactly try to deny. Leslie integrates herself into the daily workings of Reata and initiates changes in the way Bick and Luz behave towards their mostly Mexican staff, among other things. Bick and Leslie have children, but they're not exactly keen on following the family tradition. Other challenges and perhaps the strongest cultural change in the film comes via Jett Rink (James Dean), who goes through a gradual transformation from his early status in the film as a dirt-poor, uneducated ranch hand.

At a three and a half-hour running time, and covering decades in the lives of many different characters, Giant is nothing if not sprawling. But this is the kind of sprawl that works. Unlike most sprawling films, the cast of characters in Giant actually turns out to be relatively small, we always have a clear idea of who each character is, and every event leads to the next in a very tightly-written, logical manner.

In fact, one of the more unusual but laudable aspects of Fred Guiol and Ivan Moffat's script is the way that characters will mention something in an almost off-the-cuff manner before we immediately cut to the full realization of the previous comment. For example, Leslie and Bick are barely courting before we see them married. Other examples--Leslie goes from telling Bick that she's pregnant to having the baby in the next instant; Bick says that he's going to fly in a plane low over a particular hotel--just for dramatic effect with respect to a certain character--and in the next shot, this is just what he's doing. The first couple times this happens, it's almost a bit unnerving because of its uniqueness. We figure that the characters are in the middle of a dream sequence. But it quickly becomes apparent that the device is designed to enable large time span passages in an instant, and for the overall structure of the film, it works perfectly.

Given that structure, it was also unusual in this era to pick younger actors who would then have to be aged 30 years or so (the more standard procedure was to pick middle aged actors who could be made both younger and older through make-up and lighting). But Hudson, Taylor and Dean are perfect. Dean is especially impressive as he undergoes the most significant transformation. All three of his major films are almost heartbreaking to watch; he was an incredible talent but didn't have a chance to do much with it before he tragically passed away. But all three principal cast members are at the top of their game here; each is able to do a bit of scene stealing if they want. It creates a lot of energy throughout the film and enhances the occasional tensions in the script.

The smaller roles are perfectly filled as well. I was particularly amused with Dennis Hopper among the supporting cast. Hopper portrays Bick and Leslie's son, Jordan III. This was his first major role, and he meshes well, but at the same time, you can easily see the more infamous Hopper ala Easy Rider's (1969) Billy, Blue Velvet's (1986) Frank Booth, or The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2's (1986) Lieutenant "Lefty" Enright.

The cinematography and production design are consistently beautiful. The stark Texas landscapes (filmed primarily in the town of Marfa) couldn't have more impact. The Benedict home is oddly Gothic and a bit eerie in its exterior (especially post-Psycho, 1960), and lushly gorgeous and Victorian inside. Later scenes give the interior a redecoration to match changing fashions.

Giant is extremely engaging in its soap-operatic family drama, but just as captivating for its subtle handling of important social themes. Leslie's respect for the Mexican ranch hands and servants parallels the slowly and occasionally painfully evolving public opinion about different ethnicities that is still developing. She also tries her best to usher in a bit of woman's liberation, open-mindedness in child rearing, and many other "progressive" attitudes. She's a symbol, in some ways, of Northeastern (U.S.) thinking filtering across the country in the early part of the 20th Century.

Giant is heavy on symbolism in many ways. Jett Rink's newfound fortune isn't just a personal transformation, but it symbolizes changing technology and the necessary adaptations to remain viable economically; it's a move away from a more agrarian existence. There is also pithy commentary on World War II--just look at who returns in one piece and who doesn't, and the different attitudes towards this.

It would probably take a book to just give an adequate analysis of this film. It goes without saying that you need to see Giant if you haven't already.

In 1920s, a wealthy Texan cattle rancher (Rock Hudson) travels to East Coast in order to buy a prize horse. There he meets a woman (Elizabeth Taylor), the daughter of his soon-to-be business partner, who he ends up marrying after a quick romance. The movie follows their lives down in Texas as the seasons change and the old ways begin to give ground to the new century.

Giant is an epic. It covers years and years of time and deals with all the prominent themes and problems of those decades. Things like oil business, racial issues, societal status, responsibility of the rich to the poor, and so many others, make an appearance and are addressed in turn. Taylor's character is the voice of the new age, while Hudson's is the voice of the old and their interactions are the driving voice of the film.

And it works. It is a very interesting film to follow if you know anything about that particular span of history. The film is over three hours long, and can thus cover a lot of ground and give each subject its due time. Though that can be a problem as well. It is a very slow film, with deliberate, calm pacing. Nothing much really happens most of the time, or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that things happen very slowly. Personally I found the film to be perhaps a bit too slow and deliberate, but if old epics are your thing, you'll definitely get what you're looking for.

Giant is to be applauded for its vision. It set out to tell a family saga in its full glory and in that regard it definitely delivers. From modern point of view it can a bit tedious, but I cannot in good faith condemn it for that.

Strange what time does. I wasn't in a hurry to see Giant again. I had a fuzzy memory of the film. I remembered James Dean but I also remembered the length and the pace. Now in 2018 it had a completely different effect. I was riveted from beginning to end. Elizabeth Taylor ! How is it that I didn't remember the groundbreaking aspect of her character. She's a woman of the future tied by marriage to a reactionary past. I was born in Italy but I've been married to a Texan for 23 years. I know Texas well and I know the difference between Texas and New York as well as Texans who never left Texas and Texans who have lived and traveled elsewhere. Giant, made in 1956 tells us that without partisan bias. That's how it was and how, in many respects still is. James Dean, magic, of course Rock Hudson is terrific but it is Elizabeth Taylor's film. Carroll Baker, Dennis Hopper, Mercedes McCambridge and Sal Mineo are moving parts of this arid and beautiful landscape.

George Steven's epic western GIANT, based on Edna Ferber's roman-fleuve about a wealthy Texas rancher household that spans over decades, rightfully won him a second Oscar for BEST DIRECTOR, but this is the sole trophy out of the picture's 10 nominations (although Mercedes McCambridge's coattail nomination is a fluke in hindsight, she has nothing to wield but a frosty front), mostly lost out to Michael Anderson's less time-honored AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS (1956), another taint forever besmirches the Academy's credibility.

The couple under the limelight is Jordan "Bick" Benedict Jr. (Hudson), the said rancher and his wife Leslie Lynnton (Taylor), a socialite from Maryland, who must adapt herself to the a completely different lifestyle but never flinches from her modern view of treating their Mexican employees (yes, they are referred as wetbacks) with equal respect, which collides with Bick's more entrenched racist frame of mind, and this "progressive East Coast vs. traditional Western Inland" leitmotif maintains as the pillar of the film and later evolves into Bick's epic defeat of his paternalistic arrangement in relation to their three children. Throughout, it is Bick's glacial change of his old-world attitude that flourishes during all the long years, Rock Hudson gives an endearingly no-nonsense impersonation that not unlike his first name, becomes a bedrock of the film, a pretense-free Texan learns to brave a new world that beyond his widest imagination and eventually transmutes into a better person, a titular "giant" in the end, even he is beaten up for standing up for the right cause, why it is so inspiring because it is a personal victory, and means the world to them, good deeds must be carried out no matter how formidable adversity looks, who can refute that?

Taylor, on the other hand, dazzles in Leslie's bluff honesty and impeccable integrity that makes us root for her right out of box, Leslie's life orbit is less tectonic, but incredibly, both she and Hudson acquit themselves convincingly under their senior makeup, to parent fresh-faces like Dennis Hopper and Carrol Baker, and a strong sense of affinity between the two never get attenuated, not even during their not-so-infrequent spats.

Of course, the biggest selling point is James Dean in his final picture, although for sentimental reasons, he received his second posthumous Oscar nomination in the leading actor category, but his indecipherable upstart Jett Rink is a substantial supporting character in the whole picture, and he would be a shoo-in to win if he could have competed in the category where his character truly belongs, however, his name had already become too big a legend to be relegated at that point. His portrayal of Jett, emphatically registers a false layer of insouciance that defies operatics, vaguely masks his touching vulnerability and troubling uneasiness towards the unattainable object of his desire, Leslie, whose footprint inadvertently strikes gold for him, but whose heart he can never conquer.

Thus, it is the black gold that sounds the death knell of the Western genre as we know it, Stevens and DP. William C. Mellor employ stunning imagery to exhibit the burgeoning modernization that invades the vastness where materialistic gain lies beneath and beckons, as an answer to the prior un-warped long shots which retain the Old West in its most august splendor, the cattle herd sequences, or the majestic take on Benedicts' singular mansion for instance, but at the end of the day, it is the story's sagacious message that transcends its racist, patriarchy milieu, and makes GIANT a culturally, historically and aesthetically significant American tome that takes us through an elemental learning-curve of open-mindedness and righteousness that flouts the specious "winner takes it all" precept, without forging its tangy nostalgia for a bygone era.

"Giant" is a sometimes forgotten masterpiece which is remembered for its massive budget (becoming the most expensive movie ever made at that time) and of course James Dean's death during the final stages of production. All the sub-stories during the making of this film overshadow the fact that this is easily one of the top ten movies ever made. Definitely in the class with epics like "Gone With the Wind" and "Lawrence of Arabia", "Giant" is a 200-minute symphony of a movie about the life of a Texas cattle rancher (Oscar-nominee Rock Hudson) and his wife from the East Coast (Elizabeth Taylor). Immediately following their marriage, Hudson's older sister (Mercedes McCambridge, Oscar-nominated) dies after falling off the same horse that Hudson had bought from Taylor's father. Disgusted with the fact that Hudson had married Taylor, McCambridge had decided to leave a small part of her land to quiet cow-hand James Dean (in his finest performance, garnering him his second consecutive posthumous Oscar nomination). Hudson is advised to buy the land from Dean, but Dean refuses to sell. Now Dean is trying to strike oil and is ultimately successful. He becomes a huge oil baron and one of the richest and most powerful men in Texas. Hudson continues to make money as well, but eventually has to swallow his pride and become a wild-catter himself. The hate and friction between Hudson and Dean is sure to lead to fireworks for all associated with the two volatile men. Secretly, Dean has always loved Taylor and even goes so far as to try and get with Taylor's youngest daughter (a brilliant turn by Carroll Baker). Dean is trying to substitute Baker for the lover he has always had for Taylor. By this time Dean is well in his 50s (due to heavy makeup), but he is trying to capture the failed dreams of his youth. Ultimately, Dean has everything except the one thing he really wanted. He lacks love in his life and he suffers miserably through as the film progresses. The older twin children of Hudson and Taylor's both grow up to go in very different directions. The daughter (Fran Bennett) marries and wants to run the ranch, to Hudson's approval and Taylor's dismay. However, the son (a very young Dennis Hopper) marries a Hispanic woman (very taboo back in those days) and wants to go north to become a doctor. Of course Hudson is outraged at this development and nearly disowns Hopper all together. Hudson then decides that Bennett's new husband (Earl Holliman) may be the best for the job. Holliman though is immediately drafted into World War II, along with Hispanic laborer Sal Mineo. Hudson worries about change after he passes away, but he eventually learns that most of the things he obsesses about are not as important as other matters. Equality for females and Hispanic Americans are major messages throughout here. Much like novelist Edna Ferber's equally excellent "Cimarron" (which dealt with sexism and racism toward Native- and African-Americans in Oklahoma), "Giant" paints a wonderfully complex picture of humanistic relationships from varying cinematic angles. Overall, "Giant" is a huge motion picture that is so smart, multi-layered and deep-thinking that it requires over three hours to tell the entire story. Everything here is so magnificent. The Oscar-winning direction by George Stevens, the screenplay, the art direction, the editing, the costume design, the makeup, the sound and the original musical score are all superb. Almost every actor does the best work of their respective careers as well. James Dean and Rock Hudson are the best. Mercedes McCambridge (albeit in a very small role) is super. Dennis Hopper and Carroll Baker (Baker even received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress in 1956 for "Baby Doll") both show amazing range at their very young ages. Chill Wills (who plays Hudson's old wise uncle) and Elizabeth Taylor give stellar performances as always. Overlooked in 1956 (the unmemorable "Around the World in 80 Days" won the Best Picture Oscar), "Giant" is easily the best film from that weak year and is ranked as the best movie of that decade in my book. One of the most excellent productions of all time. 5 stars out of 5.