Giant



Giant is a 1956 American drama film, directed by George Stevens from a screenplay adapted by Fred Guiol and Ivan Moffat from the novel by Edna Ferber. The film stars Elizabeth Taylor,Rock Hudson and James Dean and features Carroll Baker, Jane Withers, Chill Wills, Mercedes McCambridge, Dennis Hopper, Sal Mineo, Rod Taylor, Elsa Cardenas and Earl Holliman.Giant was the last of James Dean's three films as a leading actor, and earned him his second and last Academy Award nomination – he was killed in a car accident before the film was released. Nick Adams was called in to do some voice-over dubbing for Dean's role.

In 2005, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".



Contents
[hide]  *1 Plot  ==Plot[edit] == Jordan "Bick" Benedict (Rock Hudson), head of a wealthy Texas ranching family, travels to Maryland to buy War Winds, a horse he is planning to put out to stud. There he meets and courtssocialite Leslie Lynnton (Elizabeth Taylor), who ends a budding relationship with Sir David Karfrey (Rod Taylor) and marries Bick.
 * 2 Cast
 * 3 Themes
 * 4 Production
 * 5 Release
 * 6 Reception
 * 7 Accolades
 * 7.1 Academy Awards
 * 7.2 Other honors
 * 8 References
 * 9 External links

They return to Texas to start their life together on the family ranch, Reata, where Bick's sister Luz Benedict (Mercedes McCambridge) runs the household. Luz resents Leslie's presence and attempts to intimidate her. Jett Rink (James Dean) works for Luz and hopes to find his fortune by leaving Texas; he is also secretly in love with Leslie. When riding Leslie's beloved horse, War Winds, Luz expresses her hostility for Leslie by cruelly digging in her spurs. Luz dies after War Winds bucks her off. In her will, Jett is bequeathed land on the Benedict ranch. Bick tries to buy back the land, but Jett refuses to sell. Jett makes the land his home and names it Little Reata. Leslie and Bick have twins, Jordan "Jordy" Benedict III (Dennis Hopper) and Judy Benedict (Fran Bennett), and later have a daughter they name Luz Benedict II (Carroll Baker).

Jett discovers traces of oil in a footprint of Leslie's. He drills in the same spot and hits a gusher. Drenched in oil, he drives to the Benedict front yard and proclaims to the family and their guests that he will be richer than the Benedicts. In the years preceding World War II, Jett's oil drilling company prospers, but determined to continue to be a cattle rancher like his forefathers, Bick rejects several offers to drill for oil on Reata.

Tensions in Bick's and Leslie's household revolve around their children. Bick insists that Jordy must succeed him and run the ranch, as his father and grandfather did before him – but Jordy wants to become a doctor. Leslie wants Judy to attend finishing school in Switzerland, but Judy loves the ranch and wants to study animal husbandry at Texas Tech. Both children succeed in pursuing their own vocations. When WWII breaks out, Jett tries to persuade Bick to allow oil production on his land to help the war effort. Realizing that his children will not take over the ranch when he retires, Bick agrees. Both Bick and Jett have a drinking problem. Luz II, now in her teens, starts flirting with Jett. Once oil production starts on the ranch, the wealthy Benedict family becomes even wealthier, as evidenced by the installation of a new swimming pool next to the house.

After the war, the Benedict-Rink rivalry continues, coming to a head when the Benedicts discover that Luz II and the much older Jett have been dating. At a huge party given by Jett in his own honor at Jett's hotel, Jordy's Mexican-American wife, Juana (Elsa Cárdenas), is racially insulted by hotel staff. An irate Jordy tries to start a fight with Jett. Jett's goons hold Jordy, Jett punches him repeatedly, then has Jordy thrown out. Fed up, Bick challenges Jett to a fight. Drunk and almost incoherent, Jett leads the way to a wine storage room. Seeing that Jett is in no state to defend himself, Bick lowers his fists, says "You ain't even worth hitting...You're all through," then topples Jett's wine cellar shelves like a row of dominoes. Jett, completely drunk, takes his seat of honor then passes out on the table. All the guests leave. Later, Luz II sees him recovering from his drunken stupor, talking to an empty room, and disclosing that his sexual interest in her was an attempt to vicariously possess her mother.

The next day, the Benedicts are driving down a back road and stop at a diner. The racist owner, Sarge (Mickey Simpson), insults Juana and her and Jordy's son Jordan IV. When the owner goes on to eject an old Mexican man and his family from the diner, Bick tells Sarge to stop; this leads to a fight that Bick loses, but his family members are proud of Bick for standing up to the burly owner.

Later, back at the ranch, Bick and Leslie watch their multiracial group of grandchildren and reflect on their life. Leslie tells Bick that she respects his new understanding of the concerns of people unlike his wealthy forebears, and says she considers their version of the Benedict family a success. ==Cast[edit] == ==Themes[edit] == The movie is an epic portrayal of a powerful Texas ranching family challenged by changing times and the coming of big oil.[2]  A major subplot concerns the racism of white Texans and the social segregation of Mexican Americans they enforce. In early segments of the film, Bick and Luz treat the Mexicans who work on their ranch condescendingly, which upsets the more socially conscious Leslie. Bick eventually comes to realize the moral indefensibility of his racism—in a climactic scene at a roadside diner he loses a fistfight to the racist owner, but earns Leslie's respect for defending the human rights of his brown-skinned daughter-in-law and grandson. Another subplot involves Leslie's own striving for women's equal rights as she defies the patriarchal social order, asserting herself and expressing her own opinions when the men talk. She protests being expected to suppress her beliefs in deference to Bick's; this conflict leads to their temporary separation.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-3" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[3]
 * Elizabeth Taylor as Leslie Lynnton Benedict
 * Rock Hudson as Jordan "Bick" Benedict Jr.
 * James Dean as Jett Rink
 * Nick Adams recorded some of the character's dialogue after Dean's death.
 * Jane Withers as Vashti Snythe, Leslie's best friend
 * Robert Nichols as Mort "Pinky" Snythe, Vashti's husband
 * Chill Wills as Uncle Bawley, Bick's uncle
 * Mercedes McCambridge as Luz Benedict, Bick's sister
 * Carroll Baker as Luz Benedict II, Leslie and Bick's daughter
 * Dennis Hopper as Jordan Benedict III, Leslie and Bick's son
 * Fran Bennett as Judy Benedict, Leslie and Bick's daughter
 * Earl Holliman as Robert "Bob" Dace, Judy's husband
 * Elsa Cárdenas as Juana Guerra Benedict, Jordan III's wife
 * Paul Fix as Dr. Horace Lynnton, Leslie's father
 * Judith Evelyn as Mrs. Nancy Lynnton, Leslie's mother
 * Carolyn Craig as Lacey Lynnton, Leslie's sister
 * Rod Taylor as Sir David Karfrey, Lacey's husband
 * Sal Mineo as Angel Obregón II
 * Charles Watts as Judge Oliver Whiteside
 * Maurice Jara as Dr. Guerra
 * Alexander Scourby as Old Polo
 * Mickey Simpson as Sarge, owner of Sarge's Diner
 * Noreen Nash as Lona Lane

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.200000762939453px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;">The novel Giant is Edna Ferber's second work dealing with racism; the first was the novel Show Boat, which Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II adapted into the legendary Broadway musical in 1927. ==Production<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[edit] == Cast members and crew at work on the set. The Belmont estate's Victorian mansion designed by Boris Leven became an iconic image for the film.<p style="line-height:19.200000762939453px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;">The film begins with Jordan "Bick" Benedict, played by Hudson, arriving at Ardmore, Maryland, to purchase a stallion from the Lynnton family. The first part of the picture was actually shot in Albemarle County, Virginia, and used the Keswick, Virginia, railroad station as the Ardmore railway depot.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-4" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[4]  Much of the subsequent film, depicting "Reata", the Benedict ranch, was shot in and around the town of Marfa, Texas, and the remote, dry plains found nearby, with interiors filmed at the Warner Brothers studios in Burbank, California. The "Jett Rink Day" parade and airport festivities were filmed at the Burbank Airport.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.200000762939453px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;">The fictional character Jett Rink was inspired partly by the extraordinary rags-to-riches life story of the wildcatter oil tycoon Glenn Herbert McCarthy (1907–1988). Author Edna Ferber met McCarthy when she was a guest at his Houston, Texas, Shamrock Hotel (known as the Shamrock Hilton after 1955), the fictional Emperador Hotel in both the book and the film.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.200000762939453px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;">The Australian actor Rod Taylor was cast in one of his earliest Hollywood roles after being seen in an episode of Studio 57, "The Black Sheep's Daughter".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-5" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[5] ==Release<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[edit] == <p style="line-height:19.200000762939453px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;">Giant premiered in New York City on October 10, 1956,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Perry_6-0" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[6]  with the local DuMont station, WABD, televising the arrival of cast and crew, as well as other celebrities and studio chiefJack Warner<sup class="Template-Fact" style="line-height:1em;white-space:nowrap;">[citation needed] ; it was released to nationwide distribution on November 24, 1956.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Perry_6-1" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[6]

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.200000762939453px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;">Capitol Records, which had issued some of Dimitri Tiomkin's music from the soundtrack (with the composer conducting the Warner Brothers studio orchestra) on an LP, later digitally remastered the tracks and issued them on CD, including two tracks conducted by Ray Heindorf. Both versions used a monaural blend of the multi-channel soundtrack recording.<sup class="Template-Fact" style="line-height:1em;white-space:nowrap;">[citation needed]

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.200000762939453px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;">Stevens gave Hudson a choice between Elizabeth Taylor and Grace Kelly to play his leading lady, Leslie. Hudson chose Taylor.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-7" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[7]

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.200000762939453px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;">Giant was Barbara Barrie's first film. Carroll Baker, who plays Elizabeth Taylor's daughter, was older in real life than her screen mother.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.200000762939453px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;">After James Dean's death late in production, Nick Adams overdubbed some of Dean's lines, which were nearly inaudible, as Rink's voice.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-8" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[8]  George Stevens had a reputation as a meticulous film editor, and the film spent an entire year in the editing room.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-9" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[9] ==Reception<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[edit] == <p style="line-height:19.200000762939453px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;">Giant won praise from both critics and the public, and according to the Texan author, Larry McMurtry, was especially popular with Texans, even though it was sharply critical of Texan society.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-McMurtry_2-1" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[2]  Bosley Crowther of the New York Timeswrote that "[George Stevens] takes three hours and seventeen minutes to put his story across. That's a heap of time to go on about Texas, but Mr. Stevens has made a heap of film." and 'Giant', for all its complexity, is a strong contender for the year's top-film award."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-10" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[10]

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.200000762939453px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;">Variety's "Hift" claimed that Giant was "for the most part, an excellent film which registers strongly on all levels, whether it's in its breathtaking panoramic shots of the dusty Texas plains; the personal, dramatic impact of the story itself, or the resounding message it has to impart."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-11" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[11]

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.200000762939453px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;">The film received a 97% positive rating on the film-critics aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-12" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[12]  TV Guide gave the film its maximum of four stars, saying of James Dean's performance "This was the last role in Dean's all-too-brief career – he was dead when the film was released – and his presence ran away with the film. He performs his role in the overwrought method manner of the era, and the rest of the cast seems to be split between awe of his talent and disgust over his indulgence."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-13" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[13]

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.200000762939453px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;">The movie earned $12 million in rentals in North America during its initial release.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-14" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[14] ==Accolades<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[edit] == ===Academy Awards<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[edit] === <p style="line-height:19.200000762939453px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;">Giant won the Academy Award for Best Director and was nominated nine other times, twice for Best Actor in a Leading Role (James Dean and Rock Hudson). The other nominations came in the categories of Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Mercedes McCambridge); Best Art Direction–Set Decoration, Color (Boris Leven, Ralph S. Hurst); Best Costume Design, Color; Best Film Editing; Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture; Best Picture; and Best Writing, Best Screenplay – Adapted.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-NY_Times_15-0" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[15] ===Other honors<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[edit] ===
 * American Film Institute recognition
 * AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies – #82