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 Giant 

What grade would you give this film?
A 67%  67%  [ 2 ]
B 33%  33%  [ 1 ]
C 0%  0%  [ 0 ]
D 0%  0%  [ 0 ]
F 0%  0%  [ 0 ]
Total votes : 3

 Giant 
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Joined: Wed Nov 29, 2006 8:01 pm
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Post Giant
Giant

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Giant is a 1956 American drama film, directed by George Stevens from a screenplay adapted by Fred Guiol and Ivan Moffat from the novel by Edna Ferber. The film stars Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson and James Dean and features Carroll Baker, Jane Withers, Chill Wills, Mercedes McCambridge, Dennis Hopper, Sal Mineo, Rod Taylor and Earl Holliman. Giant was the last of James Dean's three films as a leading actor, and earned him his second and last Academy Award nomination – he was killed in a car accident before the film was released. Nick Adams was called in to do some voice-over dubbing for Dean's role.

In 2005, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

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Sat Feb 02, 2008 9:11 am
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Post Re: Giant
The first half hour or so is a little clunky, but once they get settled into the ranch the film really finds it's feet and gets going with its epic through-the-years pacing. The three leads are all excellent (Taylor in particular surprised me), but the best has to be James Dean, in a performance that starts off as typical Dean (Disinterested, rebellious teen), but superbly morphs into a rich, sleazy alcoholic oilman. The commentary on the racism towards Mexicans is also surprising and fascinating, though it becomes a little tiresome near the end as it becomes the film's driving force, ending it on an unfortunately anti-climatic note. Still, those 2.5 hours in between the beginning and end are truly excellent, and make this worth checking out.

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Mon Feb 04, 2008 1:07 pm
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B


Giant is my first foray into the film's of James Dean (it's about time t find out how someone who had starred in just three major films could become so legendary. Thus it came to me very much as a surprise that he wasn't actually in most of the film. I must say that I was rather surprised that he received his nomination for Best Leading Actor, considering that Rock Hudson is definitely the film's distinct male lead. While Dean's role is poignant to the film, especially as to oppose Rock Hudson's part, he simply doesn't have much screentime and fails to impress more than Hudson in order to overcome the short screentime. I bet anything that nowadays, he'd have been labeled as Supporting which once again goes on to show that nowadays studios are much more afraid than they used to be to promote two actors as the leads in one film if they both might be up for the Oscars, fearing that there could be split vote.

As such, though, I'd say that the Oscar noms for Hudson and Dean were well-deserved (even though I would have gone Supporting for Dean). In fact, Hudson left an overall better impression on me than Dean, though Dean's character was probably more complicated. Hudson's journey through the film and his change is pretty clear-cut and straight-forward, but he manages to make it all seem very believable and natural. Dean's role is rather unusual, given that he starts out poor, yet he's still a racist and not really a good guy, unlike what you'd expect from a role like this. His final scene in the movie, when he's drunk and talking to himself, is by far and away his best moment in the film, sadly it's also one of the few really memorable ones. Hudson is very good in many many scenes, especially in those with Taylor. Both play off each other here very well.

That said, I was rather dissappointed by the film. All the praise for the acting aside, the movie never felt "special" or "grand" to me, despite its 3+ hour running time. It certainly aspired to be epic, but never quite achieved it. I saw this very shortly after There Wll Be Blood and this simply paled in comparison. The technical aspects were all fine, like the cinematography and the at direction, but it just didn't feel as important and grand as it should have. The pace was rather weird too, jumping from year to year irregularely. Also, I think the screenplay just tok the easy way out at some points, like the restaurant scene at the end of the film. It just wasn't as complex and inspired as it could have been. Some of the scenes with Dean and between Dean and Hudson show moments of that could've been greatness, but overall it fails to achieve that, in my opinion.

However, some respect is just due here. The acting on behalf of Dean, Taylor and Hudson is very good. Technically, it is well-crafted and despite the running time of over 190 minutes I never felt bored. It just felt like a sadly missed opportunity at the end of the day...

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Thu Mar 20, 2008 3:03 pm
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Post Re: Giant
The King of epic Hollywood bores. This makes Zhivago look like a Samuel Fuller picture.

Gone With The Wind works because Scarlett O'Hara is such a alluring, interesting heroine. Giant gives us not a single person worth paying attention to. Good luck staying awake. All we get is bad old age makeup and some pretty Texas vistas.

I hate Giant.

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Sat Oct 04, 2008 8:31 pm
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