Film Forum

(1956) A vintage 19th century mansion sits in the middle of a dusty plain that stretches on, and on, and… James Dean stalks along the horizon line, marking out the boundaries of his land; then when a gusher hits, he rushes off to tell his former boss’s wife Elizabeth Taylor, leaving a black hand print on Rock Hudson’s pristinely white front porch. The epic battle between Texas cattle ranchers (old money) and Texas oil barons (new money), as Hudson’s Jordan Benedict is goaded both by Dean’s rough-hewn Jett Rink, formerly his hand, now his rival, and his Maryland horse country bride Taylor. A showcase for stars-to-be Dennis Hopper, Sal Mineo, and Carroll Baker – and for Dean, who was killed in a car accident before it was released.  Stevens’ tours-de-force include the burial of a former Hispanic ranch hand/now WWII hero, and the final fight as “The Yellow Rose of Texas" blares on the juke box. Ten Oscar nominations, including both Hudson and Dean for Best Actor, with Stevens winning his second for Best Director.  4K DCP restoration. Approx. 201 mins.

A WARNER BROS. RELEASE

Reviews

“James Dean delivers one of the most iconic performances in film history.” 
– Time Out

“A gentle satire, woven around the luminous beauty of Elizabeth Taylor and the haunting brilliance of James Dean...Stevens captures the inexorable course of age and change, social change particularly. He uses detail like a novelist: the changing decor of the living room of the main house at Reata carries us stylistically from the 30s to the 50s. Because he has to proceed visually, he makes choices novelist Edna Ferber never got around to making.”
– Larry McMurtry

“A HAUNTING CAPSTONE TO DEAN’S CAREER.”
– The New York Times

“Almost impossible not to be taken in by the narrative sprawl: an enveloping experience, with a crazy life and logic of its own. The mansion on the plain, designed by art director Boris Levin, remains one of the most memorable graphic images of the 50s.”
– Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

“Dean’s appearance here is particularly startling, because he plays his misfit role in the twitchy, self-conscious ‘modern’ manner of the 50s… Stills of the huge gothic house standing in a vast bare stretch of ground call up the movie as surely as the mention of ‘Rosebud’ calls up Citizen Kane.”
– Pauline Kael

“It’s a freak: a wildly successful mid-1950s Technicolor film about race, class, and gender from a radical perspective, with a charismatic, unsubjugated woman at the center...Taylor’s Leslie Benedict possesses a moral stature and a fearlessness that overshadow all else: she tells off powerful men, acts on behalf of the people who are supposed to be invisible, and generally fights authority.”
– Rebecca Solnit, Harper’s Magazine 

“WONDROUS! A sweeping saga of American prosperity that reveals its racist underbelly; a glorious star vehicle that upends rigid gender roles; a modern western that questions the validity of frontier land ownership…And then there’s Dean's most mannered, complex performance: Jett is at once transparent and enigmatic, hardening with age while the other characters mature. The actor's death — a year before release — adds a keen poignancy to the character's lost potential.”
– Serena Donadoni, The Village Voice

“[James Dean]’s every twitch and gesture is riveting.”
– Ben Kenigsberg, The New York Times

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