Giant has been a favorite of mine for several decades. It isn't a great masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination but it IS a good movie, fun to watch, beautifully filmed and well- cast. It's really good old-fashioned dressed-up, epic-length hokum, a genre that I enjoy once in awhile, like Ma and Pa Kettle movies, only here Ma and Pa are Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson.
Those two iconic actors are the main reason for watching Giant. They are in their early primes in 1956. I don't know which of them is the more beautiful but it's a close race. She went on to make Cleopatra 7 years later and became the Liz we all know today but in Giant she is more akin to the little girl in National Velvet. Rock Hudson was a fairly recent newcomer to the silver screen and this movie foreshadows his ultra-sexy character in Pillow Talk 3 years later. They are totally their starry selves in all their glory, and when the going gets rough, in this basically 2nd rate movie, you can simply feast your eyes on them, even as they age in the most ridiculous manner. I mean, they are only in their late 40s by the end and they are made up to look 65, even though her bust hasn't dropped to her naval and his tummy and behind are as firm and confident as they were when the show started. But they were grandparents by the end of the movie and gramma and grampa can't be sex objects now can they. But he's so sexy in those blue jeans (ahem!) that the mind can't help but wander.
There is a splendid cast of characters surrounding the two sex symbols. Old Western hands like Jane Withers and Chill Wills (Ma and Pa Kettle indeed) and a feisty and lovely Carroll Baker (can you believe she is 79 years old this year!) add interest to this large cast.
Dennis Hopper was far from his Easy Rider and Blue Velvet days and plays the milquetoast son of Rock and Liz who wants to be a doctor. Earl Holliman makes an early film appearance, the same year he appeared in the 50s Sci-Fi classic Forbidden Planet, appearing opposite to Robbie the Robot and Walter Pidgeon, a film that has much in common with Giant.
Giant was made well before the Cinerama vision and over-exaggerated Technicolor extravaganza Westerns like How the West Was Won (1962). Giant looks back to the older westerns like Johnny Guitar (1953) and even High Noon (1952). The magnificent camera work of Willam C. Mellor and Edwin DuPar manages, without Panavision and in a simple box frame, to convey the huge emptiness of West Texas and the endless skies filled with magnificent sunset-tinted clouds. Giant is an apt title for this manner of photography and is probably the greatest aspect of this movie. George Stevens was an old hand at Westerns and his direction prevents these actors from descending into clichéd impersonations of what Hollywood producers think mid-western people, 'Texians' in particular, are like.
Elizabeth Taylor does her rendition of Scarlett O'Hara; see also Raintree County (1957) and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), only not spoiled. Rock and James Dean (Jet Rink) create a palpable homo-erotic aura around their scenes together. Indeed the opening scenes at Reata (Rock's ranch in Texas) reeks of a secret demi-monde in the dry wastes of cattle country. Mercedes McCambridge (Luz Benedict) plays Rock's butch sister who dies early on in the movie. But before she gets bucked (from a horse) the movie has become a steam bath of sexual tension and jealousy. This atmosphere doesn't last long as the story becomes more and more conventional with less and less dramatic substance. Doris Day and Thelma Ritter could have appeared at this point and been right at home in the script.
James Dean is disappointing, mumbling and shuffling. His Method Acting training falls short with this cow-hand, but he's fully engaged in the script and makes the most of his pathetic character within his limitations. He is best before he discovers oil on his little patch of land left to him by Luz, who it is explained probably loved Jett but I suspect she was more of a protective lesbian bête-noire to him than a potential lover. Jet's part plummets (no pun intended) in quality and acting opportunity after he becomes a middle aged billionaire with a drinking problem.
The climax of the movie is Rock Hudson getting in a fist fight in a diner because the owner disses a Mexican family and won't serve them. As Rock's son, Jordan Benedict III, has married a Mexican woman and this movie is, I was surprised to learn at the end, all about racial equality, 1956 style. This becomes the whole raîson-d'être for this story and results in the most nauseating sentimentality at the end that you can possibly imagine involving a black calf a white sheep and a brunette baby and a blonde baby in a playpen. It is early P.C. schmalz and it flops badly. The movie just stops on this note leaving the story like a floater in a large cinematic toilet boil. It is the terrible ending that knocked this movie down from an 8 to a 6 rating in my book.
But don't let the horrid ending put you off. Giant is iconic in the film universe and the production values are first class, no amount of money was stinted in its making and it pays off. It's long but it isn't boring as Rock and Liz are on screen for most of its 197 minutes.
Those two iconic actors are the main reason for watching Giant. They are in their early primes in 1956. I don't know which of them is the more beautiful but it's a close race. She went on to make Cleopatra 7 years later and became the Liz we all know today but in Giant she is more akin to the little girl in National Velvet. Rock Hudson was a fairly recent newcomer to the silver screen and this movie foreshadows his ultra-sexy character in Pillow Talk 3 years later. They are totally their starry selves in all their glory, and when the going gets rough, in this basically 2nd rate movie, you can simply feast your eyes on them, even as they age in the most ridiculous manner. I mean, they are only in their late 40s by the end and they are made up to look 65, even though her bust hasn't dropped to her naval and his tummy and behind are as firm and confident as they were when the show started. But they were grandparents by the end of the movie and gramma and grampa can't be sex objects now can they. But he's so sexy in those blue jeans (ahem!) that the mind can't help but wander.
There is a splendid cast of characters surrounding the two sex symbols. Old Western hands like Jane Withers and Chill Wills (Ma and Pa Kettle indeed) and a feisty and lovely Carroll Baker (can you believe she is 79 years old this year!) add interest to this large cast.
Dennis Hopper was far from his Easy Rider and Blue Velvet days and plays the milquetoast son of Rock and Liz who wants to be a doctor. Earl Holliman makes an early film appearance, the same year he appeared in the 50s Sci-Fi classic Forbidden Planet, appearing opposite to Robbie the Robot and Walter Pidgeon, a film that has much in common with Giant.
Giant was made well before the Cinerama vision and over-exaggerated Technicolor extravaganza Westerns like How the West Was Won (1962). Giant looks back to the older westerns like Johnny Guitar (1953) and even High Noon (1952). The magnificent camera work of Willam C. Mellor and Edwin DuPar manages, without Panavision and in a simple box frame, to convey the huge emptiness of West Texas and the endless skies filled with magnificent sunset-tinted clouds. Giant is an apt title for this manner of photography and is probably the greatest aspect of this movie. George Stevens was an old hand at Westerns and his direction prevents these actors from descending into clichéd impersonations of what Hollywood producers think mid-western people, 'Texians' in particular, are like.
Elizabeth Taylor does her rendition of Scarlett O'Hara; see also Raintree County (1957) and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), only not spoiled. Rock and James Dean (Jet Rink) create a palpable homo-erotic aura around their scenes together. Indeed the opening scenes at Reata (Rock's ranch in Texas) reeks of a secret demi-monde in the dry wastes of cattle country. Mercedes McCambridge (Luz Benedict) plays Rock's butch sister who dies early on in the movie. But before she gets bucked (from a horse) the movie has become a steam bath of sexual tension and jealousy. This atmosphere doesn't last long as the story becomes more and more conventional with less and less dramatic substance. Doris Day and Thelma Ritter could have appeared at this point and been right at home in the script.
James Dean is disappointing, mumbling and shuffling. His Method Acting training falls short with this cow-hand, but he's fully engaged in the script and makes the most of his pathetic character within his limitations. He is best before he discovers oil on his little patch of land left to him by Luz, who it is explained probably loved Jett but I suspect she was more of a protective lesbian bête-noire to him than a potential lover. Jet's part plummets (no pun intended) in quality and acting opportunity after he becomes a middle aged billionaire with a drinking problem.
The climax of the movie is Rock Hudson getting in a fist fight in a diner because the owner disses a Mexican family and won't serve them. As Rock's son, Jordan Benedict III, has married a Mexican woman and this movie is, I was surprised to learn at the end, all about racial equality, 1956 style. This becomes the whole raîson-d'être for this story and results in the most nauseating sentimentality at the end that you can possibly imagine involving a black calf a white sheep and a brunette baby and a blonde baby in a playpen. It is early P.C. schmalz and it flops badly. The movie just stops on this note leaving the story like a floater in a large cinematic toilet boil. It is the terrible ending that knocked this movie down from an 8 to a 6 rating in my book.
But don't let the horrid ending put you off. Giant is iconic in the film universe and the production values are first class, no amount of money was stinted in its making and it pays off. It's long but it isn't boring as Rock and Liz are on screen for most of its 197 minutes.