DGA Monthly

Giant H A P PY A N N I V E R S A RY PHOTO: DGA ARCH IVES » SOUTHERN COMFORT: Director George Stevens with Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson on the set of Giant. October 8, 2026 will mark the 70th anniversary of the release of Past President George Stevens' DGA Award-winning drama, Giant. Based on Edna Ferber's 1952 novel, Stevens' sprawling epic covers the life of wealthy Texas cattle rancher Jordan "Bick" Benedict Jr. (Rock Hudson), his wife Leslie (Elizabeth Taylor) and his former romantic rival Jett Rink (James Dean), a dirt-poor cowboy who has become rich after striking oil. The sweeping saga of jealousy, racism and the clash of cultures in the vast Texas oilfi elds also features Carroll Baker, Dennis Hopper, Mercedes McCambridge, Sal Mineo, Rod Taylor and Earl Holliman. Stevens, who served as President of the Screen Directors Guild from 1941 to 1943, shot the fi lm on location in Marfa, Texas, to capture the real scale and environment of the story. He hired Bob Hinkle — an authentic cowboy, known as the "Texas Talk Man" — to coach the actors on their accents. Known for his meticulous approach to fi lmmaking, Stevens spent an entire year editing the fi lm and following the untimely death of Dean late in production, actor Nick Adams was brought in to dub several of Dean's lines which were deemed nearly inaudible during post-production. Of his father's work, George Stevens Jr. once said, "Some critics really like to be able to pigeonhole fi lmmakers, and it's very hard to pigeonhole George Stevens. If you want to start with A Place in the Sun, Shane and Giant — what some call his American trilogy — I'm not sure anybody ever made three successive masterpieces like that. And he is the same man who made the great romantic comedies, the classic musical, Swing Time, and the quintessential adventure fi lm, Gunga Din. What seems most notable about his career is that all his pictures are pictures of quality, and they have a kind of consistent humanity." In addition to Stevens' DGA Award, Giant earned 10 Academy Award nominations and won "Best Director." In 2005, the fi lm was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically signifi cant." Giant is also considered to be the inspiration for the hit 1980s television drama Dallas. O C T O B E R 2 0 2 6 I 2 9

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