FRAT w/ Spoilers
So I watched a documentary special on James Dean and realized I'd never watched his final movie - Giant (1956). Dean died in a car crash in 1955 and Giant was released posthumously in 1956. Also starring in the film were Rock Hudson and Liz Taylor so I figured I'd give it a go.
It's a steaming pile of shit. I have no idea why it has received such good reviews. It's generally considered an epic movie - a must watch. It fucking sucked.
The movie was 3-1/2 hours long and it still failed to deliver on any character development. Rock Hudson plays a huge cattle rancher from Texas. Liz Taylor is his wife. James Dean is an aloof ranch hand.
James Dean inherits a small bit of land and ends up discovering oil. He makes it big and becomes even richer than Rock Hudson. Rock and Liz fight a bit because Liz is stubborn as fuck. Rock is pissed because his son wants to be a doctor and has no interest in taking over the ranch. The film spans the entire adult life of the characters and they did a decent job of making Liz look like an old hag even though you could tell she still had a rocking body under them clothes.
One of Rock's kids - who was actually a very young Dennis Hopper (which was cool) - ends up marrying a Mexican. James Dean - now like 50 or something - throws some huge hotel-opening shindig and told his staff not to cater to any Mexicans. Dennis Hopper loses his shit, storms into a ceremony and gets his ass handed to him on a platter by the 50+ year old (and drunk as fuck) James Dean. Rock steps out of the crowd and says something like "You want it here in front of everyone, or do you want to step outside".
They go to another room and fight. Rock wins. Dean was hammer drunk. Then Rock tossed a bucket or something into a wine rack and it causes like 20 bookshelves of wine to domino over and crash all the wine to shit. Pretty shitty engineering of a wine cellar if you ask me. Rock tells Dean "You're finished as a man" or something like that and leaves. Dean opens what I think was vodka, takes a swig and crashes the bottle on the floor. Rock and his family leave the ceremony, and Dean makes a fool out of himself with a speech because he was so fucking drunk.
Rock and his family head home from the ceremony and stop at a restaurant and the waitresses in there didn't want to serve Rock's Mexican daughter-in-law. Rock says "I'm fucking Benedict. I'm your fucking neighbor" and the guy agrees to serve her. Then a family of Mexicans walk in and the store owner tries to kick them out. Rock tries to stop them and the two get into a hilariously-awful Hollywood fight that lasted 7 or 8 minutes. Rock got his ass kicked.
They get home, and the camera pans to a baby crib with two of Rock and Liz's grandbabies - one white and one Mexican. Rock says something like "How do you like that. A Benedict that's a wetback"
Liz tells him she was never more impressed with Rock than she was when he got his ass kicked by the racist restaurant owner.
THE END
I'll give it a 5/10. At best.
It's a notch below "Don't fucking bother"
3-1/2 hours bros.
So I watched a documentary special on James Dean and realized I'd never watched his final movie - Giant (1956). Dean died in a car crash in 1955 and Giant was released posthumously in 1956. Also starring in the film were Rock Hudson and Liz Taylor so I figured I'd give it a go.
It's a steaming pile of shit. I have no idea why it has received such good reviews. It's generally considered an epic movie - a must watch. It fucking sucked.
The movie was 3-1/2 hours long and it still failed to deliver on any character development. Rock Hudson plays a huge cattle rancher from Texas. Liz Taylor is his wife. James Dean is an aloof ranch hand.
James Dean inherits a small bit of land and ends up discovering oil. He makes it big and becomes even richer than Rock Hudson. Rock and Liz fight a bit because Liz is stubborn as fuck. Rock is pissed because his son wants to be a doctor and has no interest in taking over the ranch. The film spans the entire adult life of the characters and they did a decent job of making Liz look like an old hag even though you could tell she still had a rocking body under them clothes.
One of Rock's kids - who was actually a very young Dennis Hopper (which was cool) - ends up marrying a Mexican. James Dean - now like 50 or something - throws some huge hotel-opening shindig and told his staff not to cater to any Mexicans. Dennis Hopper loses his shit, storms into a ceremony and gets his ass handed to him on a platter by the 50+ year old (and drunk as fuck) James Dean. Rock steps out of the crowd and says something like "You want it here in front of everyone, or do you want to step outside".
They go to another room and fight. Rock wins. Dean was hammer drunk. Then Rock tossed a bucket or something into a wine rack and it causes like 20 bookshelves of wine to domino over and crash all the wine to shit. Pretty shitty engineering of a wine cellar if you ask me. Rock tells Dean "You're finished as a man" or something like that and leaves. Dean opens what I think was vodka, takes a swig and crashes the bottle on the floor. Rock and his family leave the ceremony, and Dean makes a fool out of himself with a speech because he was so fucking drunk.
Rock and his family head home from the ceremony and stop at a restaurant and the waitresses in there didn't want to serve Rock's Mexican daughter-in-law. Rock says "I'm fucking Benedict. I'm your fucking neighbor" and the guy agrees to serve her. Then a family of Mexicans walk in and the store owner tries to kick them out. Rock tries to stop them and the two get into a hilariously-awful Hollywood fight that lasted 7 or 8 minutes. Rock got his ass kicked.
They get home, and the camera pans to a baby crib with two of Rock and Liz's grandbabies - one white and one Mexican. Rock says something like "How do you like that. A Benedict that's a wetback"
Liz tells him she was never more impressed with Rock than she was when he got his ass kicked by the racist restaurant owner.
THE END
I'll give it a 5/10. At best.
It's a notch below "Don't fucking bother"
3-1/2 hours bros.
