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Giant
(1956)
In Best Director-winning George Stevens' grandiose
epic western about a family over a 25 year period:
- the 1920s scene of Maryland socialite belle Leslie
Lynnton's (Elizabeth Taylor) arrival at newly-wed, wealthy Texas
rancher-husband Jordan 'Bick' Benedict's (Rock Hudson) sprawling
Benedict Texas ranch ("Reata")
- the characters of Bick's older sister Luz Benedict
(Mercedes McCambridge), known for being a tough, cattle-driving spinster:
(Adarene Clinch: "Aw, Luz, why everybody in the county knows
you'd rather herd cattle than make love!" Luz: "Well, there's
one thing you gotta say for cattle: You put your brand on one of
them, you're gonna know where it's at!") and uneducated, laconic
Texas ranch-hand cowboy Jett Rink (James Dean in his last film appearance),
in an iconic pose - sitting in the back of a black convertible with
his feet up during an outdoor BBQ
At the Outdoor BBQ
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'Bick' Benedict and
Leslie Lynnton
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Luz Benedict
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Jett Rink
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- the scene of newly-made tycoon Jett Rink's striking
of oil on his own small piece of land (Little Reata) as he was
covered with the gushing liquid black gold, and still covered in
crude oil, his boastful, defiant resentful statements to the Benedict
family about how he would be richer than them: ("My well came
in, Bick, ha, ha, ha....Everybody thought l had a duster. Y'all
thought ol' Spindletop Burke and Burnett was all the oil there
was, didn't ya? But l'm here to tell you it ain't, boy. lt's here.
And there ain't a dang thing you gonna do about it. My well came
in big, so big, Bick. And there's more down there, and there's
bigger wells. l'm rich, Bick! l'm a rich one. l'm a rich boy. Me
- l'm gonna have more money than you ever thought you could have.
You and all the rest of you stinkin' sons of Benedicts")
- Jett's inappropriate behavior and pass toward Leslie:
("My, you sure do look pretty, Miss Leslie. You always did look
pretty. Just pretty now, and good enough to eat") - ending in
a few punches exchanged between Bick and Jett (who exclaimed: "You're
touchy, Bick. Touchy as an old cook"), before he drove off;
Uncle Bawley (Chill Wills) remarked: "You should have shot that
fella a long time ago. Now he's too rich to kill"
- the spectacle of Rink's aging from a young man to
a mumbling outcast and dissolute drunkard (known as "Mr. Texas"),
especially during the celebratory scene to commemorate the opening
of his new airport and hotel in Hermosa, Texas, and the scene of
Rink drunkenly sobbing in the empty banquet room, and rambling about
his unrequited love for Leslie: ("Pretty Leslie. Wonderful,
beautiful girl bride! Poor boy. Rich. Rich Mrs. Benedict. She's beautiful.
Lovely. The woman a man wants. A woman a man has got to have, too!")
- Bick's fist-fight with Sarge (Mickey Simpson), the
bigoted cafe owner of Sarge's Place who refused to serve an elderly
Latino couple while "The Yellow Rose of Texas" blared on
the jukebox
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Arrival at the Benedict Ranch (Reata) in Texas
Striking It Rich with Oil
Inappropriate Behavior Toward Leslie
Drunken Jett in New Hotel Banquet Room
Bick's Fist-Fight with Bigoted Cafe Owner
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