I've personally never much warmed to this film, and the couple of times I (unenthusiastically) watched it did so only because I made myself do it so that I could know that I did.

I think you'll sufficiently like this movie if you opt to give it a go, but that this is not essential viewing if you choose to pass.

And, yeah, 3 hrs., 21 mins. is exceedingly long to sit through a movie you don't already feel great desire to see.

YES.YES IT IS.

It has compelling moments but is a big, lumbering thing, Rock Hudson is rather a drag and James Dean, who is very good, has a relatively small role (it is by far the least of his three films). Powerful at times but it goes on, and on, and on. By all means give it a go - many people think highly of it - but there are literally hundreds of pre-'60s movies I'd personally recommend ahead of it.

I watched it solely because it was the only James Dean movie I hadn't seen (having watched "East of Eden" and "Rebel Without A Cause half a dozen times each) and was disappointed that his role is little more than a cameo.

@HarrisonHanksHackman said:

¨I've been mostly a 60's-80's movie dude, but the past 10 years have been catching up on a lot of 30's/40's/50's movies. I DVR a ton off of TCM, but now I am getting a backlog of about 30 movies. My wife's best friend keeps pushing me to watch Giant, but every time I start to pull it up I look at the clock and think, " do I really want to give 3 hours 21 minutes to this movie?" Keep in mind I am not much of a LIz Taylor or James Dean fan, but I'm open to this movie converting me on both and there are plenty of other actors on the bill who I love. So should I?¨

I liked Giant. I watched it like three times. The acting is very good and I enjoyed seeing James Dean and Rock Hudson act opposite each other, even more when taking into consideration that they were rivals. Rock felt that James would steal the show and shadow him but that was not the case. They both played their roles very well and they both were nominated for an academy award. Liz should have been nominated too, IMO. Mercedes McCambridge (she plays Rock Hudson´s sister) won an oscar for best supporting actress. The director, George Stevens, won a second oscar with Giant -- first was with A Place In the Sun, also with Liz Taylor

OK, I finally watched this and found it a just OK (sorry to those of you who love it). I thought the subplots of racism and feminism were interesting. But I thought it was amusing that Liz Taylor's character Leslie, championed the Mexican families and their plight and yet went home for Thanksgiving where her family is catered to by black servants.

The third subplot was definitely the "have and have not's" and the James Dean character, Jett Rink showed both ends of that.

I think I would have liked to have seen the war subtext played up a bit more, but of course the movie was already at least 30 minutes too long.

I was waiting for the bigotry turn-around of Bink (Rock Hudson) to happen much earlier and with all the money being tossed around (pools, planes, etc.) that he would have created more adequate housing for the poor Mexican village. And I was surprised Leslie didn't force that issue. I suppose that would have been a little to out of character and progressive for the Benedict lineage. The diner fight showed somewhat of an eye-opening turnaround for Bick, but as he mentioned his grandson looking like a "wetback' at the end, you could tell it was more of an acceptance of reality, or surrender, if you will.

I'm being hyper-critical of a movie I give a solid 7. Long and short I'm glad I watched it, doubt I ever do again.