Géant

This has recently played on Turner Classic Movies, and so they have been playing a short promo on the film. However, I disagree with the critics' assessment that this is a man versus woman film. Instead, this is a film about the pangs of old Texas giving birth to new Texas. Rock Hudson plays the young patriarch of a Texas ranching family, Bick Benedict, in the 1920s who goes to Maryland to buy a colt. He is instantly smitten with one of the daughters in the family (Elizabeth Taylor as Leslie) , in spite of the fact that she raises his Texas ire by saying things such as Texas was stolen from Mexico! Taylor's character is already spoken for, but she throws over her intended and she and Benedict marry on a whim.

Adjustment is hard for Leslie. The Benedict ranch is sprawling but devoid of Maryland's natural beauty. Bick's sister Luz runs the house and is not going to give that title up to some delicate East coast beauty. And when she tries to help the Mexican families that live on the ranch, she finds her husband angry with her. Ranch hand Jett Rink (James Dean in his last film role) falls madly in love with Leslie who just doesn't see it. Meanwhile Luz has always loved Jett, and that love later greatly complicates the Benedicts' lives in a very unconventional way.

Like I said, this is no man versus woman film. This is initially east coast liberal civilized values versus the rough and tumble values of what is still the Texas frontier in many ways. And it is the story of a family over 30 years as Texas changes in its values and what is important in its industry. For example, cattle ranching gives way in importance to the petroleum industry. As for changing values, Bick changes from a man who really doesn't see the Hispanics as human beings to somebody who literally takes a beating to defend the honor of one decades later.

Highly recommended as a film and as a showcase for the talents of Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor, and James Dean. Dean had other good showcases for his talent, but I feel Hudson and Taylor - in spite of her two Best Actress Oscars are both remembered too much for their soapy roles and not enough for their acting skills. Highly recommended.

"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.

The George Stevens Production of Giant for Warners, which Stevens also directed, is a monumental drama as big and inspiring as the locale for which it is named, Texas. Giant in size, giant in ambition, giant in the human emotions that are generated by the massive forces of nature and human development that make up the peculiarly American sub-nation, Texas, this picture readily takes its place with the handful of screen epics. Even its running time is tremendous, three hours and a quarter with no planned intermission, and your reaction to that is likely to be highly personal. For this reviewer, after two hours without a break the law of diminishing returns begins to operate, the human mind and the human frame being capable of absorbing just so much without an opportunity for refreshment or relief, of mind as well as body. This is no special criticism of George Stevens, whose brand is on every frame of this great picture, including a fine performance from Elizabeth Taylor, great acting from Rock Hudson and a piercing portrayal from James Dean. Giant stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the great ones.

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.

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.