Giant-George Stevens

The film Giant is by no means a misnomer. It is, in every sense of the word, a giant film.

Starting with the cast of heavyweights: Rock Hudson, James Dean, Sal Mineo, Dennis Hopper, Elizabeth Taylor, Mercedes McCambridge, and Rod Taylor.

Then the length: Three hours and 17 minutes.

The State: Texas ('nuff said).

The star: Rock Hudson (6'5 in height)

The wealth: Oil.

This film was an absolute epic in every sense of the word. Once the story wrapped and the credits began to roll, I knew I had just witnessed seminal greatness. I may be uniquely biased when I say this, but because I have both read Gone With The Wind and seen the film, I wholeheartedly believe Giant to be the superior work.

If we are comparing books then we are drifting off into an entirely separate realm, as I feel that Gone With The Wind—the novel, is one of the greatest books ever written. However, I have not read Giant, so I am unable to offer a fair comparison.

Digression aside, Giant was one of the most amazing epics I think that I have ever seen. Perhaps I would have to label it as underrated, provided (outside of TCM and James Dean enthusiasts) I never seem to remember it heralding the same acclaim as the classic blockbusters like Ben Hur, Cleopatra, Rebel Without a Cause, or the aforementioned Gone With the Wind. But this one certainly deserves a spot on that top shelf.

From the outset, when the imposing Texan, "Bick", stares daggers in free-thinking Leslie's direction at the breakfast table after she haphazardly mentions that the United States stole Texas from the Mexicans, I knew I was in for a real treat.

From that point forward I was glued to the story as humanitarian-minded and progressively thinking Leslie marries Bick and they go round for round in a persistent clash of ideals, which transfers through to the inhumane treatment and regard to ranch hand Mexicans and even the narrow-minded approach to raising their children.

Caught in the middle of this all is the despondent and lonely ranch hand Jett Rink, played by the man himself; James Dean. Admittedly, my library of viewing James Dean's work is limited only to Rebel Without a Cause. Which is a great movie in its own right. But Dean, in Giant, played, what I thought to be one of the strongest roles in cinematic history.

Apparently, behind the scenes, Rock Hudson and James Dean did not get along. And this was mostly due to their differing views in how one should approach their work as a thespian.

Whatever.

If this added some degree of genuine tension to Bick and Jett's animosity towards one another, then I am glad it happened. Because both Rock and James were amazing in this film.

I am not sure who is responsible—George Stevens or Edna Ferber—for the inclusion of blatant and accepted racism of the Mexican ranch hands. But I am so glad that it was included, as it ended up becoming the line in the sand that becomes washed away to unite both Leslie and Bick's marriage as a unique match that, despite the throes, was always destined to be.

In Bick Benedict Jr., I couldn't help but see a glaring amount of similarities to my late grandfather Lloyd. The proud and conservative ideals were there. Iron-clad standards and obstinate goggles with which one sees the world and navigates through life. Tolerating any deviance from tradition with hostility and rancor.

Now, mind you, in my lifetime, I only got to see the mellow side of my grandfather in his golden years, when he was gentle and generous, only catching glimpses of the strict patriarch I had been told endless tales of from my mother and aunts and uncles youth. And perhaps this Bick is more of a corollary to the slow death of the old guard. Tradition is grand, but it is also an undeniable tradition of times to change.

In some ways, I am experiencing subtle notes of this myself.

Everyone streams movies on various platforms, but I still prefer DVDs and going to the theater.

Social media dictates a significant portion of people's lives, at the moment of this writing I have no accounts on TikTok, Snapchat, or Twitter.

I have no clue who the top rappers are nor what barometer they use to gauge their sales (Spotify streams I guess?) and still use an iPod at the gym.

You get the idea. But with Bick, the ideals he upheld—rooted in both unchecked racism and intransigent maneuvering—were both wrong and costly. It was wrong to treat the Mexicans who worked on his ranch as subservient animals and refuse to recognize them for what they were: human beings. Equals. And it was costly for Bick to operate Reata as a livestock ranch when beneath the 500,000 acres of Reata was untapped oil. It was through this blind and stubborn resentment of Jett that Bick and the rest of the Benedict dynasty are usurped by the lowly ranch hand when he accidentally strikes oil on the small patch of land bequeathed to him by Bick's sister, Luz, and becomes a millionaire overnight.

You can see Bick begin to unravel at the seams when all of his plans for the future dissolve and nothing turns out how he pictured it. Jordy, the Benedict beacon heir to the Reata throne is bereft of the mega-masculine gene handed down from generations of Benedict greatness and has no desire to run the ranch and instead decides to become a doctor and does the unthinkable and marries a Mexican. Judy, Jordy's twin, would rather study animal husbandry instead of going to school in Switzerland like her mother had planned for her to do.

It isn't that Bick's heart is bad, but only that—the traditions he was nurtured to believe in—were a bit flawed is all. Imagine every moral code that you've been brought up to believe was ironclad, one by one, are flagrantly violated, and every road you had mapped out for the future of your dynasty is detoured into a terrain of derricks and children that willfully pollute their rich blood with that of which you were lead to believe was beneath you. It isn't an easy blow to withstand, no matter how primitive the mindset is.

Eventually, Bick comes to adjust though and becomes the hero of the story that we as the viewers knew he had the potential to be all along.

I cannot complete this review though without fawning over James Dean's performance as Jett Rink just a little more.

It was evident from the jump that Jett was a flawed character fighting a daily battle against inner demons and losing. He was always sneaking drinks to tranquilize himself to the pain of loneliness, and when he struck it rich it only provided a grander facade to the unbearable pain that was never remedied.

I used to see this type at the casino almost every day, and it was a harsh lesson to me that money and wealth are not exactly synonymous with happiness. You, as the reader, would not believe the amount of wealthy maniacs that walked through the door with credit lines greater than what I made in a year, and how truly despondent they would grow to become as they squandered away their wealth at the blackjack table. A greater portrayal of this cannot be found in any other avenue besides Jett Rink, whose weapon of self-destruction was full-blown alcoholism, instead of problem gambling. Rink's drunken soliloquy in the empty amphitheater—while incredibly sad—was both superior filmmaking and acting at its apex. Other great examples to me were Travis Bickles' desperate payphone call to Betsy in Taxi Driver, Sara Goldfarbs lonely confession to her son Harry in Requiem for a Dream, and Walter Lee's descent into disbelieving madness once he has to face the fact that he was swindled out of his families life insurance check in a Raisin In the Sun.

I could go on about the fact that I had slept pretty hard on Elizabeth Taylor (this was the first movie of hers that I have ever seen), or how great Dennis Hopper was in defending his wife against the bigoted hotel staff at Jett Rinks establishment, or how this film reminds me of my poor attitude towards businesses I cherished in my youth that are transforming into unrecognizable trendy money grabs, but that would necessitate a book.

If it seems as if I am pimping the shit out of this movie, that is because I am. Giant was one of the best films I think that I have ever seen, and I cannot wait to give it a repeat viewing.

Stars: *****

Verdict: Watch

Cousins: Gone With The Wind, A Face In The Crowd, There Will Be Blood, Falling Down, The Godfather.