Giant

Film Name: Giant

Director: George Stevens

Year: 1956

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“Edna Ferber specialized in writing sprawling family sagas, several of them set in the West. Her 1930 novel Cimarron was twice filmed by Hollywood, as was the 1926 film Show Boat, set in Deep South.

In Giant, written in 1950, Bick Benedict (Rock Hudson) is a Texas cattle baron who marries a spirited Maryland belle, Leslie (Elizabeth Taylor). Bick’s sister has left some of the property to Jett Rink (James Dean), a former employee. Rink discovers oil and grows immensely rich, but his personal life is a disappointment — he carries a torch for Leslie — and he declines into alcoholism. As Bick and Leslie grow older, they are concentred with who will run the ranch after they have gone. Their daughter (Carroll Baker) wants to take over, but Leslie doesn’t approve.

To Bick’s disappointment, their son (Denis Hopper, who also appeared with Dean in Rebel Without a Cause) has married a Latina woman and became a doctor. Eventually Bick and Leslie come to terms with life.

At well over three hours, Giant certainly lives up to its title. But the performances are outstanding, not least that of the twenty-four-year-old James Dean, who was tragically killed in a car crash shortly after completing his part. Director George Stevens does justice to the immensity of the Texas landscape, and, unusually for the time, the film deals interestingly with both racial and class differences.” (EB)

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(i)-[Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor became lifelong friends after working on Giant together].

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