A brilliant film that helped define a genre

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Texan rancher Bick Benedict (Rock Hudson) comes to a Maryland farm to buy a prize horse War Winds. He meets the outspoken upper class daughter Leslie Lynnton (Elizabeth Taylor) and marries her. They return to Texas to the vast family ranch Reata. The giant ranch house is run by Bick's hard sister Luz Benedict (Mercedes McCambridge) and she doesn't like Leslie. Her favorite range hand Jett Rink (James Dean) is itching to get out. She mistreats War Winds and it bucks her off killing her. In her will, Jett is bequeathed some land which he refuses to sell back to Bick. After some time, Bick and Leslie have some children. Jett is still pining for Leslie. When Jett hits oil, he and Bick get into a fight. Jett prospers while Bick refuses to drill for oil on Reata. The Benedict children Jordy (Dennis Hopper), Judy (Fran Bennett), and Luz (Carroll Baker) have a turbulent relationship with their parents and Jett over the years culminating in Bick having a redemptioning fight.This is a giant of a movie. It's not only that it's over 3 hours long. It's trying to tell vast winding life stories. No matter how it's measured, this is a grand family epic. There is a central theme of racism. However it's somewhat overshadowed by the soap opera of the family drama. A shorter film and a tighter story concentrating on that may be able to intensify that central theme. Overall this is a well made grand family epic with some big time talents.

The first time I ever watched this film I was about 17 years old and I loved the movie because being a Texan, I could relate to some of the themes in the movie.Now that i'm in my 20s, I tried watching this movie again but I just couldn't finish it. The movie goes on way too long, there are so many things about it that just feel too unrealistic like Liz and Rock getting married after only knowing each other for barely one day, and Liz wanting to stay living in an ugly desert after having moved from the beautiful and lush green east coast, etc. But what bothered me the most about watching this film was the hypocrisy of Liz's character. She judges the Texans for their unequal treatment of the Mexicans and yet whenever there is a scene in Liz's home back east the African-Americans are not treated equally to the whites, and yet this hypocrisy is never explored.I think that this was a good movie for its time because it brings up the issues of racism, sexism, and poverty in a time when these issues were not discussed in movies, but now that it's the 21st century I feel this movie is dated and there are other movies out there that deal with these controversial issues much better.

While it may not be perfect, Giant is to me a better film than the Best Picture Winner of that year Around the World in Eighty Days, which wasn't a bad film but is among the weakest Best Picture Winners. Giant is a very long film and very deliberately paced but is hugely rewarding. It is a very well-made film with fabulous, colourful scenery and outstanding cinematography(the best of its year and perhaps of the decade too), Texas has rarely looked more beautiful on film. Dmitri Tiomkin's score is one of sweeping grandeur, while the dialogue on the most part is thought-provoking, heart-warming and moving and George Stevens judging from how beautifully he directed this film definitely deserved his Oscar. The story tackles many daring themes, especially for back then, and tackles them with a lot of truth and power, while the film does drag at times and tries to do too much in the last act the story is still compelling and rich in detail with a couple of scenes towards the end quite tense. Especially good is that tremendous scene where Jett strikes oil. It does develop the characters remarkably well too, the characters here are quite complex and far from clichéd, especially Leslie and Jett(Bick also evolves into a much more likable character). The acting is excellent, Elizabeth Taylor has only been more lustrous in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and this is most likely her most nuanced performance. Rock Hudson is a handsome and mostly natural screen presence, a little stiff to begin with but it does suit the character actually. And Jett is probably the most complex of James Dean's three screen roles and is just as iconic and in-depth, and, apart from his very overacted final scene acting drunk(his worst and only somewhat bad piece of acting in three great performances in three great films), Dean gives a performance brimming with authority and emotion. He is also the only one of the three leads to look convincing in his ageing make-up and acts aged the most effectively, whereas Taylor and Hudson still looked too young when made up to look aged and didn't look as comfortable as Dean did. The supporting cast are fine too, Caroll Baker, Sal Mineo and a very young Dennis Hopper being the standouts. All in all, a mostly great epic melodrama where you can totally see why it has been and is so positively received, at the same time though it's easy too to see why some may not care for it as it does take more than one viewing to get into it. 8/10 Bethany Cox

i am robert dean. i saw the movie "giant" when it first came out when i was just a boy of 10 years old. james dean impressed me greatly even back then, when i was just a boy. to see him as a middle-aged man, dressed to the nines, with beautiful grey leather gloves on, gripped me back then. i do not know if i have seen the movie since. i grasped it's essence even back then. his death from an auto crash tore me up. it was too surreal. this is now june, 2014, i saw the movie "giant", again. from an old man's eyes, one who has suffered as much as i have suffered in this world. i cried! i question God every day of my life now, why He creates such beautiful human beings as james dean certainly was, and, let's them die horribly in an auto wreck! i have just checked out 5-8 books recently, all on james dean. so many, many photos! he studied ballet! ballet! he played baseball as a boy, as i did. only difference: i grew up in the city. james grew up on a farm. i am writing this review for the world to know that i think, based on what i have recently seen, that james byron dean was a genius! a real genius! he was the real thing, people. no pretense. bravo, for the director, george stevens, who saw something in james dean, and, allowed him to star in the movie "giant". as we see james dean age, on screen in this, his last, movie, we see true genius.