Editing Giant (1956 film) (section)

===Themes===
The movie is an epic portrayal of a powerful Texas ranching family challenged by changing times and the coming of big oil.<ref name=McMurtry>{{cite news|last=McMurtry|first=Larry|title=Men Swaggered, Women Warred, Oil Flowed|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/09/29/movies/men-swaggered-women-warred-oil-flowed.html|access-date=August 21, 2012|newspaper=New York Times|date=September 29, 1996}}</ref> A major subplot concerns the [[racism]] of many Anglo-European Americans in Texas during the mid-twentieth century, and the discriminatory social [[Racial segregation|segregation]] enforced against [[Mexican American]]s.<ref name="Stacy2002">{{cite book|author=Lee Stacy|title=Mexico and the United States during that time in history|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DSzyMGh8pNwC&pg=PA326|date=October 1, 2002|publisher=Marshall Cavendish|isbn=978-0-7614-7402-9|page=326}}</ref> In the first third of the film, Bick and Luz treat the Mexicans who work on their ranch condescendingly, which upsets the more socially conscious Leslie. Bick eventually comes to realize his moral shortcomings&nbsp;–  in a climactic scene at a roadside diner he loses a fistfight to the racist owner, but earns Leslie's respect for defending the [[human rights]] of his brown-skinned daughter-in-law and grandson. Another subplot involves Leslie's own striving for women's equal rights as she defies the [[Patriarchy|patriarchal]] social order, asserting herself and expressing her own opinions when the men talk. She protests being expected to suppress her beliefs in deference to Bick's; this conflict leads to their temporary separation.<ref>{{cite web|title=Giant: Summary and Notes|url=https://catalog.afi.com/Film/53655-GIANT|work=Catalog of Feature Films|publisher=American Film Institute|access-date=November 17, 2022}}</ref>

''Giant'' is [[Edna Ferber]]'s third novel dealing with racism; the first was ''[[Show Boat (novel)|Show Boat]]'' (1926), which was adapted into the legendary Broadway musical ''[[Show Boat]]'' (1927); her second was ''[[Cimarron (novel)|Cimarron]]'' (1929), which was adapted to film twice, in [[Cimarron (1931 film)|1931]] and [[Cimarron (1960 film)|1960]].<ref>"Best Movie About Texas:  Creating a True 'Giant', Mod X, http://modxman.com/2017/07/28/creating-a-giant/ {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201015100647/http://modxman.com/2017/07/28/creating-a-giant/ |date=October 15, 2020 }}.</ref><ref name="McGraw2014">{{cite book|author=Eliza McGraw|title=Edna Ferber's America|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ut2dAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA50|date=7 January 2014|publisher=LSU Press|isbn=978-0-8071-5189-1|page=50}}</ref> Ferber's ''Giant'' was a blockbuster, selling 52 million books by 1956.<ref>Chris Gray, "Everything you've always wanted to know about ‘Giant’" Houston Chronicle, April 12, 2018.</ref>