Giant [1956]

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Primary Contributor : Elizabeth Taylor
Primary Contributor : Rock Hudson

Product Details

Director : George Stevens
Actor : Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, James Dean, Carroll Baker, Jane Withers
Format : Digital Sound, HiFi Sound, PAL
Binding : VHS Tape
EAN : 5014780114142
Product Group : Video
Release Date : 2000-02-14
Running Time : 193minutes
Studio : Warner Home Video

ASIN : B00004CJ4C

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review

They call it Giant because everything in this picture is big, from the generous running time (more than 200 minutes) to the sprawling ranch location (a horizon-to-horizon plain with a lonely, modest mansion dropped in the middle) to the high-powered stars. Stocky Rock Hudson stars as the confident, stubborn young ranch baron Bick Benedict, who woos and wins the hand of Southern belle Elizabeth Taylor, a seemingly demure young beauty who proves to be Hudson's match after she settles into the family homestead. For many the film is chiefly remembered for James Dean's final performance, as poor former ranch hand Jett Rink, who strikes oil and transforms himself into a flamboyant millionaire playboy. Director George Stevens won his second Oscar for this ambitious, grandly realised (if sometimes slow moving) epic of the changing socio-economic (and physical) landscape of modern Texas, based on Edna Ferber's bestselling novel. The talented supporting cast includes Mercedes McCambridge as Bick's frustrated sister, put out by the new "woman of the house"; Chill Wills as the Benedicts' garrulous rancher neighbour; Carroll Baker and Dennis Hopper as the Benedicts' rebellious children; and Earl Holliman and Sal Mineo as dedicated ranch hands.--Sean Axmaker, Amazon.com

Video Description

Giant was nominated for 10 Academy Awards with director George Stevens winning his second Oscar for this ambitious, grandly realized epic of the changing socio-economic (and physical) landscape of modern Texas, based on Edna Ferber’s best-selling novel. Triple Academy Award winner Elizabeth Taylor (Butterfield 8, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?) stars alongside 4-time Golden Globe winner Rock Hudson (Oscar nominated for his role in Giant) and Golden Globe winner James Dean (Rebel Without a Cause, East of Eden).

Living up to its title, everything in this picture is big, from the running time to the sprawling ranch location and the high-powered stars. Rock Hudson stars as the confident, stubborn young ranch baron Jordan ‘Bick’ Benedict, who woos and wins the hand of Southern belle Leslie (Elizabeth Taylor), a seemingly demure young beauty who proves to be Bick’s match after she settles into the family homestead. The film sees James Dean’s final performance before his tragic death, as poor former ranch hand Jett Rink, who strikes oil and transforms himself into a flamboyant millionaire playboy, earning a second posthumous Academy Award nomination. The talented supporting cast includes Mercedes McCambridge as Bick’s frustrated sister, put out by the new woman of the house, and with Carroll Baker and Dennis Hopper as the Benedict’s rebellious children.

Synopsis

Set against the background of the Texas oil fields, a young ranch-hand who strikes it rich becomes an embarrassment to the traditional Texas oil barons.

Customer Reviews

Like a 3 hour episode of Dallas (2008-06-12)

George Stevens' 3 hour sprawling epic of Texan life, taken from Edna Ferber's novel, strives so hard for serious statements that it ends up as a long yawn. Dealing with the two men who love Taylor - strait-laced cattle baron Hudson, and the less respectable rancher who strikes it rich with oil (James Dean, a strange spectacle in himself as he turns grey) - the film attempts to conduct some sort of attack on rampant materialism, as well as offering an elegy for the times that have a-changed. But the pace is so plodding, and the general effect so stultifyingly unsubtle, that one is left impressed only by the fine landscape photography and Dean's surprisingly convincing portrayal of a middle-aged man- Jett Rink. Unlike Rebel Without a Cause and to a lesser extent East of Eden, Giant is not so much a James Dean film, rather than one in which he plays a leading role rather than being centre stage. And as such, it does give us some insight into how his career might have progressed if he hadn't died during production. (He'd finished shooting all his scenes and was going to make Somebody Up There Likes Me next, when he had his fatal car accident. Nick Adams, uncredited, looped some of his dialogue.) This dvd is loaded with extras. On Side B of Disc One is a documentary made in 2001, George Stevens: Filmmakers Who Knew Him, a set of interviews with directors old and new who had worked with Stevens. The interviewees, each of whom has a separate chapter to himself, are Warren Beatty, Frank Capra, Rouben Mamoulian, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Alan J. Pakula, Antonio Vellani (associate producer of The Greatest Story Ever Told), Robert Wise and Fred Zinnemann. Although it's a tribute to a famous late director, as quite a few of these men have since passed on themselves, or in Wise's case still alive but very elderly, this is a valuable record of them as well. This featurette is in 4:3 and runs 45:37.

Dinosaurs were giant too.. (2006-02-03)

Taken from the novel by Edna Ferber, whose also bequeathed the screenShow Boat and Cimarron, Giant certainly lives up to its name. It wasDean's last film, playing Jet Rink, disaffected field hand turned oilmillionaire. But it's a film packed with other big names too: Hudson,Taylor, Hopper, Carol Baker, Mineo and McCambridge all appear in alarger than life melodrama set over several decades. The film managesto pack in some daring themes too: racial and social intolerance chiefamongst them. In Show Boat, Ferber included miscegenation among theplot elements. Here it returns, as a Benedict mixed marriage facesprejudice, while Rink's casual racism is also an issue. Finally,there's a strong central female character, played by Taylor, who at onepoint has the audacity to lecture her men folk on treating her and herkind like a child - an unexpected moment in conservative Americancinema, to say the least.

Although having been criticised for stodginess (Andrew Sarris oncewrote that the director's technique "once looked almost like anofficial style for national epics.") Stevens' grip on the film isundeniably impressive, managing some splendid set ups. Onlyoccasionally does one feel that a little judicious trimming would havetightened the narrative, notably in some of the dialogue scenes betweenthe married Benedicts, which, though well written, drag on a little toolong.

Today one is reminded of the work of Douglas Sirk, another director ofthe time specialising in big, colour melodrama, also frequentlystarring Rock Hudson. The difference is that Sirk injects his lessgrandiose projects with healthy degrees of coded irony, theirsubversive elements making his films seem all the more modern today.Giant, for all its aforementioned achievements, seems stuck in the1950s, its radical edge insincere. In Sirk's Written On The Wind forinstance, which also deals with oil millionaires, acquisition andwealth is associated with sexual neurosis, in a way entirely absenthere. In fact Benedict's massive, casual wealth and ownership ispresented as something healthy and natural, its effects only distortingpersonality when granted to the 'wrong' people (Rink). Stevens iscontent to show Benedict's huge mansion as a successful center of acattle empire, a social hub useful and essential. None of Benedict'spossessions come to seem hollow or trivial; in fact there is nocriticism of his lifestyle at all, overtly or otherwise, apart fromsome sexual politicking by his feisty young wife. Miscegenation appearsas a topic in Sirk's Imitation of Life too, but with none of thetokenism which one suspects here. In Stevens' work, Mrs Benedict (ElsaCárdenas) sadly speaks few significant words throughout - except to begrateful to her white benefactors, or in running off for their aid.Despite claims on our sympathies, she remains powerless.

Of course, one might go for a long time wishing Giant was the film itis not, as ultimately Stevens views melodrama differently. The finestscenes in his film are those in the first half, where content is mostclosely married to purpose, and where the trappings of privilege andwealth are still fresh enough to be inspiring. For instance, both theeccentric romancing of Benedict and his headstrong wife to be, and thejealousy of Luz at the new member of the household, are excellentlydone. Add to this the appearance of Jet Rink, the outsider to thecommunity unexpectedly set to strike it rich, and there is much toenjoy here in scenes revealing emotions frequently as broad and asgrand as the country in which they are set.

Unfortunately as Rink grows older, so the film grows progressively lessinteresting and convincing with him. Dean's forte was as misunderstoodteenager, his style amplifying the associated angst to the nth degree.The mumbling and recalcitrant characteristics of his method acting ablyreflects back an archetypal youthful alienation. But when trying thesame trick as a middle aged Rink, these characteristics are notcompatible with a successful businessman, who plainly needs to have'grown up' to sustain a commercial empire. The result is that the olderRink seems increasingly all at sea, his character collapsing under theweight of its inappropriate quirks, like a table at the conferencehall.

As the ageing Benedict. Hudson does a reasonable job, but it's a rolewhich plainly would have suited an actor with greater range, saySpencer Tracy, bringing increasing gravitas, even a sense of tragedy,to his position as the years roll on. Hudson is always watchable, doeshis best, but still seems the same age throughout, albeit with paddedgut and white hair. And with due deference to the efforts of DennisHopper too, with hindsight one would rather have seen Sal Mineo giventhe important role of sensitive younger son, especially as he hadworked so well earlier with Dean in Rebel Without A Cause.

Most disastrous of all for Giant's final impression are the closingscenes, a bathetic close that clearly shows a project running out ofcreative steam. A now contented and platitudinous Benedict couple,staring at their two grandchildren, stared at by livestock, ends upbeing embarrassing. It's not the moving and symbolic conclusion to agrand family saga the makers undoubtedly intended. Once again, Sirkdoes it better: at the close of All That Heaven Allowshandyman-gardener Hudson has a picture-postcard deer too, installed inhis back garden. But it's an animal whose appearance owes less to abogus harmony than to Sirk's sly dig at emotional artificiality, aChristmas card confection of smugness made manifest.

Stevens' work remains Sunday matinée material today, and modern viewerswill find much to enjoy in its glossy production values and the rangeof acting ability on display. But the feeling is that it remainsoverrated, a lumbering beast whose best time has been and gone, areminder that dinosaurs were giant too

my first grownup movie (2004-05-27)

I remember seeing this film at the cinema when I was 12?? I was totally enthralled, and have since watched it many times on Video. In my opinion this is the best performance that Taylor ever gave, and Rock Hudson was given a chance to do something other than look beautiful. The storyline encompassed many changes in the topographical and sociological make up of the State of Texas (and therefore the USA) and was way ahead of it's time. Hudson's character goes through a sea change before the end of the film. Nowadays it may look naive and a little too "pat" but it was brave for its time. Beautiful photography puts it on a par with The Big Country and James Dean does a lovely job of passing from youthful rebel to the ageing tycoon complete with powdered grey hair. It had a profound effect on me as a kid, and it hasn't dated. You can't say that about many films. The theme is universal- troublesome children, social change, tradition versus money, it's all there. I think this film isd underrated, and will emerge later with a little more kudos than it is given at present.

Great extras!!! (2003-06-25)

The picture quality on the DVD is outstanding, but the extras on the second disk make this worth the purchase price. Outstanding documentary, "Return To Giant" that goes back to the location site in Marfa, Texas, and talks with locals who worked on the set. Home movies and candid photos of the stars make this something special. If you want to know just how deeply rooted this film was in the REAL Texas of 1955, check out this documentary. It will help you appreciate the actual film that much more.

An often overlooked modern classic! (2001-10-11)

An epic tale filmed in a wild and bleak semi-desert setting. James Dean stands out in his brilliance and originality, and this was the last movie he made before his death. Is long(ish), but well worth it!

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