Giant (1956)

 George Stevens's "Giant"

Maybe since I'm from the state of Texas, I am a bit biased when I praise George Stevens's 1956 epic "Giant." I don't think I've ever seen a film so adamant for its viewer to know what state the film takes place, but "Giant" certainly does just that. They say "everything is bigger in Texas" and that is certainly the case with everything involving this film, including its 3 and a half hour runtime. Everything about "Giant" is big and epic in scope. Its title, its stars, its runtime, and its scope all are 'big' and 'grand.' 

The film centers on a Texas cattle rancher named Bick Benedict, who owns half a million acres of Texas land. His new wife, a Maryland native named Leslie, doesn't quite fit in with the big, brass Texas lifestyle. While the couple continue to grow the Benedict cattle empire, lowly farmhand Jett Rink becomes rich after finding oil on his small plot of land. Over the years, the characters become to realize that their larger-than-life dreams and aspirations aren't exactly coming to fruition in the way they thought they would.

I think the main thematic crux of the film comes from the notion that times change. The film needed to be 3 and a half hours to make the viewer feel the weight of time itself and see how it unfolds in ways you never expected. Rock Hudson's character, Bick, has grand ideas about his ranch, his family, and his place in Texas society. However, as time begins to pass, he learns that he must compromise himself and his grand ideas for the sake of his family and the changing culture. 

Of course, this notion could be connected to the notion of America itself. I know the film is specifically about Texas and its culture. But, to me, Texas is the America of America, and its bravado, its scale, and its ideological basis all parallel to the United States itself. At the time of the films release, the U.S. had entered a new period of post-war prosperity. It was the global superpower that was dominated every facet of global economics, politics, and culture. Like Bick's ranch and like the film itself, this prosperity cannot go on forever. 

To me, Jett Rink represents the direction that America is likely to go in given its current state. Its prosperity happened by accident. Rink's status and ego both inflate to extreme levels under they crumble under their own weight. On the flipside, Bick represents the direction America SHOULD go in. Sure, Bick was full of himself in the beginning. But, through Leslie's headstrong guidance and his progression towards empathy turned him into someone Leslie considers a 'hero' by the end. Bick starts out the film racist and ends the film defending a Mexican family's right to eat in a diner. This change that Bick experiences throughout the film is the necessary change that everyone must go through in their life, or else end up like Rink. The U.S. similarly should humble itself before the changing landscape of time.

I personally adored "Giant." Its criticisms towards Texas culture and American culture on the whole only make the film more textured. Its big and grand in scope, enough to hold the weight of its lofty thematic ambitions. You watch as time passes before you and watch as its central characters must decide to whether to adjust their perspective to the changing of time or be overrun by it. The main point the film is making is the as much control as you wish to have on your life, as big and lofty as you ambitions are, you cannot control the changing of the tides of life. Life is just too 'giant' to try and grasp only for yourself.