Edna Ferber's best-selling family saga was the source of Stevens' sprawling epic, which stars Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor, and James Dean, in his last film appearance. When Texas cattleman Bick Benedict (Hudson) goes to Virginia in the early 1920s to buy a prize stallion, he falls in love with Leslie Lynnton (Taylor), an .. Read more
| Starring | James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, Carroll Baker |
|---|---|
| Director | George Stevens |
| Genres | Drama |
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Edna Ferber's best-selling family saga was the source of Stevens' sprawling epic, which stars Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor, and James Dean, in his last film appearance. When Texas cattleman Bick Benedict (Hudson) goes to Virginia in the early 1920s to buy a prize stallion, he falls in love with Leslie Lynnton (Taylor), an aristocratic, independent-minded beauty, and they quickly marry. He takes her back to Reata, his 600,000-acre ranch, where sister Luz (Mercedes McCambridge), the family matriarch, does her best to make Leslie feel unwelcome. Leslie is appalled by the second-class status accorded to women and racist attitudes toward the local Mexicans, neither of which seem to bother her husband. Out of compassion, she befriends surly ranch hand Jett Rink (James Dean), who comes to worship her from afar, envying Bick for both his wealth and his wife. He strikes oil on land bequeathed to him by the deceased Luz and his wealth and power grow apace. As the years pass, the bewildered Bick often finds his children thwarting his wishes and criticizing his beliefs, pushing the millionaire to question his values for the first time in his life. The film's outstanding cast, which also features Dennis Hopper, Sal Mineo, Carroll Baker, Earl Holliman, and Chill Wills, inject vitality into a project that occasionally suffers from longueurs.
| Starring | James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, Carroll Baker |
|---|---|
| Director | George Stevens |
| Studio | WARNER HOME VIDEO |
| Run time | DVD: 3 hrs 13 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Collections | 100 Wild Westerns, American Film Institute's top 100 |
| Genres | Drama |
| Language | DVD: English |
| Released | Production year: 1956 To Rent: DVD: 28 Jul 2003 |
James Dean's last film before his untimely death in a car crash reveals him as more an icon for the time than an actor — he just couldn't convey middle age in the final half of this epic drama based on writer Edna Ferber's homage to Texas. George Stevens, who won the best director Oscar (one of the film's ten nominations), manages to convey some of the swashbuckling magic of oil barons and land exploitation, and elicits strong performances from a lustrous Elizabeth Taylor and a manly Rock Hudson. Those elements, plus a tremendous scene when Dean strikes oil, make it an adventure of truly epic proportions.
5 out of 5 people found this review helpful
dated melodrama
A really long story about an east coast girl trying to settle in Texas against a background of the start of the oil boom. One of the 3 films James Dean made and... read more »
[Highly rated reviewer]
Hugely ambitious, poorly executed
**Potential spoilers**
You get the impression watching 'Giant' that this was an attempt to recreate something as epic, sprawling, beautiful ... read more »
Giant
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horrifically long
do you have 197 minutes to spare? if not, then don't bother, your life won't be any better for seeing james dean and rock hudson.
Screen legend Dennis Hopper has died at the age of 74. The Easy Rider star revealed his fight with prostate cancer in October (09) after being hospitalised for "severe flu-like symptoms", admitting he was first diagnosed with the disease in 2002. Hopper underwent regular treatment sessions at the University of Southern California, but reports surfaced in early January (10) suggesting he was facing his final days after learning the deadly disease had spread to his bones. He passed away on... Read more
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Giant
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