Review of Giant (1956) by Leighton T — 17 Nov 2010

At its best, Giant is making commentary about social structure, old money/new money with the transition of the times, and racism in broad strokes with elaborate set pieces and costumes to aid it. At its worst, Giant shows melodramatic dialogue to be just what it is, bad age make-up applied to its main stars that paints the latter half as weaker than the first when it should be stronger, unsubtle commentary at times that makes it pretentious (that penultimate scene with the fist fight), and to be a gaudy piece for George Stevens to essentially show off beautiful people on beautiful sets.

I know it doesn't sound like it, but overall, I liked it. The negatives, while glaring at times, can be glossed over by the fact that it's great big-budget filmmaking. Unsubtlely and all. No epic is without flaws; it just so happens that epics have more time to show off their flaws than others.

Hudson and Taylor give strong performances, as well as Mercedes McCambridge in a very small role, but it's James Dean who is marvelous. I read one critic who said, that his performance, his last, is "poetry in motion." I couldn't agree more. To watch him in this is to see a nuanced character that is precisely calculated and yet natural at the same time. The early scenes, the awkward man who doesn't have a wife to feed him, segues perfectly into the later ones, where he's rich and jaded and still alone. It's a miracle of a performance (one that he barely got to finish, dying 2 weeks before the filming had finished) and deserved his Oscar nomination. I can't help but think though if he'd been nominated here for Supporting he would've won despite it being posthumous.