Review
Ambitious Texas-style scale epic that traces the rising and falling fortunes of two generations of Texans, thus allowing makeup artists to enable Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, and James Dean to grow old before our eyes. Miscegenation, moral dissipation, racism, the oppression of women....a variety of topics are brought forth during the film's 201-minute running time. The core of the film is actually the relationship between Bick Benedict (Hudson) and his wife Leslie (Taylor). It is through them that we follow the film's themes of generation, conflict and social change. However, it is Jett Rink (Dean) whom audiences remember, particularly in the early scenes when he is striding out on his small piece of land or when he comes to tell Benedict that "my well came in big." He puts his oily hand on one of the white columns of Benedict's porch and, unemphatically, director George Stevens instantly crystallizes the theme of the film - the muddy thumb prints of materialism on the pillars of elegance and the coming of conflict between the aristocracy and the nouveau riche. "you should have shot that fella a long time ago," a friend says to Benedict about Jett Rink. "Now he's too rich to kill." |
