George Stevens's best film "Giant" shot in Texas, USA is a good Western. Although this film is somewhat constrained by the original best-selling novel, it is a true review of American life, from cowboy descriptions to those who made their fortunes due to war and oil. Although "Giant" was unparalleled at the time and received Oscar recognition, it ultimately failed to stand the test of time. And James Dean, the most eye-catching star in the film, also won the Oscar nomination for the best actor that year. It is also the first time that Oscar has nominated a filmmaker who has passed away. Today, fans who come to see movies like "Giant" will be turned out, most of them are not directed at Elizabeth Taylor, or at James Dean. My conjecture, it should still be the latter like me! Because Elizabeth Taylor has many classic screen images, Leslie in "Giant" is not well-known, and James Dean has acted in three movies in total.
"Giant" reproduces the development history and pioneering spirit of Texas, involving major propositions such as industrial renewal and racial coexistence, and has an epic vastness. All three protagonists have top-notch performances, and James Dean, the idol of rebellious youth, was killed in a car accident just after the filming. The film spans three generations and shows the 25 years of influence of wealth and prejudice on a ranch family. There was a restaurant fight scene with "The Yellow Rose of Texas" as the background music, which created a strong contrast. The once giants and classics may lie in this. The creation of an era can no longer be surpassed. "Giant" is also a famous tragic masterpiece in film history. This film, which has been filmed for a long time, also shocked the world because of the sudden death of one of the leading actors, the famous screen idol James Dean. Director George Stevens is proficient in his techniques, and his narratives are stylish, especially for the third generation of black and white race issues.
The 197-point classic epic film "Giant" is also the last work starring James Dean. The whole film is composed of a triangle of grievances between two men and one woman. Rock Hudson is a good-natured Texas rancher who married the beautiful Elizabeth Taylor from the East. James Dean is a stubborn long-time worker, but gradually fell in love with the mistress. Later, he was given a piece of wasteland to cultivate on his own. Unexpectedly, he became a rich oil tycoon by digging up oil. Until the next generation grows up, he and Rock's family are still entangled, because he can't make up for the emptiness in his heart with money. Director George Stevens has a proficient technique, and everyone in the narrative is stylish, especially for the third generation of black and white race issues. The three protagonists also have very wonderful performances. In 1954, Locke Hudson starred in "Zhuang Li's Infatuation" and became famous in one fell swoop. In 1956, his co-starring "Giant" with James Dean and Elizabeth Taylor caused a strong shock in Western society. And thus gradually established his position in the Hollywood film industry.
The movie "Giant" is like a magnificent, far-reaching, soothing "Western Poem", the exciting railway era, monument-like rocks, galloping horses, vast grasslands and caravans. Reminiscent of the setting sun on the horizon, the cowboy wearing boots and carrying a pistol is waving a noose to gather hundreds of cows and horses, and then riding a horse and whip in the billowing smoke from the cows. , Galloping horizontally and horizontally. The male protagonist starring Locke Hudson fully condenses and deepens the perfect characteristic of a little bit of mystery in the American heart of the western cowboy. He is unruly and despise of civilization, his eyes gleaming with the divine light flying in the vast grassland and blue sky. In him, men can freely release the dream of longing for Mercedes-Benz. At the same time, he has a gentlemanly elegant demeanor (no doubt, this is also a breakthrough to the traditional cowboy image), and he controls the wisdom and mind of the grassland. Therefore, women can also entrust them to the white horse in his interpretation. All the imagination of the prince. And Locke Hudson was nominated for the Oscar actor that year with the classic image of such a new type of rancher that he created in "The Giants." What's more interesting is that James Dean, the second male actor who worked with him in the movie, is also a gay who once joined the army. Since then, the image of a handsome, rough and gentle cowboy man has permanently become an insurmountable classic in the history of the screen. Until "Brokeback Mountain" directed by Ang Lee, it is not difficult for us to find that the two cowboy men, ENNIS and JACK, unconsciously inherited a little bit of the style of Rock Hudson back then.
Let’s talk about the movie itself. "Biography of the Giant" revolves around the life changes of Texas rancher Benedict's family in the early to mid twentieth century. The time span is more than 30 years, and the film length is 201 minutes (it is said that there is another 261-minute version), a typical epic film. In such a large-scale panoramic series, the film is no longer a simple melodrama that tells a single story, but a melting pot of feelings and thoughts. Whether it is romantic love, emotional entanglement between couples, secret love, child education, localism, sexism, racial prejudice, patriotism, individualism, will to power, social changes, geography, honor, courage, depravity, nouveau riche mentality ... can be found in the film, but it is clear that it is basically a glimpse of light. Watching such a movie does not require too much intellectual investment. The emotions of the audience follow the emotional clues of the movie, which will naturally produce a sense of history and homesickness. But when it comes to the sense of history and homesickness, the film is not as rich and intense as "Gone with the Wind"; in terms of sex appeal and depth of thought, it does not have the foundation of world literary works like "Doctor Zhivago"; in terms of legendary colors and scenes, there is no With the ancient background of "Binxu" and MGM's desperate effort, the obscurity of "Giant's Biography" in the epic film is understandable. But in terms of the director's artistic expression and the character portrayal of the actors, "Giant" is very commendable, and it completely does not allow the three movies mentioned above.
Director George Stevens ("The Wilderness", "The Wonderful Life") was as famous as Ilya Kazan and Nicholas Lei in the 1950s. In the film, he used a large number of wide-angle wide-angle lenses to show the geographical features of Texas realistically. It has a very high quality, and integrates the geographical environment as a factor that affects the character's personality into the plot development of the story, forming one of the driving forces of the film's narrative. In terms of the emotional rhythm of the film, the film is also very well grasped. The joyous celebration ball is followed by a sad burial scene, the affectionate recombination is followed by the violent quarrel, and the grand celebration is followed by a man's loneliness and alcoholism. The emotions of the audience can't help but follow the ups and downs of the movie. Although the three-hour period is a bit longer, there is no sense of boredom at all.
In fact, the director has already worked hard on the conciseness of the film's narrative. For example, at the beginning of the movie, the romantic love between Beck Benedict and Leslie during his purchase of horses in Washington, Stevens used a super expressive The depth-of-field lens and a close-up complete the expression of the love between Leslie and Beck: In the close shot, Leslie’s mother is standing on the doorstep, and Leslie’s father is sitting in the car waiting under the steps. Ke went to see the horses together, and on the fence of the lawn in the distance, Beck and Leslie seemed to have forgotten to look at the horses. The two were petting Leslie’s beloved mount together. Farther away, the movie began. When the train that brought Beck to Washington was slowly moving into the distance, this close-middle-distance combined depth-of-field lens plus the next close-up showing Leslie and Beck’s affectionate affection, the audience understood that after watching Siri wanted to empathize with her, and went to live in Texas with the Texas rancher on the train. In the next scene, Piccolo and Leslie are already in the train carriage going to Texas, and the director did not use lines to express the whole story of this romantic love. This also shows that mainstream Hollywood directors in the 1950s have absorbed the legacy of "Citizen Kane" in the 1940s very well.
Leslie, played by Elizabeth Taylor, was initially a shy and mischievous innocent girl in Washington. After marrying Beck, she became an independent female self-consciousness under the sculpture of the rough geography of Texas. , A young woman who knows love and respect, and is extremely arrogant. She was already at the age of being a grandmother when the movie ended. With such an age-span role, Taylor is completely unconventional in acting. The most important thing is that the beauty, personality and temperament she gives to this character makes the audience unable to restrain the "love" of her. Jeter, who James Dean played in the film, was originally a cowboy from the Benedict family and had a crush on Leslie from the beginning. After Beck's sister died, he gave him a piece of land. A few years later, he dug up oil from this land, and finally became a Texas oil tycoon, whose wealth far exceeded the Benedict family. But this character has some upstart vulgarity and racial prejudice, so it's basically a negative character.
What is dissatisfactory is that there are too few scenes for James Dean in "The Giant's Biography". The whole focus is on the Benedicts, and Jeter is almost a supporting role. Even the genius of James Dean can’t express Jeter’s complex psychological changes from a gangster to an oil tycoon without the support of time and plot story, so the design of this character is somewhat in the eyes of the audience. lose. But James Dean's performance cannot be a failure. François Truffaut said that James Dean performed with intuition and instinct. His dialogue and his body movements often convey different meanings at the same time. You will never imagine his next action will be. What is it, in James Dean, all the norms of performance psychology are invalidated. James Dean cooperated with the masters in the mold shop to make his own mask (the upper right corner is the same mask as his made). Yes, a true genius always breaks the norms and creates new norms. What makes him better than the great "character actors" such as Marlon Brando and Robert De Niro is that he is not affiliated with For any performance school, his way of acting comes almost entirely from him. And his performance is always so easy to get the audience's approval, not only an emotional identification, but also an identification with the life of the character he endowed. The same is true for Jett in "The Giants". Even if the audience cannot have a moral identity with the villain's role, it is impossible to disagree with the authenticity of every moment of life given to this character by James Dean.
James Dean died in a car accident at the age of 24. In the words of François Truffaut, he “departed before his time came.” He was originally destined to bring a radical revolution in film performance. People who change. Even if he only acted in three movies (the other two are "Eden of Eden" and "Rebellion Without a Cause"), they have left a rich legacy. His fate is too similar to Bruce Lee, the same number of works is very small, the same unprecedented (Bruce Lee is the character image and Chinese kung fu portrayed by him, James Dean is the performance itself), they all belong to the kind of let people A sighing genius who passed away like a meteor. François Truffaut once wrote: "James Dean was noticed on Broadway two years ago. He played a young man in the adaptation of André Gide's "The Tragedy". Arab. After that, Ilya Kazan asked him to star in "East of Eden", his film debut. Then Nicholas Ray chose him to play the lead role of "Rebellion Without a Cause", and finally George Steven Si chose him to play the protagonist of "Giant". He played from the age of 20 to 60. His next role was supposed to be the boxer Rocky Gradiano in "Looking Back at the Shore." In the
film, James. Dean plays a farmer who became rich overnight because of the discovery of crude oil. This is perhaps the most mature role that Dean has ever created in his life. The role of the age span from 19 to 46 years old, from a smug young man to a middle-aged man full of remorse, which gave James Dean an opportunity to fully demonstrate his acting talent. James Dean worked very hard in "Giant"; his eyes never leave George Stevens or the camera. After the film was finished, he told his agent, Dick Clayton, "I think it's better for me to be a director than an actor." He wants to establish an independent film company so that he can only shoot the material he chooses. Clayton promised to talk to the producers of Warner Bros. about this. But at this moment, Dean, who was contracted to ban from driving by himself during filming, drove to Salinas to participate in racing.
When filming "Giant", Elizabeth Taylor was already the most highly anticipated queen of Hollywood. In contrast, James Dean was just a fledgling newcomer. When the film first started, she was jealous of James Dean's unconcealed brilliance and robbed her of the limelight. She complained that James Dean often interrupted the rehearsal without authorization in order to use his methods, and felt that this wild boy was rude and extremely selfish. An event that happened soon changed her negative view somewhat. In fact, James Dean felt extremely nervous about being able to play against Elizabeth Taylor, and he was almost unable to relax and enter the state. They rehearsed over and over again, but James Dean still looked stiff. Suddenly, he stopped, took a few steps, and opened his pants to pee in full view. No one knew what was going on. When people were dumbfounded, he returned to his position casually and said calmly: "Okay, let's start shooting!" This time they passed smoothly.
According to James Dean's later explanation, he was too nervous at the time to release the energy from his subconscious mind. At that moment he thought that if he could make such a move, he would have the courage to complete any performance in front of the camera. And it was this incredible reckless behavior that aroused Elizabeth Taylor's curiosity, and she began to look at this heresy in a new light. As the filming progressed, the relationship between Elizabeth Taylor and James Dean grew closer. They would sit together at dinner and even disappear mysteriously at night. Elizabeth Taylor also gave Dean a kitten. She later admitted that there was a special friendship between the two. They used to chat until midnight, listening to James Dean telling about his past, his mother. But the next day, James Dean will become very cold again, even deliberately avoiding-he is afraid to expose himself. This makes Elizabeth Taylor feel unreasonable. In any case, on the day that James Dean died, Elizabeth Taylor did collapse and kept crying. A few days later, she was sent to the hospital due to fever and loss of voice, but no doctor could diagnose her illness.
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