list http://www.spout.com/ Recent community activity around Giant on Spout Copyright 2005-9 Spout, LLC Spout RSS http://www.spout.com/images/SpoutLogoRSS.jpg http://www.spout.com/ 136 30 http://www.spout.com/films/Giant/13320/default.aspx Title: Giant
Year: 1956
Director: George Stevens
Plot: 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 and knows horses, he finds himself even more transfixed by the doctor's daughter, Leslie Lynnton (Elizabeth Taylor), and after some awkward moments, she has to admit that she's equally drawn to the shy, laconic Texan. They get married and Leslie spends her honeymoon traveling with Jordan to his ranch, Reata, which covers nearly a million acres of Texas. Once there, however, she finds that she has to push her way into her rightful role as mistress of the house, past Bick's sister, Luz (Mercedes McCambridge), who can't accept her brother's marriage or the changes it means in the home they share. Also working around Reata is the laconic ranch hand Jett Rink (James Dean) -- from a family as rooted in Texas as the Benedicts but not nearly as lucky (or "foxy"), Jett is dirt-poor and barely educated at all, and he fairly oozes resentment at Bick for his arrogance, although Luz likes him and for that reason alone Bick is obliged to keep him on. One thing Jett does have in common with his employer is that he is in awe of Leslie's beauty; another is his nearly total contempt for the Mexican-Americans who work for them -- Jett and Bick may have contempt for each other, but either one is just as likely to dismiss the Mexican-Americans around them as a bunch of shiftless "wetbacks." Luz feels so threatened with a loss of power and control that she decides to assert herself with War Winds, yet another "prize" that Bick brought back from Maryland that resists her authority -- then decides to ride the stallion despite being warned that no one but Leslie is wholly safe on him, and spurs him brutally in an effort to break him, which ends up destroying them both in the battle of wills she starts. After Luz's death, Jett learns that she left him a tiny piece of land for his own, on Reata, which he refuses to sell back to Bick, preferring to keep it for his own and maybe prospect for oil on it. Meanwhile, Leslie and Bick have their own problems -- Leslie can't abide the wretched conditions in which the Mexican families who work on Reata are allowed to live, taking a special interest in Mr. and Mrs. Obregon and their baby, Angel; but Bick doesn't want his wife, or any member of his family, concerning themselves with "those people." Leslie's humanity and her independence push their marriage to the limit, but Bick comes to accept this in his wife, and in four years of marriage they have three handsome children, a boy and two girls, and a loving if occasionally awkward home life. Meanwhile, Jett strikes oil on his land -- which he's named Little Reata -- and in a couple of years he's on his way to becoming the richest man in Texas, getting drilling contracts on all of the land in the area (except Reata) and making more money than the Benedicts ever saw from raising cattle. Bick is almost oblivious to the way Jett grows in power and influence across the years and the state, mostly because he's got his own family to worry about, including a son, Jordan III ( ]]>Thu, 30 Oct 2008 17:13:37 GMTjjgittesjjgittes Blog10/30/2008 1:13:37 PMThis was another film that I didn't take notes for during the three and a half hours that it took to unspool on Reel 13 a few weeks ago. It's not because I didn't have anything to say, but I have seen the film several times, including recently during my assignment two years ago to watch films from 1956 (along with previous Reel 13 entries LUST FOR LIFE and MOBY DICK). On the contrary, I might be able to write a whole essay on this film alone. It is the best of those three films (though not even close to being the best of 1956) and one of the most fascinatingly flawed movies I've ever seen.The primary thing that jumps out to me about GIANT is the disparate performances styles. The mid-fifties, in general, were a time in which performances were shifting from the bigger, theatrical style (Judy Garland, Susan Heyward, et al) to the quieter, more naturalistic process that we take for granted today. At the time, this style was mostly defined by the "Method" actors, many of which were students of the New York-based Actors Studio. The poster boy for this transition was, of course, Marlon Brando, but the tragic hero of the movement was James Dean, one of the stars of GIANT. Overall, this transition was an uneasy one with many naysayers and old schoolers eschewing the reported histrionics behind Method acting and nowhere was this schism in philosophy more transparent than in GIANT. It's almost as if director George Stevens were purposefully waging a war between the two styles. On the one hand, James Dean, Dennis Hopper and Carroll Baker represent the burgeoning new method, their scenes bristle with vitality with one great, informed choice after another. On the other hand, Rock Hudson, Mercedes McCambridge and many members of the supporting cast maintain their larger-than-life movie star approach. From a modern viewpoint, they might as well be doing Shakespeare. They feel extremely out-of-place, especially when in a scene with one of the newcomers.Oddly enough, the glue that holds all this together is Elizabeth Taylor, who while she doesn't seem to subscribe to either theory, still manages to give a magnificent, layered, important performance. She never seems to be wholly natural – part of Method acting is a warts-and-all approach and Taylor never loses that movie star glamour, in spite of the dusty conditions of her surroundings. At the same time, she responds to Rock Hudson's large blustering with intelligence and restraint, making smaller choices that belie Hollywood's historical approach. In addition to her approach, Taylor's choices manufacture a truly modern feminist heroine. She leaves behind the starry-eyed children of her past and the damsels in distress that populated so many similar films before it. She is a truly strong woman without ever losing her feminine qualities. She is willful without being overbearing or devious – simultaneously assertive and sexy.The other intriguing aspect to GIANT is the style of director George Stevens. There are so many well-thought out, well-designed, beautifully framed images throughout the film that add detail and texture to the sprawling story. In spite of what I assume was a hands off approach with the actors (how else do you explain such a wide range of styles?), he truly seems to understand the characters and shows us with his choices of lighting and framing. He masterfully balances the multitude of supporting roles and subplots without ever losing focus on the primary narrative. Furthermore, the pace of the film is actually quite brisk, which is quite an accomplishment given all the ground there is to cover. With all that said, perhaps the most impressive thing about Stevens is how frequently unobtrusive he is with his camera and his direction, that is, UNLESS he has something political on his mind.And that's where GIANT takes another weird turn. There are several points that Stevens' seems to want to make at various points in the film – the most blatant of which is anti-racism. He highly accentuates a point that the book only hints at, using Texan prejudice against Hispanic-Americans as a substitute for the bigotry that permeated much of the country during the beginning of the civil rights struggle. It's at moments like these in the film where Stevens seems to lose all sense of subtlety with zooms into the face of a Hispanic baby or a sign that reads "We Reserve the Right to Refuse Service to Anyone". He over-makes his point time and time again, leaving the viewer frustrated, particularly during the second half. He takes a similar approach to mocking the nouveau riche of Texas – people who stumbled onto billions of dollars through the oil business, most notably in a scene where he plays cowboy music and makes the windows burst open as a large party of rich white people are literally herded out of the room like cattle. It's another moment that is amazingly unambiguous in a film that was so carefully crafted and understated for the two and a half hours prior.All of these elements add up to a wholly uneven, but still mesmerizing film. There is great beauty, great art, great ideas mixed in a bowl with sloppiness, preaching, theatricality and misguided notions. Either way, it is an indelible experience that I think everybody needs to go through. One can learn great filmmaking as well as what not to do, all in one sitting. http://www.spout.com/blogs/spoutblog/archive/2008/7/16/32630.aspx Post By: SpoutBlog
Post To: SpoutBlog on spout.com
Post Date: 7/16/2008 3:00:59 PM
Body: Though I first buzzed about an Academy Award nomination for Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight more than a month before his death, I now want to take it all back. I feel all the talk of Ledger’s posthumous Oscar chances will cloud my mind when I finally do see it, and it will probably also cloud the Academy’s judgment, too. Six months from now, when the nominations are announced on January 22 (coincidentally the one-year anniversary of Ledger’s death), if Ledger is not recognized for his role as The Joker, there will surely be an uproar — actually, Hollywood might just up and self-implode. I’m not the only one annoyed by all the Oscar buzz. Terry Gilliam, who directed Ledger in The Brothers Grimm and the upcoming The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, is calling “bullshit” on the whole thing, particularly against Warner Bros., which Gilliam accuses of exploiting Ledger’s death and chance of a posthumous Oscar for publicity purposes. Considering most Oscar campaigns for live actors are really just part of movie marketing, he has a good point. Sure, I would love to see Ledger honored. I’ve believed in his Oscar worth since 10 Things I Hate About You . But in February, if he receives a posthumous award, it will surely feel, at least in good percentage, that it’s because he died young. In that case, why not also give supporting noms sight unseen to Rob Knox for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Brad Renfro for The Informers? Despite the more than 10 posthumous nominations in Oscar history, however, it’s not obligatory for the Academy to hand out such accolades every time someone dies before his final movie is released. Just check out the following list of talent who probably deserved posthumous Oscar recognition as much as Ledger does: Jean Vigo for L’Atalante - One of the greatest, most influential films of all time, L’Atalante premiered in France in 1934, a few months before Vigo died of tuberculosis at the age of 29. It eventually made its way to the U.S. 14 years later, just in time for the debut of the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. And considering the first recipient, Vittorio De Sica (for Shoeshine), would win again two years later (for Bicycle Thieves), the Academy should have recognized Vigo’s film, even if it was more than a decade old. Unfortunately, it would be many decades before L’Atalante received the kind of esteem it deserves. James Dean for Rebel Without a Cause - Dean starred in only three feature films, one of which, East of Eden, was released prior to his death. He received posthumous Oscar nominations for that film and his final appearance in Giant, which came out a year later. But wouldn’t it have been wonderful if he’d also been nominated for his most iconic role in Rebel Without a Cause? Sure, he’d have posthumously gone up against himself in 1956, but that’s what movie gods like him were made to do. Richard Harris for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - Not only should Harris have received a nomination, he should have won, too. It doesn’t matter that it wasn’t the greatest performance by the actor, who’d previously been nominated for 1963’s This Sporting Life and 1990’s The Field. It’s that Harry Potter fans would have tuned in and saved that year’s telecast from being the least-watched in years. Just imagine how many people will be tuning in to next year’s show just because of the (inevitable) Ledger nom. Heather O’Rourke for Poltergeist III - I know that I’m only one of maybe three people who like the third Poltergeist movie, but even if you think the movie itself is bad, you have to give little Heather O’Rourke credit for being giving creepily terrific performances throughout the series. Compare her talent to some other young actresses who’ve been nominated. Especially Abigail Breslin of Little Miss Sunshine. And had she lived, she’d probably be a better actress today than Oscar-winner Anna Paquin. F.W. Murnau for Tabu - His Sunrise was pretty successful a few year earlier, at the 1st Academy Awards, but he wasn’t even nominated. In fact, the man who also gave us Nosferatu, Faust and The Last Laugh was never nominated for an Oscar, a fact that might have been different had the Oscars been founded a decade earlier or had he not died tragically in a car accident at age 43. I’m sure, at least, that Floyd Crosby, when winning for his cinematography work on Tabu, raised the statue to the sky and said, “this is for Murnau.” Peter Sellers for The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu - Whether or not you believe the Academy hates on comedic actors, you should agree that Sellers should have won an Oscar before he died. Or after he died. If he’d been nominated for this critical and commercial failure, though, it would of course have been one of those “he deserved it for ______, but this will do” kind of situtations. Stanley Kubrick for Eyes Wide Shut - If Scorsese can finally win with The Departed, Kubrick should have finally won posthumously with what is often thought of as his worst film. If anything, he at least deserved to be nominated instead of M. Night Shyamalan. Adrienne Shelly for Waitress - Didn’t it seem like a sure thing the writer-director-actress, Shelley, would get the nomination this year? Considering Diablo Cody had already (unofficially) won the actual Oscar before the nominations were even announced, could it have hurt to include the tragically murdered screenwriter? Or were there already too many ladies on the screenwriting ballot this year? Thelma Ritter for What’s So Bad About Feeling Good? - If ever there was a supporting actress who should have won an Oscar, Ritter was she. After six nominations (four of them consecutive), a posthumous seventh should have come with this movie (even if I’ve never personally seen it, I bet she’s great as usual). Unfortunately, the ballots were likely already in when she had her heart attack in February 1969. Also, she probably would have lost to Ruth Gordon anyway. Brandon Lee for The Crow - Laugh all you want, but in a crazy year that saw John Travolta recognized with a nomination and Tom Hanks recognized with a win for one of his silliest performances ever, would it have been so strange if the Academy had given Lee the slot filled by Morgan Freeman (obviously Oscar had little love for The Shawshank Redemption as it was)? Originally posted on:SpoutBlog
]]>Wed, 16 Jul 2008 19:00:59 GMTSpoutBlogSpoutBlog on spout.com7/16/2008 3:00:59 PM Though I first buzzed about an Academy Award nomination for Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight more than a month before his death, I now want to take it all back. I feel all the talk of Ledger’s posthumous Oscar chances will cloud my mind when I finally do see it, and it will probably also cloud the Academy’s judgment, too. Six months from now, when the nominations are announced on January 22 (coincidentally the one-year anniversary of Ledger’s death), if Ledger is not recognized for his role as The Joker, there will surely be an uproar — actually, Hollywood might just up and self-implode. I’m not the only one annoyed by all the Oscar buzz. Terry Gilliam, who directed Ledger in The Brothers Grimm and the upcoming The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, is calling “bullshit” on the whole thing, particularly against Warner Bros., which Gilliam accuses of exploiting Ledger’s death and chance of a posthumous Oscar for publicity purposes. Considering most Oscar campaigns for live actors are really just part of movie marketing, he has a good point. Sure, I would love to see Ledger honored. I’ve believed in his Oscar worth since 10 Things I Hate About You . But in February, if he receives a posthumous award, it will surely feel, at least in good percentage, that it’s because he died young. In that case, why not also give supporting noms sight unseen to Rob Knox for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Brad Renfro for The Informers? Despite the more than 10 posthumous nominations in Oscar history, however, it’s not obligatory for the Academy to hand out such accolades every time someone dies before his final movie is released. Just check out the following list of talent who probably deserved posthumous Oscar recognition as much as Ledger does: Jean Vigo for L’Atalante - One of the greatest, most influential films of all time, L’Atalante premiered in France in 1934, a few months before Vigo died of tuberculosis at the age of 29. It eventually made its way to the U.S. 14 years later, just in time for the debut of the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. And considering the first recipient, Vittorio De Sica (for Shoeshine), would win again two years later (for Bicycle Thieves), the Academy should have recognized Vigo’s film, even if it was more than a decade old. Unfortunately, it would be many decades before L’Atalante received the kind of esteem it deserves. James Dean for Rebel Without a Cause - Dean starred in only three feature films, one of which, East of Eden, was released prior to his death. He received posthumous Oscar nominations for that film and his final appearance in Giant, which came out a year later. But wouldn’t it have been wonderful if he’d also been nominated for his most iconic role in Rebel Without a Cause? Sure, he’d have posthumously gone up against himself in 1956, but that’s what movie gods like him were made to do. Richard Harris for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - Not only should Harris have received a nomination, he should have won, too. It doesn’t matter that it wasn’t the greatest performance by the actor, who’d previously been nominated for 1963’s This Sporting Life and 1990’s The Field. It’s that Harry Potter fans would have tuned in and saved that year’s telecast from being the least-watched in years. Just imagine how many people will be tuning in to next year’s show just because of the (inevitable) Ledger nom. Heather O’Rourke for Poltergeist III - I know that I’m only one of maybe three people who like the third Poltergeist movie, but even if you think the movie itself is bad, you have to give little Heather O’Rourke credit for being giving creepily terrific performances throughout the series. Compare her talent to some other young actresses who’ve been nominated. Especially Abigail Breslin of Little Miss Sunshine. And had she lived, she’d probably be a better actress today than Oscar-winner Anna Paquin. F.W. Murnau for Tabu - His Sunrise was pretty successful a few year earlier, at the 1st Academy Awards, but he wasn’t even nominated. In fact, the man who also gave us Nosferatu, Faust and The Last Laugh was never nominated for an Oscar, a fact that might have been different had the Oscars been founded a decade earlier or had he not died tragically in a car accident at age 43. I’m sure, at least, that Floyd Crosby, when winning for his cinematography work on Tabu, raised the statue to the sky and said, “this is for Murnau.” Peter Sellers for The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu - Whether or not you believe the Academy hates on comedic actors, you should agree that Sellers should have won an Oscar before he died. Or after he died. If he’d been nominated for this critical and commercial failure, though, it would of course have been one of those “he deserved it for ______, but this will do” kind of situtations. Stanley Kubrick for Eyes Wide Shut - If Scorsese can finally win with The Departed, Kubrick should have finally won posthumously with what is often thought of as his worst film. If anything, he at least deserved to be nominated instead of M. Night Shyamalan. Adrienne Shelly for Waitress - Didn’t it seem like a sure thing the writer-director-actress, Shelley, would get the nomination this year? Considering Diablo Cody had already (unofficially) won the actual Oscar before the nominations were even announced, could it have hurt to include the tragically murdered screenwriter? Or were there already too many ladies on the screenwriting ballot this year? Thelma Ritter for What’s So Bad About Feeling Good? - If ever there was a supporting actress who should have won an Oscar, Ritter was she. After six nominations (four of them consecutive), a posthumous seventh should have come with this movie (even if I’ve never personally seen it, I bet she’s great as usual). Unfortunately, the ballots were likely already in when she had her heart attack in February 1969. Also, she probably would have lost to Ruth Gordon anyway. Brandon Lee for The Crow - Laugh all you want, but in a crazy year that saw John Travolta recognized with a nomination and Tom Hanks recognized with a win for one of his silliest performances ever, would it have been so strange if the Academy had given Lee the slot filled by Morgan Freeman (obviously Oscar had little love for The Shawshank Redemption as it was)? Originally posted on:SpoutBlog http://www.spout.com/blogs/spoutblog/archive/2008/3/28/26711.aspx Post By: SpoutBlog
Post To: SpoutBlog on spout.com
Post Date: 3/28/2008 1:00:53 PM
Body: There is so much going on these days in the marketing of The Dark Knight (see Chris Thilk’s most recent update/summary here), but Warner Bros. may be wasting a lot of time and money on its campaigns. If we’re to believe an AP story from yesterday, there’s already enough interest in the Batman Begins sequel coming from two separate directions: comic book fandom (”the magnitude of a comic-book franchise with an illustrious 70-year history”) and, of course, the cult of celebrity death (”arguably the biggest movie featuring a posthumous role in Hollywood history.”). The article highlights a number of posthumous film releases, including those of James Dean (Rebel Without a Cause and Giant), Spencer Tracy (Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner), Will Rogers (Steamboat Round the Bend), Bruce Lee (Enter the Dragon), his son, Brandon Lee (The Crow), John Candy (Canadian Bacon and Wagon’s East!), Natalie Wood (Brainstorm), Carole Lombard (To Be or Not to Be), Oliver Reed (Gladiator), Clark Gable (The Misfits) and Aaliyah, whose Queen of the Damned is implied to have only been successful on account of the singer/actress’ accidental demise. However, none of these performers, the article argues, had the benefit of having such a blockbuster swan song as a Batman movie (coupled with the Terry Gilliam movie, of course, but Ledger’s actual final film is considerably less anticipated and so may be less notable). So certainly Ledger will be winning the contest for Biggest Posthumous Box Office. (more…) Originally posted on:SpoutBlog
]]>Fri, 28 Mar 2008 17:00:53 GMTSpoutBlogSpoutBlog on spout.com3/28/2008 1:00:53 PMThere is so much going on these days in the marketing of The Dark Knight (see Chris Thilk’s most recent update/summary here), but Warner Bros. may be wasting a lot of time and money on its campaigns. If we’re to believe an AP story from yesterday, there’s already enough interest in the Batman Begins sequel coming from two separate directions: comic book fandom (”the magnitude of a comic-book franchise with an illustrious 70-year history”) and, of course, the cult of celebrity death (”arguably the biggest movie featuring a posthumous role in Hollywood history.”). The article highlights a number of posthumous film releases, including those of James Dean (Rebel Without a Cause and Giant), Spencer Tracy (Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner), Will Rogers (Steamboat Round the Bend), Bruce Lee (Enter the Dragon), his son, Brandon Lee (The Crow), John Candy (Canadian Bacon and Wagon’s East!), Natalie Wood (Brainstorm), Carole Lombard (To Be or Not to Be), Oliver Reed (Gladiator), Clark Gable (The Misfits) and Aaliyah, whose Queen of the Damned is implied to have only been successful on account of the singer/actress’ accidental demise. However, none of these performers, the article argues, had the benefit of having such a blockbuster swan song as a Batman movie (coupled with the Terry Gilliam movie, of course, but Ledger’s actual final film is considerably less anticipated and so may be less notable). So certainly Ledger will be winning the contest for Biggest Posthumous Box Office. (more…) Originally posted on:SpoutBlog http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/family/MemberTagFilms.aspxfamily
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