Giant: Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, James Dean, Edna Ferber, and the Making of a Legendary American Film
By Don Graham
4.5/5
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About this ebook
A larger-than-life narrative of the making of the classic film, marking the rise of America as a superpower, the ascent of Hollywood celebrity, and the flowering of Texas culture as mythology.
Featuring James Dean, Rock Hudson, and Elizabeth Taylor, Giant is an epic film of fame and materialism, based around the discovery of oil at Spindletop and the establishment of the King Ranch of south Texas. Isolating his star cast in the wilds of West Texas, director George Stevens brought together a volatile mix of egos, insecurities, sexual proclivities, and talent. Stevens knew he was overwhelmed with Hudson’s promiscuity, Taylor’s high diva-dom, and Dean’s egotistical eccentricity. Yet he coaxed performances out of them that made cinematic history, winning Stevens the Academy Award for Best Director and garnering nine other nominations, including a nomination for Best Actor for James Dean, who died before the film was finished.
In this compelling and impeccably researched narrative history of the making of the film, Don Graham chronicles the stories of Stevens, whose trauma in World War II intensified his ambition to make films that would tell the story of America; Edna Ferber, a considerable literary celebrity, who meets her match in the imposing Robert Kleberg, proprietor of the vast King Ranch; and Glenn McCarthy, an American oil tycoon; and Errol Flynn lookalike with a taste for Hollywood. Drawing on archival sources Graham’s Giant is a comprehensive depiction of the film’s production showing readers how reality became fiction and fiction became cinema.
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Reviews for Giant
5 ratings1 review
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A fantastic and well researched look at the making of the 1956 film Giant. The book is essentially a biography of the film from information on Edna Ferber and her successful book Giant and then George Stevens work on the script, casting, filming, etc. Points where the film differed from the book were pointed out and Stevens improvements were well done. It was interesting reading about the location shooting in Marfa, Texas and how the stars interacted (or not) with the locals. I had no idea James Dean was such a pain to work with and wonder what his future would have been if he had not been killed. I did find it interesting though that the author felt that of the three stars (Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor, and James Dean) that Dean is the only one remembered today. On the 50th anniversary of Dean's death we had a luncheon at work and I had put up events in history on that date (September 30) and most of the people under 40 had no idea who James Dean was. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in the film Giant, director George Stevens or actor James Dean.