The Giant

XIX century Spain, Basque country, endless wars need endless fodder, and who else would serve that purpose better than poor and destitute. Age old story repeating cyclically to these days. Surviving the war was hard enough but coming home in one piece was even more important. Crippled peasant was no good to anybody, just one more hungry mouth to feed. This heartbreaking movie filmed in harsh, almost unreal terrain tells this saga almost like a fairytale with a giant and a cripple in its center. Two brothers dealt the worst cards in the game of life plod through faraway lands as a part of a cruel freak show. Even having a choice makes one privileged, our heroes have none, just bare-knuckle fight for survival, till the bones break and all mercifully ends.

One of films with salt taste. beautiful. but without the roots. you define it as a family story. or a portrait. or definition of loneliness. but , at the end, each definition seems not convincing. a Basque film. and that is all. the landscapes, the cinematography, the language are more significant than the story itself.

I get the reviewers here who don't get the touching nature of the presentation of the characters. The apparent limited warmth between the family members, called "salt taste" by one of the reviewers here, is Basque. I'd say that's the way they appear to us outsiders, that this is look into what makes the Basque culture unique is revealing.

I found the film visually stunning, the characters facinating, deep and wonderfully challenging to get to know. Here, a faithfully Basque presentation.

A an experience I hope I never forget.

Watched with Spanish dub and English subtitles.

Great film. Delicious in shooting rythm and feeling. Beautiful history of Basque country characters deciding to succeed In the rest of Spain and even Protugal and France. All languages mixed like in real life then. Please have a look at "Loreak" if you wanted this one.

All in all the movie was average movie. This film could have use some more human emotions, and then the audience could feel a strong connection with giant.

The script was also average. With some little more emotional connections with different characters could made the script a whole lot better. Throughout the film it seemed that the characters are slightly detached from each other, which made the film a bit less enjoyable. Performance of the characters was a bit of stale; there was no extraordinary performance.

As far as the story goes, one can try the film in a slow evening when there is nothing to do.