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Created Aug 19, 2009 09:54PM PST • Edited Nov 08, 2023 12:39AM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Great 4.0

   A deserved classic, this aptly titled movie features giant stars, a ginormous mansion incongruously stuck in the heart of the giant state of Texas, a running time that exceeds three hours and giant story elements. It all works amazingly well, never seeming drawn-out or boring, notwithstanding a rather stately pace.

   Chronicling the amplification of 20th Century Texas society from cattle wealth to oil megawealth, Giant also stoops to conquer racism towards Mexicans. It does all this by following three generations of Texas gentry, their feudal underlings, rivals and assorted functionaries.

   Charismatically performed by a superstar-led cast, smoothly directed by mid-century Hollywood master George Stevens and branded into legend by James Dean’s untimely death, Giant stands tall 50 years later.

4. Acting

   Very Good 3.5

   James Dean – in his third and final movie – provides a bolt of deranged energy every time he appears on screen. Sadly, this totals hardly a third of the movie. His drunken fiasco near the end – known as the Last Supper in Hollywood – proved he could act. Mumbled charisma intact, he convincingly played a man much older than himself, thus earning a posthumous Best Actor nomination at the ’56 Academy Awards.¹

   Rock Hudson certainly looks the part of tall Texan gentry. Too bad his performance lacks grit, notwithstanding the Best Actor nomination he received for it at the 1956 Academy Awards. The fact that his career was mostly comprised of light drama and comedies proves he was out of his depth here.

   Elizabeth Taylor lights up the screen early in the movie as a saucy rich girl. Her performance becomes less interesting as the movie moves beyond the first act however, both because her role takes more of a backseat and because she wasn’t especially convincing as an older woman. Just in her early twenties, she played a character who aged into her fifties. Of course, James Dean was the same age yet proved to be the better actor, given that his character aged the same amount.

   The rest of the large cast hold their own with the three superstar leads.

   • Dennis Hopper, in one of his earliest movie roles, comes across very well as the conflicted son of privilege, a persona he’d come to embody over the course of his long career.
   • Carroll Baker is okay as Dennis Hopper’s sister. Interestingly, she’s a year older than Liz Taylor, who played her mother. Ah, Hollywood, where age is just a state of makeup and lighting.
   • Mercedes McCambridge brings grit and spice to the role of ranch sister.
   • Chill Wills delivers his distinctive Western charm as a family functionary. Besides, the guy’s got one of the coolest names ever. Chill Wills. Super cool dude.

   ---

   ¹ He actually died before filming concluded.

5. Male Stars Very Good 3.5

   Rock Hudson was merely Good, while James Dean was Great. Net result is Good +.

6. Female Stars Very Good 3.5

7. Female Costars Great 4.0

8. Male Costars Great 4.0

10. Film

    Great 4.0

    George Stevens ably used a huge budget, huge set and a full year in the editing room to deliver his polished and flowing film. His IMDB bio emphasizes that the movie focuses on outsiders – Liz Taylor’s character is an outsider to Texas, James Dean’s character is an outsider to polite society, Mexicans are outsiders to the dominant white society, and even Rock Hudson’s character becomes an outsider at the end when he stands up against racism. All this alienative tension keeps the story interesting, while Stevens’ smooth eye behind the camera and in the editing room keep it flowing.

11. Direction Great 4.0

    Stevens won his second and final Best Director Oscar for Giant, five years after he won his his first for A Place in the Sun. His 1950s output also included Shane (1953) and The Diary of Anne Frank (1959). Hell of a string.

12. Play Great 4.0

    Stevens’ outsider theme was well set up by Pulitzer Prize winning novelist and playwright Edna Ferber’s story. The legendary Ferber was inspired to write Giant after meeting Glenn McCarthy at his Shamrock Hotel. (See the Reality commentary below for more on Diamond Glenn).

13. Music Very Good 3.5

    The #1 pop song in the US at the time of Dean’s death, The Yellow Rose of Texas by Mitch Miller, was also featured in Giant in a scene following the actor’s last appearance in the film. Source: Wikipedia

14. Visuals Really Great 4.5
15. Content

16. Edge

    Tame 1.5

    1950s edginess = 21st Century tame.

17. Sex Innocent 1.4

18. Violence Gentle 1.5

19. Rudeness Salty 1.6

21. Reality

    Glib 1.2

    The movie pictures the rise of Texas Rich oilmen, including ranchers who found that derricks were vastly more profitable than Angus, and wildcatters who used their megawealth however they damn well pleased.

    Jett Rink (James Dean’s character) was based on one of the most famous of the latter. Glenn McCarthy, variously referred to as Diamond Glenn and The King of the Wildcatters, built a $21,000,000 hotel in 1949, flying Ginger Rogers, Errol Flynn and other Hollywood celebs to Houston for the grand opening on a Boeing Stratoliner he’d bought from Howard Hughes. That boondoggle forms the basis for the blowout towards the end of the movie known as James Dean’s Last Supper.

    You can’t make this stuff up. Especially when talking about Texas.

22. Circumstantial Glib 1.5

23. Biological Natural 1.0

24. Physical Natural 1.0