James Dean's last film before his untimely death in a car crash reveals him as more an icon for the time than an actor - he just couldn't portray middle age in the final half of this epic drama based on writer Edna Ferber's homage to Texas. George Stevens, who won the best director Oscar (one of the film's ten nominations), manages to convey some of the swashbuckling magic of oil barons and land exploitation, and elicits strong performances from a lustrous Elizabeth Taylor and a manly Rock Hudson. Those elements, plus a tremendous scene when Dean strikes oil, make it an adventure of truly epic proportions.

Wealthy rancher Bick Benedict and dirt-poor cowboy Jett Rink both woo Leslie Lynnton, a beautiful young woman from Maryland who is new to Texas. She marries Benedict, but she is shocked by the racial bigotry of the White Texans against the local people of Mexican descent. Rink discovers oil on a small plot of land, and while he uses his vast, new wealth to buy all the land surrounding the Benedict ranch, the Benedict's disagreement over prejudice fuels conflict that runs across generations.