Giant 1956
A movie to see even with its flaws. Movie of that era, and stars of that era are never to return. They seemed bigger than life which coincidently was also the movie's title. This was a time when adult men get up for hostess at the dinner table; this was a time when there was no gender confusion - women know how to be women and men would be men.
You see a pristine Elizabeth Taylor and brawny handsome Rod Hudson. They make a very attractive couple on screen. Robert Mitchum was also considered but would be a bad choice because he lacks the appeal of Hudson to match the beautiful Taylor. The early scenes were the best, Taylor flirting with Hudson at her father's house when he came to purchase her prized stallion. In contrast to the rich verdant fields of Maryland, the Texas ranch where Hudson returned to with new bride Leslie (Taylor) appears almost desolate, absent of any vegetation and strewn with rolling moss. But Taylor did not seem to mind and looked genuinely determined to make a new life there.
Hudson's Bick was laconic,actually a simply man, steeped in tradition. His sudden transformation to total acceptance of the "lower" Mexican class was not apparent. Director Stevens could have used Taylor's successful effort in providing health care to poor Mexicans as a boon for change in Bick. That did not happen.
Taylor is in her full glory here. Lively,eastern-cultured turned Texan, she is smoldering and lifts the whole story. How would Grace Kelly do had she been casted no one knows. But I personally think a tall cool blonde is not what is needed here.
Now about Dean, never understand his dislikes of the Benedicts. The movie does little in explaining that conflict. If Dean is envious of Bick he is doing little to get out of the mode he is in. Not until he inherits a piece of land bequeath to him does he finds incentive to improve himself. But then he only manifests it in front of Taylor and no one else. Why was Dean's role necessary ? It only comes to light the day after I saw "Giant". Dean was there to draw a difference. He is destroyed by his sudden riches. Bick, on the other, laments the past when his family ruled a cattle empire, but he adapts to the future and makes peace with himself, even when he lost a fight with a bigoted ex- army cafe owner. That, my friend is priceless.
Something needed to be said about other considerable talents here: the great Rod Taylor no relation to Elizebath used only sparingly in the first scene. He could have provided some counter punches when Hudson comes to steal his love interest. Sal Mineo as grown-up Angel whom Taylor helped when he was a sick baby had barely any speaking part.
Yet overall you want to see "Giant" for its grandeur and big-ness, and to appreciate a past era and the fledgling, social, economic change for that time, which would give way to the psychedelic years of the 60's and beyond.
A movie to see even with its flaws. Movie of that era, and stars of that era are never to return. They seemed bigger than life which coincidently was also the movie's title. This was a time when adult men get up for hostess at the dinner table; this was a time when there was no gender confusion - women know how to be women and men would be men.
You see a pristine Elizabeth Taylor and brawny handsome Rod Hudson. They make a very attractive couple on screen. Robert Mitchum was also considered but would be a bad choice because he lacks the appeal of Hudson to match the beautiful Taylor. The early scenes were the best, Taylor flirting with Hudson at her father's house when he came to purchase her prized stallion. In contrast to the rich verdant fields of Maryland, the Texas ranch where Hudson returned to with new bride Leslie (Taylor) appears almost desolate, absent of any vegetation and strewn with rolling moss. But Taylor did not seem to mind and looked genuinely determined to make a new life there.
Hudson's Bick was laconic,actually a simply man, steeped in tradition. His sudden transformation to total acceptance of the "lower" Mexican class was not apparent. Director Stevens could have used Taylor's successful effort in providing health care to poor Mexicans as a boon for change in Bick. That did not happen.
Taylor is in her full glory here. Lively,eastern-cultured turned Texan, she is smoldering and lifts the whole story. How would Grace Kelly do had she been casted no one knows. But I personally think a tall cool blonde is not what is needed here.
Now about Dean, never understand his dislikes of the Benedicts. The movie does little in explaining that conflict. If Dean is envious of Bick he is doing little to get out of the mode he is in. Not until he inherits a piece of land bequeath to him does he finds incentive to improve himself. But then he only manifests it in front of Taylor and no one else. Why was Dean's role necessary ? It only comes to light the day after I saw "Giant". Dean was there to draw a difference. He is destroyed by his sudden riches. Bick, on the other, laments the past when his family ruled a cattle empire, but he adapts to the future and makes peace with himself, even when he lost a fight with a bigoted ex- army cafe owner. That, my friend is priceless.
Something needed to be said about other considerable talents here: the great Rod Taylor no relation to Elizebath used only sparingly in the first scene. He could have provided some counter punches when Hudson comes to steal his love interest. Sal Mineo as grown-up Angel whom Taylor helped when he was a sick baby had barely any speaking part.
Yet overall you want to see "Giant" for its grandeur and big-ness, and to appreciate a past era and the fledgling, social, economic change for that time, which would give way to the psychedelic years of the 60's and beyond.