"GIANT: ELIZABETH TAYLOR, ROCK HUDSON, JAMES DEAN, EDNA FERBER AND THE MAKING OF A LEGENDARY AMERICAN FILM"..........THE EYES OF TEXAS WERE UPON THEM....

Giant: Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, James Dean, Edna Ferber and the Making Of A Legendary American Film by Don Graham (2018)    

                We love the grandiosity of this book's title......if you're going to write a book about one of the major event films of the 1950's, it ought to have an epic title to match the movie's ambitions and accomplishments......

                Sometimes we find ourselves skimming through 'The Making Of......" books written about classic (or not-so-classic) films......

                Not this one. It's riveting all the way through, with an incredible once-in-a-lifetime collection of unforgettable icons.......and the moment they converged to make a landmark film.....

                 There's Rock Hudson, the very epitome of the 'manufactured-out-of-nothing' movie star.....a deeply closeted gay and bland hunk 'o beef designed to fit the description of a Tall, Dark and Handsome leading man.  Thrilled to be cast in George Stevens' epic, he gamely stretches the parameters of his limited talent to do justice to his role of a Texan land-and-oil baron.

                   And then there's Elizabeth Taylor, a movie star since childhood and now stunning everyone who encounters her with both her incomparable beauty and her ribald, riotously sharp tongue.......a force to be reckoned with.

                  The wild card here, of course.......James Dean, the charismatic, mercurial, tempestuous method-acting sensation, an overnight superstar  and teen girl heartthrob from his first two blockbuster films, "East Of Eden" and "Rebel Without A Cause"......and fated to forever become a live-fast-die-young icon after his traffic accident death following the completion of "Giant"

                   Wrangling these three very different talents....... their directorial taskmaster - George Stevens, determined to carve his own unique epic from Edna Ferber's massive best-selling novel.......and still haunted by his experience of capturing documentary footage of World War II concentration camps. As domineering as any of the characters in "Giant", Stevens uncompromisingly defies Warner Brothers irascible mogul Jack Warner to produce and direct a film as expensive and lengthy as it has to be.

                     Much to Ferber's displeasure, Stevens' adaptation turned away from her severe take on the rampant bluster and egotism of Texas and Texans..........he has his own dramatic agendas to pursue, including a powerful indictment of Texas racism against its Mexican population......and way ahead of its time, an attack on traditional 1950's sexism that consigned women to housekeeping and child-bearing....

                  The coming together and clash of all these larger-than-life, creative personalities makes for fascinating reading.......especially in the book's generous sections on James Dean, whom the book implies may have only been play-acting his pubic persona  of the young, misunderstood, tortured artist......a role he created out of his own unhappy childhood. (We'll leave you Dean fans to discuss and debate that interpretation among yourselves.

                   For film buff's , Don Graham's exhaustively researched details on the production of "Giant" is a treasure trove window into the long gone techniques of how Hollywood studios assembled their epic films in the 1950's......(with the money spent updated into 2018 dollars)

          .  Compared to today's blockbusters, mostly shot in warehouses draped in CGI green screens, the creation of "Giant" might seem closer to the building of the Pyramids in its sheer logistics and physical undertaking.

               (Our favorite of the book's many historic nuggets, by far........the bizarre encounter between James Dean and Alec Guinness.....with Dean showing off his spiffy new sports car to the distinguished British actor, who warns the young star that if he keep driving that car, it'll kill him within a week.....which it did......seven days after they met.....)

                No classic movie buff's nightstand should go without this book.....grab it now or make sure a loved one's put it on their gift list for you.......5 stars (*****), a FIND OF FINDS.