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Giant on DVD (1956)

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Average rating: 66%
1124820171436
3.0
from 636 members
 
Starring: James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, Carroll Baker
Director: George Stevens
Studio: WARNER HOME VIDEO
Run time: 193 mins
Certificate: PG
Collections: 100 Wild Westerns
User collections: Favourite Night In, Texas movies
Genres: Drama
Languages: English
Released: 28/07/2003

Brief synopsis of Giant

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.

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Critics Reviews

Rating of 4 stars out of 5 Radio Times

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.

USA Today

"...With improved color, sound and a letterboxed image, the Texas blockbuster that won George Stevens Sr. the Oscar for direction looks better than it ever has in a home viewing format..."

Time Out

Stevens' sprawling epic of Texan life, taken from Edna Ferber's novel, strives so hard for Serious Statements that it... Read more on www.timeout.com

See all 6 Critics Reviews »

Members Reviews

Reviews Voted Most Helpful

Rated - 2 starsdated melodrama

A customer from Reading , 06/08/2004

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 apart from providing a couple of iconic movie posters his performance is fairly poor and not helped by an unsympathetic character which remains one dimensional. Rock HUdson shows greater range than his Doris Day movies but still seems lost, only Liz Taylor brings depth and naturalness to her role. Also fun to see a young Dennis Hopper.

  4 out of 4 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 5 starsClassic

Robert Cain from Hastings,East Sussex , 26/10/2004

Being a huge fan of Deans.This film is a must for me.An epic story superbly directed by veteran George Stevens.

The film was unreleased at the time of Deans death ,and show what a powerhouse of cinema he could have become.His portrayal of Jett Rink, really captures the disintegration of a man who has everything except the one thing he cannot buy.Elizabeth Taylor as always gives a solid performance and,of course,looks fabulous. Recommended for anyone who's only experience of Dean is the disaffected teenager.A must!

  3 out of 3 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 5 starsa giant film

Andrew Jardine from Liverpool, Uk , 23/04/2005

Forget about the cattle, oil and land.

Forget about Texas, Maryland and the divide between north and south.

This film is a fascinating story about two people who love one another and develop together as people over many years. I am not a touchy, feely, fluffy person. I hated 'love story' and its kind, but this film had real resonance with me. I found the last ten minutes quite moving. A great family film that is as good today as it was when it was made.

  3 out of 3 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 4 starsgood but too long.

rachel hayes from Billingham , England , 30/05/2005

This film is as far from Deans other films as it could be. It is 3 hours long and allthough i enjoyed it, i felt there was a lot of footage that was surplus to requirements. Deans character was vastly underdeveloped and i feel the story lost a lot as the character of Jett could have brought a lot more to the film. Having said that i thought Jimmy did the best he could with the character. Elizabeth Taylor was superb and Rock hudson a lot better than expected. The actors playing the Benedict children were not up to par. The magnificent landscape is used to full effect and the cattle scenes are breathtaking. It is clear from the scene at the end that has Jett Rink alone in a banquet room making a speech to an invisible audience that when we lost James Dean, we lost an incredible young actor who could have grown to be truly great.

  3 out of 3 people found this review helpful
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Most Recent Reviews

Rated - 4 starsgood but too long.

rachel hayes from Billingham , England , 30/05/2005

This film is as far from Deans other films as it could be. It is 3 hours long and allthough i enjoyed it, i felt there was a lot of footage that was surplus to requirements. Deans character was vastly underdeveloped and i feel the story lost a lot as the character of Jett could have brought a lot more to the film. Having said that i thought Jimmy did the best he could with the character. Elizabeth Taylor was superb and Rock hudson a lot better than expected. The actors playing the Benedict children were not up to par. The magnificent landscape is used to full effect and the cattle scenes are breathtaking. It is clear from the scene at the end that has Jett Rink alone in a banquet room making a speech to an invisible audience that when we lost James Dean, we lost an incredible young actor who could have grown to be truly great.

  3 out of 3 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 5 starsa giant film

Andrew Jardine from Liverpool, Uk , 23/04/2005

Forget about the cattle, oil and land.

Forget about Texas, Maryland and the divide between north and south.

This film is a fascinating story about two people who love one another and develop together as people over many years. I am not a touchy, feely, fluffy person. I hated 'love story' and its kind, but this film had real resonance with me. I found the last ten minutes quite moving. A great family film that is as good today as it was when it was made.

  3 out of 3 people found this review helpful
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Read all highest rated reviews