| | | The newly-restored version of an epic motion picture.
Features: Anniversary Edition, Widescreen, Black & White, 2 Pack
Giant is just that, a movie of huge scale and grandeur in which cattleman Bick Benedict (Rock Hudson), his society-gilded wife Leslie (Elizabeth Taylor), wrangler-turned-oil-baron Jett Rink (James Dean in his final film role) and three generations of land-rich Texas sons and daughters love, swagger, connive and clash in a saga of family strife, racial bigotry and conflict between cattle barons and newly-rich oil tycoons. With its picture and soundtrack vividly restored for its 40th anniversary, Giant is one of the most enduring achievements of director George Stevens (Gunga Din, Swing Time, A Place In The Sun, Shane, The Diary Of Anne Frank), who won his second Academy Award for this movie. Hudson, Dean and Mercedes McCambridge earned three of the nine other Oscar nominations bestowed on this adaptation of Edna Ferber's legendary bestseller. Added attractions: Newsreel and introduction by George Stevens, Jr., as well as the original and reissued theatrical trailers, behind-the-scenes documentaries, Hollywood premiere featurette and New York premiere TV special.
"As intimate as a letter from home, Giant is a masterwork." Chicago Daily News
"...It's a joy to watch [James Dean] employ the Method to create a character that's both vulnerable and hard-edged. " San Francisco Examiner
Editor's Note
Edna Ferber's best-selling family saga was the source of Stevens' sprawling epic, which stars Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor, and James Dean, in his last film appearance. When Texas cattleman Bick Benedict (Hudson) goes to Virginia in the early 1920s to buy a prize stallion, he falls in love with Leslie Lynnton (Taylor), an aristocratic, independent-minded beauty, and they quickly marry. He takes her back to Reata, his 600,000-acre ranch, where sister Luz (Mercedes McCambridge), the family matriarch, does her best to make Leslie feel unwelcome. Leslie is appalled by the second-class status accorded to women and racist attitudes toward the local Mexicans, neither of which seem to bother her husband. Out of compassion, she befriends surly ranch hand Jett Rink (James Dean), who comes to worship her from afar, envying Bick for both his wealth and his wife. He strikes oil on land bequeathed to him by the deceased Luz and his wealth and power grow apace. As the years pass, the bewildered Bick often finds his children thwarting his wishes and criticizing his beliefs, pushing the millionaire to question his values for the first time in his life. The film's outstanding cast, which also features Dennis Hopper, Sal Mineo, Carroll Baker, Earl Holliman, and Chill Wills, inject vitality into a project that occasionally suffers from longueurs.
Plot Summary
An epic examination of the American dream, played out on the spacious, mythic Texas landscape. The story charts Texas's evolution from ranching state to oil capital. In addition, the film explores issues of race relations.| A young cattle baron marries a well-bred Maryland beauty and transplants her to a rustic ranch. The new bride, Leslie Benedict, quickly learns about the divisions between the Americans and the Mexicans, between the privileged and the poor. Her husband retains these prejudices even when his son marries a Mexican-American nurse. Leslie also must contend with a ranchhand who loves her from afar, and who despises her husband's wealth. When the ranchhand strikes oil and also becomes rich, he still fails to win either Leslie or the town's respect.
| Features | Letterbox - 1.66 |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
|  | Studio: Warner |
| Release Date: 12/20/1996 |
| Running Time: 262 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 1956 | | Catalog ID: 14633 | | UPC: 00085391463337 | | Number of Discs: 2 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English | | Video: Color |
| Cast & Crew
| Awards |
Oscar (1957) |  | George Stevens, Winner, Best Director | | | James Dean, Nominee, Best Actor | | | Ralph S. Hurst, Boris Leven, Nominee, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color | | | Marjorie Best, Moss Mabry, Nominee, Best Costume Design, Color | | | Henry Ginsberg, George Stevens, Jr., Nominee, Best Picture |
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| | Professional Reviews | Rolling Stone
"...Marvel at James Dean and the still-vibrant performances of Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor....A true epic..." 10/03/1996 p.78Los Angeles Times
"...It dazzles with late Golden Era star performances....A classic of its era..." 09/27/1996 p.F10 Chicago Sun-Times
"...Dean turns in a performance that shows what a gifted and influential actor we lost with his death..." 10/04/1996 p.35 USA Today
"...With improved color, sound and a letterboxed image, the Texas blockbuster that won George Stevens Sr. the Oscar for direction looks better than it ever has in a home viewing format..." 03/19/1999 p.11E Entertainment Weekly
"...[With] genuinely striking images of galloping horses, gushing oil, and drunken brawls in the liquor cellar..." 06/13/2003 p.79-80 Total Film
"...[A] well-acted all-American epic..." 08/01/2003 p.122 San Francisco Examiner 0 of 10
Giant...offers extensive pleasures - it had better, at 201 minutes - not the least of which is watching James Dean age from a misunderstood, penniless youth into a mean, rich, middle-aged alcoholic. Add Rock Hudson as a landowner and Elizabeth Taylor as the woman both men love, set it all in Texas, and you have some kind of amazing spectacle... Dean was killed shortly before filming ended (this was his third picture) and Giant shows why he was quickly canonized as an American icon. For his fans, it's a joy to watch him employ the Method to create a character that's both vulnerable and hard-edged. Viewers can also enjoy the movie as an attack (although long-winded) on materialism, or simply relish fine supporting work by the likes of Sal Mineo, Dennis Hopper, Mercedes McCambridge and Earl Holliman. Giant won an Oscar for Stevens and nine other nominations, including a posthumous one for Dean. - Walter Adiego
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