My favorite Western, plus a great making-of documentary about it.
Children of Giant (2015; pay to see on YouTube or free PBS trial on Amazon Prime)
A behind-the-scenes documentary about the making of the classic Western movie Giant, including a look at the interracial community where the movie was filmed. This is one of the best making-of features I have seen. It blends together the backstory of the film production, the relationship between the film and the novel, and interviews with unlikely people who remember interacting with the cast and crew. It also tells a poignant story about the real-life experiences of the Spanish speakers in the town where the filming took place. Interviews with some of these people sixty years after the movie offer a hopeful sense of resilience and a challenge to find ways to live together well.
What strikes me the most about this documentary is how uplifting it is. It deals with the hard-hitting themes of the film, but with interviews and narration that make you feel welcome. All the people interviewed just seem really nice, and you get the same sense regarding the cast and crew. It’s always good to hear that the film director was friendly to the people working with him. Add on some first-hand stories of interacting with James Dean and Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor, and you’ve got a Hollywood nerd’s dream.
Giant (1956; low resolution free on Internet Archive or pay on various platforms)
A Texas cattle rancher (Rock Hudson) brings home a wife from New England (Elizabeth Taylor) who starts questioning the patterns of discrimination she discovers—and no one knows what to do with that hired hand (James Dean). It sounds like a soap opera or a story where everything is going to go horribly wrong. It’s not that story. This story is bound together by a sense of love undergirding it, holding things together when it seems like they should fall apart.
When you see that house, you’ll feel like you’ve seen it before. The cinematography and sets are gorgeous. The acting can’t be beat. The writing is subtle but rich. It’s three hours long, but stick with it. It’s worth it. There are several quite memorable scenes, and aside from the “slow” pace, it feels like it was written yesterday.
It’s a movie about love. About children. About race. About America. About money. And most of all, about learning to make a home together.
For sensitive viewers: A couple of scenes where people punch people. Occasional smoking and alcohol.
Nathan’s Writing Update 📝
This week I finished two academic articles and sent them to different journals. Wish me success! I’ll let you know if either of them gets published. One of them was a paper I sent four months ago and they sent it back to me last week asking for big revisions.
I’m finding that the revision process usually follows these three steps:
Ugh, why did they ask for these changes? Didn’t they read my paper?
Okay, I can make these changes, though I don’t know why.
Phew, I’m so glad they didn’t publish the first version, it’s a lot better with these changes!
To my surprise, this time there wasn’t as much of step 1, so I was able to fix the paper up quicker. 😜