GIANT is an epic drama in the western style. some very sensitive and provocative themes are covered through the film story. The dramatic and complex story has a direct impact on the duration of the film.The epic story of the life of a Texas landowner, his family and his associates.The story is shocking, through it runs a rather vivid and colorful drama and epilogue is insecure tragic. The impressive and magnificent scenery is decorated with a passion of human relations in a "hot" and tense atmosphere.The main theme of this film is the family. How many external influences and drama can change a man in relation to his family and the world around him? Oil is completely confused lifestyle of farmers and landowners. However, it has changed the tradition and certain family values. The money finally got an ally. Topics are related to each other. Love in this film is a sudden, in some cases even inappropriate. It is on the constant examination in relation to tradition, racism, wealth or generational conflict. Family passions and drama becomes a bit vulgar towards the end of the film. Petroleum revolution is being represented with a certain amount of irony and idiocy. A capable man can earn big money, but he will eventually be left alone with his personal frustrations and a half-empty bottle of liquor. Racism against Mexican Americans is presented as a sub-theme, until it becomes part of the family drama.Rock Hudson as Jordan "Bick" Benedict Jr. is stubborn, perverse and polite at the same time. His character is growing in every way and finally modesty emerges as the greatest virtue. Elizabeth Taylor as Leslie Lynnton Benedict is a beautiful and capable woman. The woman who crashed family and traditional taboos and gracefully aged. Her character is the most important thread in this film. Her performance, full of love, loyalty and respect has changed her environment in this film.James Dean as Jett Rink is an eccentric and awkward rancher who becomes an oil baron. He is an unusual and a cunning villain. It is difficult to distinguish between the things that he does for personal rebellion and those that he does out of traditional spite. What makes the difference between Bick and Jett has a name and is called Leslie. The film definitely takes a long time, but I think that everyone can enjoy in the hot Texas plains and dramatic plots.

It's all too easy to view the protagonists as ciphers rather than flesh and blood characters, a trait popular with 'prestigious' Westerns (Gregory Peck in The Big Country undertook a similar task as Elizabeth Taylor does here; the 'liberal' Easterner thrust dramatically into a bigoted set-in-its-ways West and eventually instrumental in bringing about change) so the only questions are 1) is the audience aware of the sleight-of-hand, and 2) do they bring it off. Giant is certainly glossy enough and right from the start - Rock Hudson in Maryland -Stevens gives us the lush, fertile greenery of the East then yanks it away abruptly like pulling the rug from beneath our feet and thrusts us vicariously via Elizabeth Taylor into a landscape that resembles nothing so much as a Dust Bowl with mod cons. Time and again, certainly in the opening ten or twelve reels, Stevens gives us compositions emphasising the vastness of the landscape and subtly reinforcing the title. The themes are crammed in, explored, and placed in front of us like a buffet on a sideboard allowing us to take or leave as we so wish. Writing, Acting, Directing, are all up to snuff without too much distinction.

In 1920s, a wealthy Texan cattle rancher (Rock Hudson) travels to East Coast in order to buy a prize horse. There he meets a woman (Elizabeth Taylor), the daughter of his soon-to-be business partner, who he ends up marrying after a quick romance. The movie follows their lives down in Texas as the seasons change and the old ways begin to give ground to the new century.Giant is an epic. It covers years and years of time and deals with all the prominent themes and problems of those decades. Things like oil business, racial issues, societal status, responsibility of the rich to the poor, and so many others, make an appearance and are addressed in turn. Taylor's character is the voice of the new age, while Hudson's is the voice of the old and their interactions are the driving voice of the film.And it works. It is a very interesting film to follow if you know anything about that particular span of history. The film is over three hours long, and can thus cover a lot of ground and give each subject its due time. Though that can be a problem as well. It is a very slow film, with deliberate, calm pacing. Nothing much really happens most of the time, or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that things happen very slowly. Personally I found the film to be perhaps a bit too slow and deliberate, but if old epics are your thing, you'll definitely get what you're looking for.Giant is to be applauded for its vision. It set out to tell a family saga in its full glory and in that regard it definitely delivers. From modern point of view it can a bit tedious, but I cannot in good faith condemn it for that.

I watched this movie, as it was the last movie of James Dean. The last movie before the unfortunate death (accident) of the fine artist. A fine actor who bagged two Oscar nominations after his demise. In this film, James's voice was dubbed by his friend in number of scenes after his death. The movie is huge in length spans three hours long and an era of over 30 years from the main character's (Jordon Benedict) love to Maryland farm's daughter, his rivalry with a cowboy on his return to Texas (homeland), story of his children and grandchildren. The movie convincingly covers two generation of Benedict's family.The direction is top class. First to direct a three-hour long movie is Herculean. The Oscar has recognized and awarded the director for this work. The guild and photo-play members also had their awards for the movie. The movie is adapted from a novel with the same name. The characterization were screen-played deeply with lot of ideas that makes the viewers remember the dirty-minds on racism in that period of time in Texas. For one instance, both the lead characters Rink and Bick are prejudiced against the Mexicans, but Rink is too poor at the start of the movie so he doesn't show it. Instead after becoming a businessman he displays in much cruel way. William C. Mellor's photography was exquisite in every way throughout the two generations in the story.In my opinion, Giant must be considered along with epics like Lawrence of Arabia, Gone with the wind, Benhur etc that made it to the top 250 in IMDb. There were few minor flaws that I could not fail to notice, which included Liz Taylor's acting that dragged the movie. She could've done way better to one of the characters in the movie that carried racial tolerance(Leslie). The next flaw is by the make-up department esp. when the characters got old they don't convince the audience. It could be true that the movie is too old to comment mistakes on makeovers, so am not treating it as one.My final verdict : If you're a fan of old movies that this is one to watch as it is pacey (not too slow). Children can view this as it is free from ratings.