"Me, I'm gonna have more money than you ever *thought* you could have -- you and all the rest of you stinkin' sons of ... Benedicts!"
Giant is a 1956 drama film directed by George Stevens from a screenplay adapted by Fred Guiol and Ivan Moffat from the novel by Edna Ferber. It stars Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson and James Dean and features Carroll Baker, Jane Withers, Chill Wills, Mercedes McCambridge, Dennis Hopper, Sal Mineo, Rod Taylor 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.
Bick Benedict (Rock Hudson), the head of the rich Benedict ranching family of Texas, goes to Maryland to buy a stud horse, War Winds. There he meets and courts the socialite Leslie (Elizabeth Taylor), who becomes his wife. They return to Texas to start their life together on the family ranch, Reata. Luz (Mercedes McCambridge), Bick's sister, and Leslie don't get along. Jett Rink (James Dean) the family handyman, is envious of the Benedict wealth and flirts with Leslie.
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".
The movie, based on Edna Ferber's bestselling novel, portrays how the oil industry transformed the Texas ranchers into the super rich of their generation. A major sub-plot of the movie is the racism against Mexican Americans in Texas. When the movie starts, Bick and Luz are racist towards the Mexicans who work on their ranch, which shocks Leslie. By the end of the movie, though, Bick realizes the wrongs of racism and defends his daughter-in-law and grandson, Juana and Jordan Benedict IV, respectively and earns Leslie's respect.
It was the highest grossing film in Warner Bros. history until the release of Superman.
(The infamous 'crucifixion' image with Dean and Liz Taylor.)
I have mixed thoughts on this film, but it's a must see for Brando fans, if nothing else, b/c it's the pinnacle role (literally) of one of his close friends and 'understudies', the iconic James Dean in his just his 3rd but final role. It was Dean's acting style that closely mimicked Brando's early 'mumbling' and 'muttering' style of speaking which Marlon would of course always be trademarked with. But Dean took the Brando mumble and murmur to a different level: Some of Dean's scenes in the film are so badly mumbled that it's almost impossible to decipher his lines. In his 'last supper' scene, Dean's drunkeness added to his incoherance and the entire scene had to re-dubbed later partially due to his early death; and partially due to the complete inaudibility of the scene! But, the entire thing was the perfect chronicle to Dean's short, but impactful life.
As for the film's reception: although this film also featured the most popular actress in the world at the time in Elizabeth Taylor; coupled with a career defining role for Rock Hudson, it was of course Dean's horrific and untimely death during shooting that made the film an instant iconic classic, forever immortalizing the 24 yr old star.
But Dean's character, Jett, was only a co-star in this film, as the story centers around the lives of a Texas Ranching heir Bick Benedict (Rock Hudson),fighting to preserve the old Rancher way of life, and his new wife Leslie (not from Texas) played by Liz Taylor. But Jett is brilliantly introduced into the plot, I think, a raucous, uncouth, and resentful ranch-hand living at the Benedict Ranch who becomes a millionare when he strikes oil on a small plot of the ranch bequeathed to him from Bick's sister. Leslie is very lured to Jett throughout the 1st half of the film although his advances towards her are very subtle, and their relationship on one hand has almost an "Eve and the Apple" element I think, and on the other Jett is somewhat of a Christ type image (above).
But really, the story is about the Texas Benedicts, and how they adjust to industrial changes as a major land-owning family in Texas during the Industrial age. The story chronicles all of their lives over a 20 yr span including the Benedict's son, played by contemporary star Dennis Hopper (his second role with Dean); as well as the life of Dean's character after he strikes it rich in oil. The film culminates with his 'Final Supper' in which Jett (still a dellusional dreamer of sorts, a 'mad' genius) holds a banquet to celebrate his fame and weatlh; neither of which he has, of course, and he passes out from drunkedness at his own party. It would be his last scene of the film and the last scene in the career of James Dean. The movie soon after ends with Leslie and Bick's marriage appearing stronger than ever, taking their Mexican daughter in law and grandchild to a segregated cafe on their drive home from Jett's banquet.
Giant - Jet Strikes Oil http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HvXCRLkkCs&feature=related Classic, iconic scene as Dean's character, completely covered in crude after he strikes oil, punches out Rock Hudson after throwing himself at Leslie.
James Dean final scene http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuxkb7Ws-bw Nicknamed the "Last Supper" partly b/c of the situating of the tables and Dean's placment at the center, Dean mumbled so badly that the scene had to later be re-recorded by his co-stars because his death preceded the film's final edit (The girl at the scene is the daughter of the Benedicts who the drunken, despondent Jett only moments before had unsuccessfully proposed marriage; years after trying to 'woo' her mother away from her father.) In the preceding scene Jett is almost involved in a fist fight with Jordan Benedict (Dennis Hopper) b/c of Jett's attempting to disallow Jordan's Mexican wife into the banquet. It was then that Bick (who had also been critical of son Jordan's decision to marry a Hispanic) reaches a true turning point as he comes to his aide to shoo off the almost incoherent Jett.
Rock Hudson vs the Sarge http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4ptm6F2KHQ All I knew about Rock Hudson going in was his battle with AIDS during the 1980's, but he turned out to be the biggest surprise for me in the film as his character goes through the most transition of any throughout the decades span of the story, as Leslie is ultimately content to love Bick despite their many differences. In this final scene, Leslie and Bick are taking Jordan's Hispanic wife and son to a diner that has traditionally been whites-only. Bick knows that he's getting himself into trouble by bringing them there, but again we see his final transformation and love of Jordan and his new family (his ties to the Ranching family finished) as he is forced to physically fight "The Sarge" in order to preserve this new family (as "The Yellow Rose of Texas" plays in the background)...In reality, Liz Taylor, philanthropist and champion of civil rights, was publically critical of some Texans and what she regarded as their unfair treatment of Mexican Americans there.
