Plot
Jordan "Bick" Benedict (Rock Hudson), the head of the rich Benedict ranching family of Texas, goes to Maryland to buy a stud horse, War Winds. There he meets and courts the socialite Leslie Lynnton (Elizabeth Taylor), who breaks off her engagement to a diplomat (Rod Taylor) and becomes Bick's wife.
They return to Texas to start their life together on the family ranch, Reata, where Bick's sister Luz (Mercedes McCambridge) runs the household. Luz resents Leslie's arrival and tries to intimidate her. Jett Rink (James Dean) works for Luz and hopes to find his fortune by leaving Texas; he also has a secret love for Leslie. Luz expresses her hostility for Leslie by cruelly digging in her spurs while riding Leslie's beloved horse, War Winds. Luz dies after War Winds bucks her off, and as part of her will, Jett is given a plot of land within the Benedict ranch. Bick tries to buy back the land, but Jett refuses. Jett keeps the fenced off waterhole as his home and names the property Little Reata. Leslie eventually gives birth to twins, Jordan "Jordy" Benedict III (Dennis Hopper) and Judy Benedict (Fran Bennett), and a younger daughter named Luz II (Carroll Baker).
Jett discovers traces of oil in a footprint left by Leslie and he drills in the spot. He hits his first gusher and is covered in the spouting oil. He drives to the Benedict front yard to assert himself and proclaim to the family and guests that he will be richer than the Benedicts. After Jett makes a rude sexual remark to Leslie, Bick punches him. As Bick's friends restrain him, Jett hits him several times, then drives off. In the years before World War II, Jett prospers through his oil drilling company, named 'Jetexas'. Determined to remain a cattle rancher like his forefathers, Bick rejects several offers to drill for oil on his much larger ranch.
Meanwhile, tensions in the Benedict household revolve around how the parents want to bring up their children. Bick insists that Jordy must succeed him and run the ranch, as his father and grandfather before him – but Jordy wants to be a doctor. Leslie wants Judy to attend finishing school in Switzerland, but Judy loves the ranch and wants to study animal husbandry at Texas Tech. Both children succeed in pursuing their chosen vocations. After war breaks out, Jett visits the Benedicts to persuade Bick to allow oil production on his land to help the war effort. Recognizing that his children will not take over the ranch when he retires, Bick concedes. Both Bick and Jett have developed drinking problems. Luz II, now in her teens, starts flirting with Jett. Once oil production starts on the ranch, the wealthy Benedict family becomes even wealthier, as suggested by the addition of a swimming pool next to the house.
After the war, the Benedict-Rink rivalry continues, coming to a head when the Benedicts discover that Luz II and the much older Jett have been dating. At a huge gala Jett organizes in his own honor, an irate Jordy tries to fight him after his Mexican-American wife, Juana (Elsa Cárdenas), is repeatedly insulted by Jett's employees because of her race. As his goons hold Jordy, Jett punches him repeatedly in front of a crowd, and has the young man thrown out. Fed up, Bick challenges Jett to a fistfight. Drunk and almost incoherent, Jett leads the way to a wine storage room. Seeing that Jett is in no state to defend himself, Bick lowers his fists, says "You're not even worth hitting. ... You're all through," and leaves, but not before toppling Jett's wine cellar shelves, domino-style. Jett, completely drunk, collapses face down and falls asleep on the table in front of his seat of honor. All the guests leave. Later, Luz II sees him partly recovered from his stupor, talking to an empty room and disclosing that his sexual interest in the young girl is only his attempt to possess her mother symbolically.
The next day, the Benedicts, all except Jordy, drive down a sparsely traveled road and stop at a segregated diner. Juana and her little boy are once again insulted racially, and when the proprietor, Sarge (Mickey Simpson), insults and begins to physically eject an old Mexican man and his family, Bick tries to stop him. This leads to a fistfight, which Bick clearly loses. Juana, Leslie and Luz II are disgusted by Sarge's bigotry, but proud of Bick for standing up to the bully.
Back at the ranch, Bick and Leslie watch their grandchildren, blonde and Latino, and reflect on their life and family. Leslie tells Bick that after watching him lose the fight in the diner, she respects his evolution in understanding the concerns of people not like his wealthy forbears, and considers their own incarnation of the Benedict family a success.
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