"Giant" is the word. This is an epic of gigantic ambitions fully achieved thanks to the confident directing of George Stevens, his mastery of the camera as a unique tool of storytelling and the confident performances of the Rock Hudson, Liz Taylor and James Dean's trio.
James Dean steals every scene he's in, and even in his most bizarre and awkward moments, Dean actually contributes to the modernization of a tone that would have otherwise been deemed as conventional and old-fashioned. While the film's appeal doesn't rest on the shoulders of Dean (who is a supporting character, not leading, don't be fooled) paraphrasing Bick Benedict (Hudson), Dean is that bit of vinegar in the greens: he gives flavor.
It is quite ironic that the sourest character of the film is the one who supposedly exemplifies the American Dream, a young kid who inherited a small piece of land and was bought out as soon as he got it, for twice the value. Whatever awaits him, he knows it's a small price to get rid of a land, which is the only possible wealth (remember what Scarlett O'Hara's father said about it being the only thing worthy dying and fighting for, because it is the only thing that lasts) Jett Rink keeps the land, builds one derrick and then, years of labor pay off with oil gushing from land's womb. He's literally intoxicated with the climax of his efforts, he becomes rich, he gets the power but remains a hapless and bitter man. He didn't have Leslie, Bick's wife, played by Elizabeth Taylor.
The way I retell it might echo the line of Tony Montana about the American Dream, there is in Rink's "last supper" scene the surly mood of Tony in the restaurant, the disgust when confronted to the decadence of the one he thought to be his love. And from the visible failure of Rink, the movie ends with Bick telling Leslie that he's a failure because he invested all his time and work to have the biggest cattle of Texas so that his children could inherit it, one became a doctor and married a Mexican, one married a rancher who believes "big stuff is old stuff", and another is infatuated with his archenemy. It takes a wonderful concluding speech from Leslie, to remind him all the journey they went through during these 25 years, and how he started as a traditional rancher who despised Mexicans, and ended up risking his own neck to defend these "people" against racism, to have raised kids who were open enough to embrace other cultures and to have things "their way".
"Giant" does close the arc of their characters in such a way that we can only applaud the efforts of George Stevens and the writers who adapted the screenplay from the novel by Edna Faber, to make a powerful social comment about Texas and the many particularities of Texan culture from both a local perspective and an outsider's. The masterstroke is that Bick, the tough and towering rancher comes to buy a stallion in Virginia but comes back with an unexpected and more valuable catch, a delicate beauty who speaks for herself and shows more strength than the usual housewife. It takes a time to adapt to Texas' methods but from the way she handles her tough sister-in-law, played by Mercedes McCambridge, we know that a liberating wind will dust-off the place.
Indeed, I was surprised to see issues like racism and feminism tackled in a film that could have easily been deemed as traditional epic family sagas sweeping two decades and half of America's history and of a Texan family caught in the air of social change, there is something of "Gone With the Wind" in the film with the vast deserted plains, the derricks, the cattle and Stetsons as backdrops, and wild and loud "Yee-haw" resonating in the horizon, it only lacks that historical magnitude but that actually fits the tone of the film. Stevens cares for the characters more than the plot in itself and it's from their actions, their words and their interactions that we can sense their evolution, for better or worse. Without being a character study, this is a film driven by people that never feel like individual archetypes, so the conflicts and arguments never lead to 'narrative' resolutions, like life.
And it's for this realistic fluidity, this mundane banality directed with pure 50's gusto, that you never feel the length but get carried in the flow of events, some happy, some sad, that affect the lives of these people, even Rock Hudson is effective as the patriarch of the family whose authority is constantly questioned, this is no Richard Dix in "Cimarron", this is a man, who is vulnerable but tries to hide it, a man who is so rooted in the heritage from the past that he doesn't see himself as an individual but as the link between his fathers and his sons. There's a moment where he realizes that his idealistic worship of traditions doesn't amount to a hill of a beans in the modern world, so he just accept Jett Rink's deal in a sort of "oh, what the heck" mindset, it was anticlimactic, but I liked it. The irony is that it improved his life without making Rink a better man.
"Giant" is a giant film by many aspects, great cast, great story (that Stevens put in "history"), and beautiful sweeping shots that allow us to measure the vastness of Texas, the generosity of its people... and their flaws, too. And like the two other James Dean's movie, it's also part of Hollywood history as the movie that allowed Dean to grace the screen one last time before being swept by a tragic Karma. What an omen that he had to 'age' for the film, he who never aged after that.
And the film didn't age either
James Dean steals every scene he's in, and even in his most bizarre and awkward moments, Dean actually contributes to the modernization of a tone that would have otherwise been deemed as conventional and old-fashioned. While the film's appeal doesn't rest on the shoulders of Dean (who is a supporting character, not leading, don't be fooled) paraphrasing Bick Benedict (Hudson), Dean is that bit of vinegar in the greens: he gives flavor.
It is quite ironic that the sourest character of the film is the one who supposedly exemplifies the American Dream, a young kid who inherited a small piece of land and was bought out as soon as he got it, for twice the value. Whatever awaits him, he knows it's a small price to get rid of a land, which is the only possible wealth (remember what Scarlett O'Hara's father said about it being the only thing worthy dying and fighting for, because it is the only thing that lasts) Jett Rink keeps the land, builds one derrick and then, years of labor pay off with oil gushing from land's womb. He's literally intoxicated with the climax of his efforts, he becomes rich, he gets the power but remains a hapless and bitter man. He didn't have Leslie, Bick's wife, played by Elizabeth Taylor.
The way I retell it might echo the line of Tony Montana about the American Dream, there is in Rink's "last supper" scene the surly mood of Tony in the restaurant, the disgust when confronted to the decadence of the one he thought to be his love. And from the visible failure of Rink, the movie ends with Bick telling Leslie that he's a failure because he invested all his time and work to have the biggest cattle of Texas so that his children could inherit it, one became a doctor and married a Mexican, one married a rancher who believes "big stuff is old stuff", and another is infatuated with his archenemy. It takes a wonderful concluding speech from Leslie, to remind him all the journey they went through during these 25 years, and how he started as a traditional rancher who despised Mexicans, and ended up risking his own neck to defend these "people" against racism, to have raised kids who were open enough to embrace other cultures and to have things "their way".
"Giant" does close the arc of their characters in such a way that we can only applaud the efforts of George Stevens and the writers who adapted the screenplay from the novel by Edna Faber, to make a powerful social comment about Texas and the many particularities of Texan culture from both a local perspective and an outsider's. The masterstroke is that Bick, the tough and towering rancher comes to buy a stallion in Virginia but comes back with an unexpected and more valuable catch, a delicate beauty who speaks for herself and shows more strength than the usual housewife. It takes a time to adapt to Texas' methods but from the way she handles her tough sister-in-law, played by Mercedes McCambridge, we know that a liberating wind will dust-off the place.
Indeed, I was surprised to see issues like racism and feminism tackled in a film that could have easily been deemed as traditional epic family sagas sweeping two decades and half of America's history and of a Texan family caught in the air of social change, there is something of "Gone With the Wind" in the film with the vast deserted plains, the derricks, the cattle and Stetsons as backdrops, and wild and loud "Yee-haw" resonating in the horizon, it only lacks that historical magnitude but that actually fits the tone of the film. Stevens cares for the characters more than the plot in itself and it's from their actions, their words and their interactions that we can sense their evolution, for better or worse. Without being a character study, this is a film driven by people that never feel like individual archetypes, so the conflicts and arguments never lead to 'narrative' resolutions, like life.
And it's for this realistic fluidity, this mundane banality directed with pure 50's gusto, that you never feel the length but get carried in the flow of events, some happy, some sad, that affect the lives of these people, even Rock Hudson is effective as the patriarch of the family whose authority is constantly questioned, this is no Richard Dix in "Cimarron", this is a man, who is vulnerable but tries to hide it, a man who is so rooted in the heritage from the past that he doesn't see himself as an individual but as the link between his fathers and his sons. There's a moment where he realizes that his idealistic worship of traditions doesn't amount to a hill of a beans in the modern world, so he just accept Jett Rink's deal in a sort of "oh, what the heck" mindset, it was anticlimactic, but I liked it. The irony is that it improved his life without making Rink a better man.
"Giant" is a giant film by many aspects, great cast, great story (that Stevens put in "history"), and beautiful sweeping shots that allow us to measure the vastness of Texas, the generosity of its people... and their flaws, too. And like the two other James Dean's movie, it's also part of Hollywood history as the movie that allowed Dean to grace the screen one last time before being swept by a tragic Karma. What an omen that he had to 'age' for the film, he who never aged after that.
And the film didn't age either