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Giant (1956)

tomatometer

100

Average Rating: 7.7/10
Critic Reviews: 7
Fresh: 7 | Rotten: 0

No consensus yet.

audience

85

liked it
Average Rating: 3.9/5
User Ratings: 23,042

My Rating

Movie Info

George Stevens' sprawling adaptation of Edna Ferber's best-selling novel successfully walks a fine line between potboiler and serious drama for its 210-minute running time, making it one of the few epics of its era that continues to hold up as engrossing entertainment across the decades. Giant opens circa 1922 in Maryland, where Texas rancher Jordan "Bick" Benedict (Rock Hudson) has arrived to buy a stallion called War Winds from its owner, Dr. Horace Lynnton (Paul Fix). But much as Bick loves

G,

Western, Drama, Romance, Classics

Fred Guiol, Ivan Moffat

Jun 10, 2003

Warner Bros. Pictures

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All Critics (35) | Top Critics (7) | Fresh (41) | Rotten (1) | DVD (28)

An excellent film which registers strongly on all levels, whether it's in its breathtaking panoramic shots of the dusty Texas plains; the personal, dramatic impact of the story itself, or the resounding message it has to impart.

November 13, 2007 Full Review Source: Variety
Variety
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Much of it is awful, but it's almost impossible not to be taken in by the narrative sprawl.

November 13, 2007 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader
Chicago Reader
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Stevens' sprawling epic of Texan life, taken from Edna Ferber's novel, strives so hard for Serious Statements that it ends up as a long yawn.

June 24, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out
Time Out
Top Critic IconTop Critic

A real movie is big, grand, magnificent and regales you with all the power that movies can wield upon a viewer's imagination and spirit. George Stevens' 1956 production, Giant, is a real movie.

June 14, 2003
Hollywood Reporter
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Giant, for all its complexity, is a strong contender for the year's top-film award.

May 20, 2003 Full Review Source: New York Times
New York Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

At 202 minutes, it's just too long, yet it has the pull of nostalgia (if you're of a certain age) and sustains its emotional impact as a portrait of a durable marriage.

February 13, 2001 Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The dust-up in a small diner between Rock and the racist owner proves to be a rollicking knock-em-down, drag-em-out conclusion to an uneven, but satisfying variation on the traditional western.

September 12, 2012 Full Review Source: Cinemania

Like the title says.

November 13, 2007 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide
TV Guide's Movie Guide

Its deeper themes and superb performances from Taylor, Hudson and Dean make it a classic Hollywood epic.

November 13, 2007 Full Review Source: Film4
Film4

Dean's last performance is poetry in motion.

May 11, 2007
ColeSmithey.com

Some critics consider Giant to too bloated and sprawling, but by its era's standards, it exposed idelogical cracks in the American Dream, the myth of melting pot, women's allotted place in society.

December 13, 2005 Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com
EmanuelLevy.Com

Giant defines the word "interminable," and watching it just once is guaranteed to lop at least a year off your life.

May 23, 2005 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine
Slant Magazine

For a reason I cannot fathom, Giant still has a reputation as a fine film, and it will no doubt go on boring audiences forever and a day.

May 23, 2005 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | Comments (9)
Slant Magazine

The film is bursting with delightful entertainments and arresting beauty, living up to the promise of its title in every way.

November 6, 2004 Full Review Source: Movie City News
Movie City News

This two-disc DVD set is packed with interesting special features.

August 24, 2004 Full Review Source: Apollo Guide
Apollo Guide

An uneven, but satisfying variation on the traditional western.

August 24, 2004 Full Review Source: Apollo Guide
Apollo Guide

Old-fashioned life-of-a-family pic that's like nothing you'll see today -- and I mean that in the best way possible.

May 27, 2004
New Times

Overrated, overlong, and marred by some of the worst old age make-up ever seen.

February 12, 2004 | Comment (1)
Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)

Audience Reviews for Giant

A film that lives up to its title, truly grand in scope and (unfortunately) in length. Though it's beautiful to look at and though the acting - particularly by James Dean and Elizabeth Taylor - is quite accomplished, many scenes don't do a lot to advance the plot, and many subplots come off as extraneous. I liked that this was a sort of love letter to Texas, a take-it-or-leave-it account of the frontier spirit and the state's growing pains, and the concern for what happens when that trail-blazing mentality becomes cold competition two or three generations down the line. The film was setting up to be a tragedy, and almost delivered in a way that would've made American Shakespeare of it, but it opted for the anti-racism angle in the end; though I'm sure that broke ground in 1956, assessing it from a story standpoint instead of a social one, the ending - in fact, the last half-hour or more - gets away from what the story was about: ambition. The film is in a way a lot like its central character, falling flat on its face in the end due to its grandiose objectives, but to sustain my attention for over three hours, it had to have done something right. Just compelling enough to not turn off, and something you should make yourself watch, but it's wishy-washy for an epic and it's just not all that it's cracked up to be.
March 23, 2011
danperry17

Super Reviewer

George Stevens is lucky he made this when he did, since I doubt he'd have been able to get away with making a film that favored storytelling over running time in this day and age.

Yeah, that's right, this sucker is 210 gloriously excessive minutes of soapy melodrama on a grand scale, covering the lives of a few generations of rivalry and love between old money Texas cattle barons and new money Texas oil tycoons during the early 20th Century. It touches upon an interesting bit of Texas history, and deals with issues of racism, classism, and female independence as well, although these last three issues don't come as revolutionary like they did in 1956.

This is a sprawling film, and, though it does have some really good moments, I hesitate to call it a classic. It's overlong (in places), really soppy and melodramatic, a bit dated, and doesn't have the weight it could. I sure as hell dug the production aspects though, that's for sure. This sucker as great cinematography, wonderful sets and costumes, decent music, and some excellent shooting locations.

Oh yeah, and the performances are pretty decent, too. You've got young Elizabeth Taylor putting in some solid work, a decent turn from Rock Hudson, and James Dean in his final film (he died a few days after he finished shooting his scenes) knocking it out of the park in a very histrionic performance as the rugged rogue. There's also young Dennis Hopper and scene stealing Mercedes McCambridge.

All in all, a decent film, but nothing truly remarkable beyond the surface. It's definitely deserving of the title epic though, even if it is fluff.
January 30, 2012
cosmo313
Chris Weber

Super Reviewer

    1. Jett Rink: Im rich... I'mma rich'un.... Imma rich boy. And Imma make more money than you ever thought you could have-you and all the rest of you stinkin son of a Benedicts.
    – Submitted by Claudia S (12 months ago)

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October 25, 2007:
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Newsweek critic David Ansen has courageously revealed the more quietly kept secret of every...

Foreign Titles

  • Giganten (DE)
  • Giant (1956) (UK)
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