Review of Giant (1956) by Chris W — 07 Sep 2013

James Dean had a big career on his hands. He wowed audiences with his acclaimed works in films East of Eden and his most famous, Rebel Without a Cause, but during post-production of his third starring feature, George Stevens' Giant, Dean died at the age of 24 in a tragic car crash. Because of this, the three films Dean starred in are referred to as the "James Dean Trilogy" today. While Rebel Without a Cause is much more compelling, Giant is a big-screen epic that shouldn't be avoided to those who crave James Dean.

The film begins where Texan cattle-baron Bick Benedict (Rock Hudson) heads to Maryland to buy off a tough horse for his ranch. During purchase, he falls for the owner's daughter, Leslie (Elizabeth Taylor) and eventually marries her and takes her off to his ginormous ranch. Leslie becomes an independent woman, developing time with hired hand Jet Rink (James Dean) and helping out the local Mexican population. Years later, the couple's children grow up and want to do their own things. The son (Dennis Hopper) wants to become a doctor and not take over the ranch and the daughter (Carroll Baker) falls for Jet, who has struck oil and become a wealthy, arrogant millionaire, which makes Bick awfully mad. The family also has to deal with racial prejudice and social change in Texas.

Giant features a massive cast, also starring Mercedes McCambridge as Hudson's tomboyish sister who's jealous of Taylor taking over the household, Fran Bennett as the family's other daughter, Sal Mineo as a Mexican soldier whose live was saved by Taylor as a baby, and Earl Holliman as a local rancher who falls for one of the daughters.

Let me get all my positives out of the way before I start to criticize some little issues I had with it. To start off, the cinematography in giant is spectacular. Like with Stevens' western Shane, the color cinematography stands out to where your breath is taken away in every shot. The location shots of Texas stuns, even the sets of the ranch delight as well. Very stunning shots.

The story is pretty powerful here. Themes of racism, tolerance, and justice still carry out in today's time and would serve as a good history lesson for those who are still racist towards the Mexican population.

Now I have to admit, when I first saw Rock Hudson on screen, I thought he was very wooden in the part. But as the film progressed, especially in the second half in the film, Hudson became a very likable actor and the film and becomes very inspiring to watch, particularly in a scene where he gets into a fight with a racist bar owner. Elizabeth Taylor, on the other hand, is stunning. Positively stunning. She's attractive, she's funny, and delights in every scene. Her chemistry with Hudson and James Dean are brilliant and serve as strong Hollywood acting. Her best scene is where she makes a speech comparing men to cavemen after being shunned out of a political debate. As for James Dean, he clearly steals the show. Looking back, I'm amazed at the maturity Dean made from Rebel to Giant. Seriously, he goes from a rebel without a cause to a poor worker turned corrupt oil tycoon, Dean's ability to act emotionally is very strong and manages to wow in occasional humor, particularly in his final drunken speech, which can also seem depressing cause it was the last scene he did before his tragic death, being called his "last supper" among many James Dean fans. Dean's character is also pretty racist towards the end of the film, but Dean plays the role like it could have been pulled off by older legends like Bogart or Peck. While Bogart or Peck could have done the role fine, this is Dean's killer role, and Dean ends his short career on a super high note, even if his definitive role for many, including me, remains Rebel Without a Cause. Interesting trivia, Dean's next role would have been the role Paul Newman ended up getting in the sports drama Somebody Up There Likes Me.

Now, the criticisms begin. The children actors aren't as strong as Dean, Hudson, or Taylor. When the kids were kids, I wasn't wowed. I was annoyed, especially in a scene where all the kids got upset cause they were about to eat a turkey they really loved. Got me pretty upset cause I love eating turkeys so much. When the child's grow up, I didn't feel a strong connection with the characters, even if the acting was good. I liked Dennis Hopper as the son, but despite showing racial tolerance by marrying a Mexican and showing true tolerance in the racism scenes, I felt little connection with the character, especially in scenes with Hudson. Carroll Baker is a strong actress in How the West was Won, but in Giant, despite being the best of the three younger actors, was still weak in emotions. She had good chemistry with Dean, but the overdramatizing of her character wasn't entirely convincing. As for Fran Bennett as the other daughter, she was in for so little I couldn't care less. But Mercedes McCambridge as the sister of Hudson in the beginning had a memorable appearance, even if she seems rude and pyscopathey in some cases, especially around a certain horse.

While I find Dmitri Tiomkin to be a good composer, especially his score for Hitchcock's brilliant suspense thriller Shadow of a Doubt, I did not feel a connection to his score here. While I did feel some emotional connections in some moments, particularly a military funeral, for an epic as this, the score was a bit of an underuse. I felt particularly underwhelmed by it, despite the strong messages it has.

My final issue I had with Giant is the length. It's three and a half hours of epic drama, but it was way too long. While a long length can work in films as Gone with the Wind and Lawrence of Arabia, in Giant, some things could have been left out, particularly scenes of the young kids and Elizabeth Taylor's sister characters wedding should have been trimmed entirely. She had little to do with the film, why show it?

Despite the lengthiness, under-characterization of certain characters, and an underwhelming score, Giant still remains a powerful film nonetheless. The messages remain strong, performances from Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor, and James Dean remain extremely powerful, and the cinematography and George Stevens' direction is not to be missed. Dean's career might have been too short, but at least his final film is a good one to end on.