| "Giant" is the "Gone With the Wind" of Texas, more or | | | | Hispanics. Eleven years before "Guess Who's Coming |
| less. | | | | to Dinner," this film had the courage to openly depict |
| The 23-year old Elizabeth Taylor, 24-year old James | | | | racial discrimination and the transformation of its lead |
| Dean, and 28-year old Rock Hudson all deliver the | | | | character from a good-old boy bigot to a good-old boy |
| performances of a lifetime in the hands of director | | | | who develops the compassion for his Hispanic |
| George Stevens who also gave us "A Place in the | | | | daughter in law and grandson, and risks a fist fight at a |
| Sun," featuring again an even younger (19 years old!) | | | | hamburger joint for the rights of Hispanic-Americans |
| Elizabeth Taylor with Montgomery Clift. | | | | not even related to him by blood. |
| But "Giant" has its 19-year old pro as well - Dennis | | | | Jordan Benedict is a third generation Texan cattle |
| Hopper, who was back then fresh off from finishing "A | | | | rancher who falls in love with the feisty Marylander |
| Rebel Without a Cause" with Jimmy Dean. | | | | Leslie when he visits a horse farm in genteel Maryland |
| This would be the legendary James Dean's third and | | | | to purchase a prize breeding horse. Their marriage and |
| last film. A few days after finishing his scenes, even | | | | move to Texas is a bit abrupt. Leslie finds a totally |
| when the shooting was still continuing, Dean would be | | | | different, arid and rough world in Texas. She asserts |
| killed in that famous car accident. The reason why | | | | her rights as an individual and a woman in a world of |
| perhaps he wasn't killed earlier was the article George | | | | men. Film historians claim "Giant" was the first Texan |
| Stevens had included in Dean's contract that he could | | | | movie in which a strong woman did not just stood by |
| not race his sports car while they were shooting his | | | | her man but for herself and the other women's rights |
| scenes on the set. A wise man Stevens was. They | | | | as well. |
| didn't call him "The Indian" for nothing. | | | | The wild joker in the deck is Jett Rink, played with |
| The film that took 50 days of shooting in Marfa, | | | | amazing economy and layered emotions by James |
| (southwest) Texas, took a full year to edit the 850,000 | | | | Dean - a farm hand and a nobody who secretly falls in |
| feet of film that Stevens shot, which comes to 17,000 | | | | love with Leslie but can't do anything even after he |
| feet of film a day. The dailies were flown to Los | | | | strikes oil on the land that was left to him through the |
| Angeles, developed, and shipped back to Marfa with | | | | will of Jordan's sister. But Jett becomes filthy rich in the |
| the next plane. | | | | new era of oil boom and eventually convinces Jordan |
| Giant was adapted from Edna Ferber's novel which | | | | to go into oil business as well without, however, ever |
| rubbed many Texans the wrong way for casting an | | | | becoming friends. |
| unsympathetic light on certain aspects of Texan way | | | | (To continue in part 2. |
| of life including the discrimination of Mexicans and | | | | |