Brian Reviews Giant

Hello again!
If you didn’t read my last review, I’m Dr. Brian Lauder. I am a Doctor of Psychology, a dominant and partner to two amazing men, and, a classic movie enthusiast.
This one isn’t black and white, which may be one of the reasons my two partners didn’t immediately groan in misery when I put it on our television.
There was popcorn, hot tea, and we were cuddled on the sofa under a nice thick blanket. I set the scene because, well, I knew that once they agreed to watch it, they’d be mesmerized.
Plus, there was one more weapon in my arsenal.
James Dean.
As much as I had my only female crush on Grace Kelly, I had my first male crush, and the one that told me without a doubt I was truly gay, for James Dean. His voice, his mannerisms, the little smirk on his lips, I couldn’t contain the feelings that made my heart thrum a little faster, and my neck get hot. Hell, it still does when I watch him in the few movies he made in his unfortunately short life. He was a beautiful man that was with the world for too short a time.
Now, before I wax poetic about the man longer, I’ll get to my review.
Giant is a big movie, like the name would suggest. It’s long, coming in at 3 hours and 21 minutes. It’s sweeping in terms of the size of the cast. It starts in the northeastern United States and then moves quickly to Texas. And, like they say, everything is bigger in Texas.
Elizabeth Taylor’s character plays a young woman living in her father’s home, living a soft, sweet young life. Old manners, culture, books, discussion over the lace covered dining table makes up her quiet days. It sets her up to be seen as an American princess of sorts, falling in love with a rugged rancher who comes to her home to buy horses.
Of course, she falls madly in love with Rock Hudson’s character. He’s a strapping man with a cowboy hat. What’s not to love? He whisks her away after the wedding to Texas, where she is thrown into a place that is so far removed from the life she knew as could be.
A flat prairie land made for raising cattle and wild men and women.
Hudson’s character has a sister, one of those rugged frontier women who could sit a horse and shoot a buck better than most of her male friends. She doesn’t take a liking to the beautiful new wife of her brother, and predicts the gentlewoman will leave Texas and run home to her lace and roses life.
Well, she was wrong. After fainting once from the heat, Elizabeth’s character sets her stubborn jaw in determination, and she toughens herself enough to annoy her husband and amaze the neighbors.
I must warn you that there is terrible racism explored in this movie. There was a little village for the workers of the ranches filled with poverty, sickness and oppression. The Mexican workers lived in shacks, and when Elizabeth’s character finds this place, she is incensed with anger, and determination to help the people there.
That doesn’t sit well with her husband. But…she doesn’t care.
James Dean’s character is also an employee on the ranch. He takes a fast liking to the lady of the house, but she’s forever in love with her rancher husband. When he gets fired, he buys a little place and soon strikes oil, becoming richer than all the ranchers that had looked down on him. And he loves looking down on them, once he’s got the money to do it.
Oh, and one other surprise comes toward the end. When one of the children that the main couple have grows up, the boy not only turns his back on the family ranch, but he also marries a Mexican woman. This man is a very young Dennis Hopper.
Unrequited love, human rights, and discounting a woman’s natural strength only for her to show the world how strong she could be. Those are all the things you’ll find in this big movie called Giant. 
Note: I do not own the rights to these following photographs.