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".[4][5]
In the mid-1920s, wealthy Texas rancher Jordan "Bick" Benedict Jr. (Rock Hudson) travels to Maryland on a horse-buying trip. He meets socialite Leslie Lynnton (Elizabeth Taylor), and they marry and return to the Benedicts' Texas cattle ranch, Reata. Bick's older sister, Luz, runs the household and resents Leslie's intrusion. Leslie learns that she is expected to be subservient in the male-dominated Texas culture and that Hispanics are viewed as inferior to whites. Jett Rink, a ranch hand, becomes infatuated with her. When Jett drives her around the ranch, Leslie observes the Hispanic workers' terrible living conditions. She presses Bick to improve their situation and oversees the treatment of the infant son of Bick's ranch hand Angel Obregon, Angel, Jr.. Bick, however, is not receptive to his family doctor treating Hispanics.
Luz is killed while riding Leslie's horse, War Winds. Her will leaves a small piece of Benedict land to Jett. Bick, who despises Jett, offers to buy the property, but Jett refuses and names his land "Little Reata".
Leslie and Bick have twins, Jordan III ("Jordy") and Judy, and later another daughter, Luz II. The marriage becomes strained, and Leslie takes the children to her parents for an extended visit. Bick follows her to Maryland, and he and Leslie reconcile and return to Texas.
Jett continues working his land, striking oil. He flaunts his newfound fortune and tries to persuade Bick to let him drill for oil on Reata. Bick, determined to preserve his family's cattle ranching legacy, refuses.
Years later, in 1941, tensions arise regarding the now-grown Benedict children. Bick intends that Jordy will succeed him and run the ranch, but Jordy wants to become a doctor. Leslie plans for Judy to attend finishing school in Switzerland, but she wants to study animal husbandry at Texas Tech. Each sibling convinces one parent to persuade the other to allow them to pursue their own goals.
At the family Christmas party, following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Bick offers Judy's new husband, Bob Dace, the opportunity to work on the ranch after the war ends. Dace declines, wanting to build his own life with Judy. Realizing that his children will not take over the ranch when he retires, Bick accepts Jett's offer to allow drilling on Reata. The Benedicts grow wealthier and more powerful. The war ends with Bob's safe return, but Angel Obregon, Jr., is killed in action. Jordy marries Juana, the daughter of the ranch's Hispanic doctor who treated Angel as a baby.
At his Austin hotel, Jett hosts a huge party in his own honor and invites the Benedicts. Jett and Luz II have developed a flirtatious relationship that ends after Luz rejects Jett's awkward proposal. Jett becomes drunk and prohibits his staff from serving Hispanics; consequently, Juana is ignored at the hotel beauty shop. Enraged, Jordy starts and loses a fight with Jett, who then has him thrown out. Bick challenges Jett but, seeing that the drunken Jett is in no state to defend himself, he and the other Benedicts leave. Jett passes out as he attempts to give his speech in front of the packed ballroom. Later, Luz II hears him bemoaning his unrequited love for Leslie and leaves heartbroken.
Driving home the next day, the Benedicts stop at a diner. Sarge, the owner, insults Juana and her and Jordy's young son with a racial slur. When Sarge tries to eject a Hispanic family from the diner, Bick intervenes and a fight ensues. Bick refuses to quit in spite of a terrific beating; finally he is knocked unconscious. Back at Reata, he laments failing to preserve the Benedict family legacy. Leslie replies that, after the diner fight, he was her hero for the first time and she considers their family legacy a success. They look at their two grandsons, one white and one Hispanic.
Ferber's character of Jordan Benedict II and her description of the Reata Ranch were based on Robert "Bob" J. Kleberg Jr. (1896–1974) and the King Ranch in Kingsville, Texas. Like the over half-million-acre (2,023.4 km2) Reata, King Ranch comprises 825,000 acres (3,340km2; 1,289sqmi) and includes portions of six Texas counties, including most of Kleberg County and much of Kenedy County, and was largely a livestock ranch before the discovery of oil. 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 Shamrock Hotel in Houston, Texas, the fictional Emperador Hotel in both the book and the film.
Casting
The Australian actor Rod Taylor was cast in one of his early Hollywood roles after being seen in an episode of Studio 57, titled "The Black Sheep's Daughter".[6]
Stevens gave Hudson a choice between Elizabeth Taylor and Grace Kelly to play the leading lady Leslie. Hudson chose Taylor.[7]
George Stevens had a reputation as a meticulous film editor, and the film spent an entire year in the editing room.[8] After James Dean's death late in production, Nick Adams overdubbed some of Dean's lines, which were nearly inaudible, as Rink's voice.[9]
Filming
Cast members and crew at work on the Reata mansion set. The Second-empireVictorian mansion facade designed by Boris Leven became an iconic image for the film.
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.[10] 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 Bros. studios in Burbank, California.[11] The "Jett Rink Day" parade and airport festivities were filmed at the Burbank Airport.
Music
The Oscar-nominated musical score was by Russian-born composer and conductor Dimitri Tiomkin, who conducted the Warner Brothers Studio Orchestra.
Themes
The movie is an epic portrayal of a powerful Texas ranching family challenged by changing times and the coming of big oil.[12] A major subplot concerns the racism of many Anglo-European Americans in Texas during the mid-twentieth century, and the discriminatory social segregation enforced against Mexican Americans.[13] In the first third 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 his moral shortcomings– 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.[14]
Giant is Edna Ferber's third novel dealing with racism; the first was Show Boat (1926), which was adapted into the legendary Broadway musical Show Boat (1927); her second was Cimarron (1929), which was adapted to film twice, in 1931 and 1960.[15][16] Ferber's Giant was a blockbuster, selling 52 million books by 1956.[17]
Release
Giant premiered in New York City on October 10, 1956,[18] with the local DuMont station, WABD, televising the arrival of cast and crew, as well as other celebrities and studio chief Jack L. Warner.[citation needed] The picture was released to nationwide distribution on November 24, 1956.[18]
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.[citation needed]
Home media
The film was released on DVD on June 10, 2003.[19] The DVD includes more than three hours of documentaries.[19] The out of print Blu-ray was released on November 5, 2013, as part of the James Dean Ultimate Collector's Edition set, and as an individual DigiBook release followed by a non-DigiBook Blu-ray on March 11, 2014. Those releases contained three discs including two DVDs with all the extras from the 2004 release. The full length George Stevens: A Filmmaker's Journey documentary is also included on one of the DVD discs. The manufacture-on-demand 4K Ultra HD release of the film released on June 21, 2022, through Studio Distribution Services.[20]
As of October 2024[update], Giant holds an 86% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 51 reviews, with an average rating of 7.7/10. The critical consensus reads, "Giant earns its imposing name with a towering narrative supported by striking cinematography, big ideas, and powerful work from a trio of legendary Hollywood leads."[21]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 84 out of 100, based on 15 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[22]
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.[12]Bosley Crowther of the New York Times wrote 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." He continued to write that "Giant, for all its complexity, is a strong contender for the year's top-film award."[23]
Variety 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."[24]
In the 21st century, TV Guide gave the film four stars out of five, writing 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."[25]
Less complimentary was director and critic Francois Truffaut, who, in an early review,[when?] called Giant a "silly, solemn, sly, paternalistic, demagogic movie without any boldness, rich in all sorts of concessions, pettiness, and contemptible actions."[26]
Box office
Giant was a huge box-office success. The film earned $35 million in ticket sales during its original studio release in 1956, a record for a Warner Brothers film until that time. This record was not surpassed until the Warner film Superman in the late 1970s.[27][28]
The movie earned $12 million in rentals in the United States and Canada during its initial release.[29] It did not perform as well in other markets where it made around half as much,[30] but it was one of the biggest hits of the year in France, with admissions of 3,723,209.[31]
Giant is considered to be the inspiration for the hit 1980s television drama Dallas. Both productions focus on the struggle between wealthy oilmen and cattlemen in Texas in the mid to late 20th century. In addition, both productions have an antagonist with the initials J.R.[38]
In 1978, Martin Scorsese wrote about the movie as a guilty pleasure:
I've seen this film over forty times. I don't like the obvious romanticism, and it's very studied, but there's more here than people have seen. It has to do with the depiction of a life style through the passage of so many years. You see people grow. I like James Dean; I like the use of music, even though Dimitri Tiomkin did it; I like Boris Leven's image of the house, and the changes in the house; I like the wide image of Mercedes McCambridge riding the bronco, then cut to an extreme closeup of her hitting the bronc with her spur, then back to the wide image. As far as filmmaking goes, Giant is an inspiring film. I don't mean morally, but visually. It's all visual.[39]
The making of Giant was the background to the play and movieCome Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean.
In 1981, in a Levi Strauss ad campaign and television commercial that launched the 501 Jeans for women, an actress says: "Travis, you're years too late", evoking a scene from the movie with James Dean.[40][41][42]
In April 2015, LGBTQ magazine The Advocate stated that the film "gets some kind of an award for the most gay and bisexual actors ever in one film," noting that James Dean, Rock Hudson, Sal Mineo, and Earl Holliman where all either bisexual or homosexual.[43]The Advocate also noted that Mercedes McCambridge's character Luz hinted she was a homosexual through at least her name, also noting how despite never personally coming out, McCambridge "played the most fiercely dykey roles on-screen to perfection."[43]
Edna Ferber was an American novelist, short story writer and playwright. Her novels include the Pulitzer Prize-winning So Big (1924), Show Boat, Cimarron, Giant and Ice Palace (1958), which also received a film adaptation in 1960. She helped adapt her short story "Old Man Minick", published in 1922, into a play (Minick) and it was thrice adapted to film, in 1925 as the silent film Welcome Home, in 1932 as The Expert, and in 1939 as No Place to Go.
Cimarron is a novel by Edna Ferber, published in April 1930 and based on development in Oklahoma after the Land Rush. The book was adapted into a critically acclaimed film of the same name, released in 1931 through RKO Pictures. The story was again adapted for the screen by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and was released in 1960, to meager success.
Rebel Without a Cause is a 1955 American coming-of-age romantic drama film, directed by Nicholas Ray. The film stars James Dean, Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo, Jim Backus, Ann Doran, Corey Allen and William Hopper. It is also the film debut of Dennis Hopper, albeit in a minor role. It was filmed in the then recently introduced CinemaScope format. Focusing on emotionally confused suburban, middle-class teenagers, the film offers both social commentary and an alternative to previous films depicting delinquents in urban slum environments.
Presidio County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 6,131. Its county seat is Marfa. The county was created in 1850 and later organized in 1875. Presidio County is in the Trans-Pecos region of West Texas and is named for the border settlement of Presidio del Norte. It is on the Rio Grande, which forms the Mexican border.
The following is an overview of 1956 in film, including significant events, a list of films released and notable births and deaths.
Carroll Baker is an American retired actress. After studying under Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio, Baker began performing on Broadway in 1954. From there, she was recruited by director Elia Kazan to play the lead in the adaptation of two Tennessee Williams plays into the film Baby Doll in 1956. Her role in the film as a coquettish but sexually naïve Southern bride earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Saratoga Trunk is a 1945 American Western film directed by Sam Wood and starring Gary Cooper, Ingrid Bergman, and Flora Robson. Written by Casey Robinson, based on the 1941 novel Saratoga Trunk by Edna Ferber, the film is about a Texas gambler and the daughter of a Creole aristocrat and his beautiful mistress. They become lovers and work together to seek justice from a society that has ruined their parents and rejected them. The title of the film and novel has a dual meaning. Clio says at one point that she thought a Saratoga trunk had to do with luggage, not a railroad line. It meant both. Saratoga trunks were top of the line for elegant travelers.
Cimarron is a 1931 pre-Code epic Western film starring Richard Dix and Irene Dunne, and directed by Wesley Ruggles. Released by RKO, it won Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Production Design.
Glenn Herbert McCarthy was an American oil tycoon. The media often referred to him as "Diamond Glenn" and "The King of the Wildcatters". McCarthy was an oil prospector and entrepreneur who owned many businesses in various sectors of the economy. McCarthy founded the Shamrock Hotel in Houston, which garnered him national fame and inspired the fictional character Jett Rink in Edna Ferber's 1952 novel Giant which, in 1956, became a film, which starred James Dean in the role.
James Dean is a 2001 American made-for-television biographical drama film based on the life of the American actor James Dean. James Franco plays the title role under the direction of Mark Rydell, who chronicles Dean's rise from a struggling actor to an A-list movie star in 1950s Hollywood. The film's supporting roles included Michael Moriarty, Valentina Cervi, Enrico Colantoni, and Edward Herrmann.
So Big is a 1932 pre-Code American drama film directed by William A. Wellman and starring Barbara Stanwyck. The screenplay by J. Grubb Alexander and Robert Lord is based on the 1924 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name, by Edna Ferber.
Luz is a Portuguese and Spanish feminine given name and surname, meaning light. The given name is shortened from Nossa Senhora Da Luz, a Roman Catholic epithet of the Virgin Mary as "Our Lady of Light".
James Byron Dean was an American actor who became one of the most influential figures in Hollywood in the 1950s, despite a career that lasted only five years. His impact on cinema and popular culture was profound, even though he appeared in just three major films. These films include Rebel Without a Cause (1955), in which he portrayed a disillusioned and rebellious teenager, East of Eden (1955), which showcased his intense emotional range, and Giant (1956), a sprawling drama released shortly after his death. All these films have been preserved in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for their "cultural, historical, or aesthetic significance". His life was cut short in a car accident at the age of 24 in 1955, leaving him a lasting symbol of rebellion, youthful defiance, and the restless spirit.
El Paisano Hotel is a historic hotel located in Marfa, Texas, United States. The hotel was designed by Trost & Trost and opened in 1930. The hotel may be best known as the location headquarters for the cast and crew of the film Giant (1956) for six weeks in the summer of 1955 The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on August 1, 1978.
Ice Palace is a 1960 Technicolor historical drama adventure film directed by Vincent Sherman and adapted from a novel of 1958 written by Edna Ferber. The film stars Richard Burton, Robert Ryan, Carolyn Jones and Martha Hyer. It dramatizes the debate over Alaska statehood. Alaska had become a state in 1959.
So Big is a 1953 American Drama Western film directed by Robert Wise and starring Jane Wyman, Sterling Hayden and Nancy Olson.
Giant is a musical based on the 1952 Edna Ferber novel of the same name, with music and lyrics by Michael John LaChiusa and the book by Sybille Pearson. The musical premiered at the Signature Theatre in Arlington, Virginia in 2009. The story follows a ranch family in Texas over 30 years, and the effect of the oil boom. The musical premiered off-Broadway in 2012.
Ivan Romilly Moffat was a British screenwriter, film producer and socialite who, with Fred Guiol, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for adapting Edna Ferber's eponymous novel into the film Giant (1956). Moffat was the grandson of actor-manager Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree.
Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean is a 1976 play by Ed Graczyk, originally performed at the Players Theatre Columbus in Columbus, Ohio. Despite the rendition of the name in the play’s title, it refers to the star of the film Rebel Without a Cause, James Dean, as opposed to Jimmy Dean, the country-western singer who had a hit in 1961 with "Big Bad John". The play revolves around a James Dean fan club that reunites at a Texas five-and-dime store.
"Old Man Minick" is a short story by American author Edna Ferber first published in 1922. It was adapted into Minick, a Broadway play staged in 1924, as well as the 1925 silent film Welcome Home, the 1932 film The Expert, and the 1939 film No Place to Go.
↑ Stephen Vagg, Rod Taylor: An Australian in Hollywood, Bear Manor Media, 2010 p49
↑ "Giant: Summary and Notes". Catalog of Feature Films. American Film Institute. Retrieved November 17, 2022. According to modern and contemporary sources, Grace Kelly was sought for the role of Leslie Benedict. Modern sources claim that once her engagement to Prince Rainier of Monaco was announced, however, M-G-M decided not to loan her out for Giant. Elizabeth Taylor, who ultimately received the highly desirable role, was also under to M-G-M, which loaned her out to Warner Bros. Modern sources also claim that Hudson, when given the choice of his leading lady by Stevens, chose Taylor.
↑ Gary M. Cramer, "'Giant': A giant book about a giant film," Philadelphia Inquirer, May 3, 2018.
↑ Martin Scorsese's Guilty Pleasures Scorsese, Martin. Film Comment; New York Vol. 14, Iss. 5, (Sep/Oct 1978): 63-66
↑ "Buy the Seat of Our Pants". fyi. Forbes. Retrieved January 22, 2023. A young ad man channels James Dean, and scores the biggest number in the denim business.
Gilbert, Julie (2025). Giant Love: Edna Ferber, Her Best-Selling Novel of Texas, and the Making of a Classic American Film (Hardcover). New York: Knopf Doubleday. ISBN9781524748432.
Graham, Don (2018). Giant: Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, James Dean, Edna Ferber, and the Making of a Legendary American Film (Hardcover). New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN978-1250061904.
Tibbetts, John C.; Welsh, James M., eds. (2005). The Encyclopedia of Novels Into Film (Softcover) (2ed.). New York: Checkmark Books. pp.151–152. ISBN978-1859835203.
Giant essay by Daniel Eagan in America's Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry, A&C Black, 2010 ISBN0826429777, pages 515–516
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