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PEJORATIVE Giant, directed by George Stevens, is all about contrasts—the supposed magnanimity of the liberal east vs. parched, bigoted Texas. Like Edna Ferber’s novel, it’s a mammoth potboiler and over the years has acquired huge cult status due, first, to James Dean having died shortly after completing his scenes; second, to Stevens’s reputation as one of Hollywood’s upper echelon moviemakers; third, to Dean, Rock Hudson and Sal Mineo and their then-closeted homosexuality; fourth, to Elizabeth Taylor, who befriended Dean and Dean and Mineo because she was, though she might not have known it yet by urban jargon, moviedom’s most beautiful, compassionate fag hag. Taylor is the picture’s best asset; with a needed measure of fatherly guidance by Stevens, she’s charming and feisty as a pre-feminist not about to let her Texan hubby Rock or his coded sister (Mercedes McCambridge) push her around. Very comfortably mirroring a carefree and rich Angela Vickers in Stevens’ A Place in the Sun, here she’s going for a full stretch—aging thirty years before the camera as wife and mother—and doing it with warmth, a level-headed responsiveness. (Even manages an amusing variation of Scarlett’s “morning after.”) Overall, she’s substantially more satisfying as actor than her showy, sticky Susanna in the following year’s soaper Raintree County. Competent Hudson looks the size of Texas standing next to her and nearly everyone else, and Dean, initially interesting, becomes increasingly smaller and vexing in a part his method isn’t suited for. (He’s unbearable during the way too long Hotel Emperador section.) One major weakness for the three young stars—the makeup. Far from convincing when the film was released in 1956 and it’s still a hoot today; you want to swear you can see makeup supervisor Gordon Bau spraying or shaking powdered gray on the “his & hers” wigs and refreshening aging lines around the eyes between takes, recalling every high school play you sat through, especially when watching Taylor (at 23) commiserating with her soon-to-be adult daughter Carroll Baker (at 24). Assessing the novel, Stevens said, “it’s interested in small things, smaller than usual because the background is so vast,” and Fred Guiol and Ivan Moffat oblige with an episodic script matching most of the tribal Texans’ small-mindedness without sparing the pejorative and consequences, i.e. the corollary McCambridge getting what she deserves. The movie is a counting game: how many themes are Stevens, Guiol and Moffat trying to pack in? Considering today’s “build the wall” hysteria, Stevens would never get away with that very last image. With Rod Taylor, Earl Holliman, Dennis Hopper and Chill Wills playing the Benedict organ funereally (it takes three hours and 13 minutes before Hudson complains about it). Opening at the Chicago, Giant was not given the hardticket treatment. Filmed in Spherical. Oscar win for best direction. Oscar nominations for best picture, actor (Hudson and Dean), supporting actress (McCambridge), screenplay—adapted, color art direction (Boris Leven and Ralph Hurst), scoring for a dramatic or comedy picture (Dimitri Tiomkin), film editing, color costumes. ROLL OVER IMAGE
Text COPYRIGHT © 2001 RALPH BENNER (Revised 7/2026) All Rights Reserved. |
