Giant [Special Edition,Old Version]

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There´s a scene in "Giant" that I think is one of the greatest in all of cinema. In the movie, Rock Hudson plays Jordan "Bick" Benedict, a Texan who runs the 595,000-acre Reata Ranch. At the beginning of the movie, Bick is a racist and a sexist. He´s the mild type, mind you, but nevertheless, he still thinks that white males are better than everyone else. You can imagine his dismay when his son (who´s not as macho as he is) marries a Mexican girl. At any rate, near the end of the movie, Bick´s learned a few things about life. There´s a restaurant owner who doesn´t want Mexican customers, and his attitude forces Bick to realize that his dark-skinned grandson is also a Benedict. Bick isn´t above violence--there are only so many lessons that a guy can learn, after all--so he expresses his acceptance of social changes by getting into a fistfight with the restaurant owner. In my opinion, this is one of the most realistic depictions of a fictional character becoming a better man than he used to be (much preferable to all those "I see the light" speeches that we see so often), and it´s one of the few motion picture moments that brings tears to my eyes.

The aforementioned scene is probably the most subtle expression in "Giant". You can get a sense of how "subtle" "Giant" is when I write that a fistfight is its subtlest scene. The rest of the movie is filled with unabashed straightforwardness. Dimitri Tiomkin´s sweeping music score reflects the big emotions on display. There isn´t a trace of irony onscreen for more than three hours--not even irony of the situational kind. If it had been made today, "Giant" would´ve been laughed out of theatres for its stubborn earnestness.

My mentioning of the film´s lack of subtlety isn´t a knock against it. Rather, I admire "Giant" for bringing Texans´ sense of directness to the big screen without resorting to stereotypes or mawkishness. The film presents its characters the way that Texans see their state and themselves--as big folk living in a vast expanse filled with opportunities. Sure, the ranchers in "Giant" aren´t the most sophisticated of men, but their lack of sophistication isn´t a sign of boorish ignorance. Rather, what you see is what you get.

Given the huge letters used for the film´s opening sequence, you can´t help but think that the movie might be...corny. Yet, while "Giant" has an unmistakably sentimental and romanticized view of pre-oil Texas, it avoids silliness. Rather, it behaves like the most sociable of Texans--generous, inviting, slightly garrulous, filled with "aw, shucks" charm, and on the larger-than-life side of things. (Believe it or not, the best representation of a Texan may be Topol´s portrayal of Tevye in "Fiddler on the Roof", lol.)

"Giant" follows the fortunes of the Benedict clan during the early half of the twentieth century. Bick Benedict heads to Maryland to pick up a horse. During his trip, he meets Leslie (Elizabeth Taylor), a gorgeous East Coast socialite. The two of them hit it off so well that Leslie follows Bick to Texas. Through Bick and Leslie´s eyes, we see the changes that take place in Texas within a relatively short amount of time. Ranch owners with huge tracts of land give way to oil men. Good-ole-boys´ clubs give way to women who demand to have their opinions heard. Segregation gives way to integration. Tradition gives way to modernity. (Along the way, we even have Dennis Hopper(!) playing the progressive son of Bick and Leslie who wants to be a doctor rather than Reata´s boss.)

There is something in the movie that hints at poetic circularity, and it involves the Jett Rink character, played by James Dean in his final role before he died in a car crash. Towards the beginning of the movie, Bick´s older sister, Luz, is the only friend that Jett has. When Luz dies, she wills Jett a piece of Reata that will make him one of Texas´s biggest oil men. Later in the movie, the Benedicts´ youngest daughter, Luz (Carroll Baker), fancies herself to be in love with Jett. However, to her heartbreak, Luz discovers that Jett has only loved Leslie ever since she arrived in Texas from Maryland.

It seems as if I´ve used most of this review to defend "Giant". The thing is, in this day and age, "Giant" is likely to be dismissed by people who weren´t old enough to have seen it during the 1950s-1970s. Kids in Texas have to watch it for Texas History classes, but what´s the likelihood of someone younger than 40 picking up this movie from the local video store? The film doesn´t offer many visual fireworks, but it has a heck of a story and plenty of rich performances. I´d watch "Giant" rather than something preposterously self-important and needlessly convoluted like "The Matrix" any day.

Video:
Warner Bros. restored the movie for its fortieth anniversary in 1996, and it looks like the 1996 restoration is the source of the new DVD´s 1.66:1 non-anamorphic (yes, non-anamorphic) widescreen video image. The picture looks awfully nice for a 1950s production, what with its bold colors, sharp imaging, and appearance of depth. (Some close-up shots were done with soft filters in order to highlight the romantic feel of some moments, but that´s a filmmaking technique rather than a flaw.) Still, I wish that Warner had done a new hi-def master for the DVD release because the print isn´t entirely clean, and I saw some parallel vertical lines running through the middle of the picture early in the movie. Still, this is a great visual presentation of "Giant".

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