Giant (1956)

Directed by George Stevens. Starring Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor, James Dean, Dennis Hopper, Carroll Baker, Fran Bennett, Chill Wills, Mercedes McCambridge, Jane Withers, Robert Nichols, Earl Holliman, Elsa Cárdenas, Charles Watts, Paul Fix, Judith Evelyn.

Sprawling, epic-length drama has lots of vibrantly photographed Texas scenery, both sweeping and desolate; too bad the movie itself is such a colossal bore. The filmmakers sideline the most intriguing parts of the story (the racist treatment of Mexican ranch workers and Jett Rink’s (Dean) rise from poor handyman to oil tycoon after tapping a well on his little piece of land) in favor of tedious, multi-generational soap operatics related to the family of a wealthy rancher (Hudson) who married an East Coast socialite (Taylor). Director Stevens and his team of editors spent the better part of a year in the editing room working on the final product, and yet they still released an inexcusably bloated film where the most interesting character dies before the end of the first hour. Hudson and Taylor are both okay, but make for an unconvincing romantic pair (their marriage feels completely loveless, even though there’s nothing in the script suggesting this to be the case); Dean’s overwrought mannerisms are shaky, but his style of acting at least makes him stand out from his drably formal co-stars—the young actor died in a car crash shortly after he finished shooting his scenes. Sal Mineo, Dean’s co-star from Rebel Without a Cause, has a bit part.

48/100