James L'Angelle
University of Nevada, Reno Spring 2023
S. Narayanan, Professor
S. Narayanan, Professor
Assignment Five: GIANT (1956) – (dir. George Stevens) “Men’s Stuff”
What kinds of language ideologies are present in the clip?
Patriarchal hierarchy, race, class stratification, sexism, condescending male superiority, gendered ideologies of language. Explain how these language ideologies manifest in the specific things that characters/actors in the clip say.
152:
JUDGE WHITESIDE (Charles Watts) issues a string of conative imperatives to FIDEL GOMEZ (uncredited), who “is an ostentatiously dressed man of Mexican descent.” In a conciliatory tone, out of fear and respect for the powerful Texan judge, Gomez, in broken English, responds, “Everything will be bueno, Senor.”
156:
BICK (Rock Hudson): This is business, honey. Leslie, this is about politics. This is men’s stuff. 157:
LESLIE (Elizabeth Taylor): I’ll join the harem section in a minute.
WHITESIDE: You don’t want to fret your pretty little head about politics. LESLIE: You mean my pretty, empty head.
BAWLEY (Chill Wills): Can I get the coffee for you?
LESLIE: You too, Uncle Brutus?
BICK: Leslie, you don’t feel well.
162:
LESLIE: You men date back about one-hundred thousand years. You ought to wear leopard skins and carry clubs. What’s so masculine about conversation that a woman can’t enter into it?
Here are several ideologies of language with the judge’s direct orders to his vote organizing coyote Gomez, his assumption that Leslie would roll over and play dead; the husband’s expectation that his wife would play a subservient role in the household, and the uncle’s effort to serve as enforcer by condemning her to coffee making duties in the kitchen. She rejects them wholesale, comparing them to extinct species of the human race.
Explain not only what is said, but how it is said that is reflective of those ideologies.
Throughout the scene, the language ideologies of race, class and gender are crystal clear; with an emphasis on the subordinate role of Hispanics and women to the cattle ranching men. Bick classifies politics as “men’s stuff,” the judge through language of ideologies, describes Hispanics as “sitting on their honkers,” and suggests Leslie has a “pretty little head,” and Bawley offers her coffee, hinting to go to the kitchen, slave over the stove and wash dishes.
Explain how those specific things and the ways that they are said connect with ideological perspectives of social difference.
Bick first makes the comment that the conversation concerns business. When Leslie responds she will be “quiet as a mouse,” Bick notes it is dull, Leslie presses him and he finally adds “it’s about politics.” She reminds him she is from Washington, DC and “lived next door to politics.” The ideological line is then drawn by Bick when he responds it’s “men’s stuff.” There is a clear cut worldview conflict where Leslie feels she is qualified to participate in the conversation; Bick is confined to his role of male domination, not just by being in the company of his peers, but also as an election organizer and cattle baron.
Explain how other aspects of the performance reinforce these ideologies within the clip.
What is striking is how Bick, the pushover, comes to the aid of his Texan big shots at the expense of his wife, drawing the line in defense of the judge’s belittling Leslie’s brain capacity, and Bawley’s offer of coffee that’s rejected with a reference to the assassination of Julius Caesar. Bick then stands and concludes that Leslie doesn’t “feel well.” Throughout the exchange, these are all direct references to reality constituting capacities, through the judge’s superior conative inflections to Gomez, his face-to-face patriarchal attitude toward Leslie, and the overall dominant male roles played by Bick’s associates in general. The other women in the scene are timid, subservient and apprehensive at Leslie’s challenging the men.
Yet another aspect are the camera shots themselves. Director Stevens makes a point of Leslie facing away from the camera, glancing to the side only briefly, possibly to emphasize the dominance of the men in the scene, and the anonymity of the faceless, powerless Leslie as she criticizes the hypocrisy of the group. To say the director made an effort to amplify the race, class stratification and patriarchy of the Texas cattle baron era would be an understatement. This particular scene was one of many that clearly illustrated language ideologies that dominated the lives of the characters represented in the film.
References:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUm2M0tmMUk
Shooting Script: https://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/giant.pdf
Camera Shots: 152-163 (pages 63-65)
Shooting Script: https://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/giant.pdf
Camera Shots: 152-163 (pages 63-65)
