It's like Gone With the Wind meets Citizen Kane with a dash of To Kill a Mockingbird. Could have done with a little more time in the editing suite, but Stevens succeeds in telling an interesting story about generational conflict, romantic conflict, ethnic conflict, and the apparent inability of U.S. culture to progress.

It was pretty good. But 201 minutes? Ugh.

Great movie with great actors, director and duration

God, there are moments in this that are just breathtaking--the epic Texas landscapes, James Dean mumbling with his hat pulled down low, Elizabeth Taylor doing most anything. There are moments in the first half where my mind started to compare this to the breadth and beauty of Gone With the Wind. Unfortunately, it starts to bite off a tad more than it can chew--in keeping so much (I assume) of the source material, it starts to lose focus. It's far less successful when it tries to tackle racism in any substantive way, leading to a fairly ridiculous ending that isn't worth the 3.5 hours I just put into it.

It is a common intrigue movie.