Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, and James Dean star in George Stevens’ beloved western drama, going deep into the three Rs of the epic Texas tale: Reata, relationships, and the complicated romance of the West.
He’s an unapologetically Alpha Male Texan, owner of a cattle ranch large enough to make John Dutton jealous, and accustomed to women (except for his domineering sister) and Mexican laborers knowing their place. She’s a strong-willed Maryland socialite with progressive opinions— especially when it comes to the exploitation of Mexican laborers — and an independent streak wider than a country mile. By the way: She knows next to nothing about cattle, ranching, or Texas. So of course they’re made for each other, right?
In the world according to Giant, director George Stevens’ classic 1956 film based on Edna Ferber’s bestselling 1952 novel, opposites instantly attract, marry hastily, and maintain ties strong enough to withstand sporadic disputes over the course of decades together (despite a few months of estrangement). And because the unlikely partners are charismatically portrayed by cover star Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson, audiences have continued to have a rooting interest in the preservation of their union for as long as the movie has been available for viewing on screens large and small.
Covering a period from the 1920s to the post-World War II years, Giant is a sprawling and spectacular saga that focuses on the intersecting lives of Jordan “Bick” Benedict Jr. (Hudson), the tradition-bound owner of the Reata Ranch, a massive spread of “around a half-million acres” in West Texas; Leslie Lynnton Benedict (Taylor), his Maryland-born wife, whom Bick meets-cute while he’s in her area on a horse-buying trip, and who gradually acclimates herself to the rigors of Texas ranch life but never fully accepts the casual racism (directed at Mexican laborers and neighbors) or ingrained sexism of her husband and his good-ol’-boy buddies; and Jett Rink (James Dean), a moodily insolent ranch hand who is bequeathed a small patch of land by Bick’s spinster sister, Luz (Mercedes McCambridge), becomes a zillionaire when he strikes oil on his property — and nurses a serious crush on Leslie (who, it should be noted, does not deliberately encourage his attention).
Yes, it’s true: Giant is at heart an epic love story, but it’s also a tale of a romantic triangle.
Slowly but surely, with a good deal of prodding by his wife, Bick becomes a better and more racially enlightened person, especially after his son, Jordan Benedict III (Dennis Hopper), marries a Mexican-American beauty, Juana (Elsa Cárdenas), and fathers Jordan Benedict IV. But Jett — a character Edna Ferber modeled after real-life Texas oil tycoon Glenn McCarthy —is never fully satisfied after amassing his immense fortune and continues to nurture his unrequited love for Leslie even after he starts to woo her daughter (Carroll Baker). Sigmund Freud likely would have had a field day with that love story.
Six decades after its initial release, Giant can be viewed as a strong influence on everything from the prime time soap operas Dallas (both the original and the reboot) and Dynasty (which briefly featured Rock Hudson as a series regular) to movies as diverse as Kevin Reynolds’ Fandango (in which a young Kevin Costner and some friends visit Marfa, Texas, to see the crumbling remains of the Reata Ranch house set) to Robert Altman’s Come Back to the 5 & Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean. (Dean died in an auto crash less than a week after completing his work on Giant; during post-production, director Stevens employed actor Nick Adams to overdub some of Dean’s dialogue.)
And nowhere is it treasured more than in the Lone Star State, where it remains known as “the national film of Texas.” The reason for its enduring appeal? As Don Graham notes in his indispensable book Cowboys and Cadillacs: How Hollywood Looks at Texas, “The moral equation of Giant is the most sentimental and cherished in Texas mythology: a preference for the ranching tradition as against the wheeler-dealer world of wildcatters and gushers. As a modern western, Giant succeeded so well because it affirmed for Texans and the nation the old-fashioned virtues of pastoral ranching, cowboying, yes-ma’aming and no-ma’aming, [and] raising prize-winning cattle on the open plains.”
At the same time, though, Giant also takes a wider view of life and love by celebrating long-term marriage as one of life’s great adventures. Under ordinary circumstances, Bick and Leslie probably would have nothing to do with each other. And even if they did, well, the initial spark of romance would burn out pretty quickly. But let’s face it: We generally don’t watch movies to see ordinary people doing ordinary things. And you rarely find a couple more extraordinary than Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson in Giant.
Check out our favorite romantic westerns.
This article appears in our April 2024 issue.
PHOTOGRAPHY: Courtesy Alamy
