Giant is a movie of huge scale and grandeur in which three generations of land-rich Texans love, swagger, connive and clash in a saga of family strife, racial bigotry and conflict between cattle barons and newly rich oil tycoons.
Elizabeth Taylor Rock Hudson James Dean Carroll Baker Jane Withers Chill Wills Mercedes McCambridge Dennis Hopper Sal Mineo Rod Taylor Judith Evelyn Earl Holliman Robert Nichols Paul Fix Alexander Scourby Charles Watts Elsa Cárdenas Carolyn Craig Monte Hale Sheb Wooley Mary Ann Edwards Victor Millan Mickey Simpson Pilar Del Rey Maurice Jara Noreen Nash Ray Whitley Napoleon Whiting Fran Bennett Show All…
Whitey Hughes Troy Melton Paul Baxley Paul Stader Bill Hale Pete Dunn Robert Hinkle Ron Burke Slim Talbot Eli Bo Jack Blackfeather Ted White Guy Teague Charles Willcox
Giganten, Gigante, Géant, Il gigante, 巨人传, Óriás, Ο Γίγας, O Gigante, Gigant, ענק, 자이언트, Assim Caminha a Humanidade, Devlerin Aşkı, Jättiläinen, Гигант, Jätten, 巨人, Milžinas, ジャイアンツ, Obor, غول, Olbrzym, Gegant, เจ้าแผ่นดิน
USANR
New York City, New York
USANR
Los Angeles, California
China
Beijing International Film Festival, 4K restored version
Canada
USANR
Austria
Germany12
Japan
UK
France
Sweden
Netherlands
Italy
Finland
PortugalM/12
South Africa
AustraliaPG
IrelandPG
Mexico
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Uruguay
Hong Kong
Argentina
Denmark
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PolandAL
Finland
Japan
USA
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Netherlands6
Argentina
Australia
Austria
Brazil
Canada
China
Czechia
Denmark
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Hong Kong
Ireland
Italy
Japan
Mexico
Netherlands
Norway
Poland
Portugal
South Africa
South Korea
Spain
Sweden
Turkey
UK
USA
Uruguay
James Dean plays an unrecognizable middle-aged, grey-haired, alcoholic playboy... and it's glorious.
as much as i love rock hudson, if i’d just married him then rolled up on a ranch where a sweaty james dean and his lithe body were slouching all up against pickup trucks, adjusting his cowboy hat, making bad tea and just being generally messy, i would leave rock so fast
who ever thought a movie called GIANT would be so long?
Stevens is my kind of filmmaker. Liz Taylor shrouded in darkness during her pivotal tiff with Rock Hudson, the long-take of Jamws Dean climbing his newly bequeathed wind turbine, the wide shot of James Dean's final screen moment, broken and alone...
less interested in this as A BIG AMERICAN EPIC than i am in its sweep and pull (if THERE WILL BE BLOOD doesn't negate the former reading, it certainly refines and shades it)... how time is dragged forward and everyone is tugged along like on the other side of a yanked carpet, each decision intended vertically but stretched sideways. i suppose most multi-generational portraits do this, but GIANT…
I feel like the following does a great job of representing the spectrum of my sexuality:
1. elizabeth taylor whispering “come on partner, why don’t you kick off your spurs.”
2. james dean with all but the bottom two of his shirt buttons undone, grumbling under his breath while making tea
85
(35mm)
Utilizes the passage of time as a subversion of mise en scène; begins lost and vast, carried by the winds, and ends within the scrambled, cattle-like maze of Modern Texas; a hotel where entire scenes play out as confined urban recreations of scenes which occurred a couple hours before. Such a sprawling narrative requires some degree of separation, and Stevens finds it in Old/New money, a clash in how individuals feel comfortable and thrive in different sorts of spaces. Just remarkable.
Also: Rock Hudson and James Dean fight in a liquor storage room, and are greeted by the harsh meow of a cat, angry at intruding their space and sprinting offscreen. If that doesn't sell you, I don't know what will.
There is a dinner table scene at the beginning of the movie during which they are clearly talking about the size of Rock Hudson's dick and let me tell you....it's Giant.
Watch Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, and James Dean for three and a half hours?
Absolutely.
A young woman from a liberal Maryland family marries a very wealthy landowner and moves to his vast ranch in Texas. Here the girl struggles against a rough environment, full of prejudice and discrimination, typical of the Deep South. Struck by her beauty and openly altruistic character, Jett Rink, a restless and rebellious young farmhand, secretly falls in love with her. Around these three profiles unfolds an epic family fresco focusing on the life of three generations of Texans who pass from farming to the exploitation of oil fields. In the background there is a hypocritical, sexist and racist country that tries - despite much resistance - to build a modern, more tolerant and inclusive society.
George Stevens - here…
In many ways the anti-Gone with the Wind of the Hollywood epics. Similar situation and concepts, but far different approaches. This film actually addresses the racism that GWTW wouldn't dare touch due to the racial atmosphere at the time, though Civil Rights still had a ways to go when this was released.
I really admired the arc that Rock Hudson's character had, actually making me care for him as a performer for the first time. Liz Taylor is luminary as always. And James Dean's metamorphosis from rough edged ranch hand to drunkenly Howard Hughes archetype was certainly something to behold au cinema.
