James Dean in Giant

One reason Dean comes off well in Giant is that everything around him seems so stiff and phony (especially Liz and Rock). Whether it's a passing moment, like his bitter if vague gripe that his family didn't end up with lots of land b/c "they wasn't so foxy", or his big scene after striking oil, his vitality in the early part of the film blows everyone else of the screen.

I find his later scenes as the Howard Hughes-ish millionaire* much less interesting. In fact I find Giant rather boring aside from Dean's early scenes.

And a lot of his performance was improvised. For example in this scene he was just supposed to walk along his new property, but he was pissed off with director George Stevens about something (they didn't get along) so he walked very stiffly, making a big deal out of hitting his marks. It adds a fascinating visual element to the scene.

LINK

And at the end, Dean decided to climb the windmill, which was not in the script. But it was so good Stevens left it in, and later added a CU of Dean at the top to match it.












*Yes I know the character of Jett Rink was technically based on Glenn McCarthy. But Dean's old man makeup as well as many of his mannerisms are clearly based on Hughes.

That's the famous example of what I was talking about. Full eyewitness version of that story here LINK