GIANT

Tonight I watched the epic Texas film "Giant". This film has the look and feel of a larger than life old style epic with hundreds of extras (both people and livestock), big name stars, grand locations and a running time of almost 3 hours. This was the first movie from my 50s film list I had a tough time getting through. It is very slow with many long uncut scenes of dialogue. The story also takes place of 35 years, so the actors age and there are lots of establishing scenes that could have been cut but weren't. For 95% of it the film feels like an epic romance about Texas, but in the end it builds to a anticlimactic ending about racism against mexicans in Texas. It's weird. I'm glad I watched it, because it is a much beloved film from the time, but like "The 10 Commandments" and other historical/biblical epics from the 50s, it just keeps going and going. The premise of the film could be a great remake today with some scene restructuring and drastic editing. The slow pace was all I could think about as I watched it. I can't say I was crazy about "Giant", but it absolutely spoke to a 50s mentality so it was worth it.