The Big Country
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Movie Reviews of The Big Country
Movie Review: A wide-screen epic for the panoramic screen
Summary: 5 Stars
THE BIG COUNTRY is what the big screen was created for, and THE BIG COUNTRY was certainly created for the big screen. Wide open spaces in the American west never looked so vast and intimidating, so welcoming and foreboding.
Some have argued that the plot is too thin for such a lengthy running time. When I first saw it as a youth on the screen of my father's small-town theatre, it seemed just like another western -- if longer than most. It seemed to lack the punch of a character-driven, action-filled western like WARLOCK or the excitement of THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN -- still two of my all-time favorite westerns. Viewing it on DVD as an adult, I have changed my mind. I have since come to appreciate the skills of quintessential director William Wyler, the master of the mise-en-scene (or the arrangement of people and objects on the screen). Orson Welles may have originated the creative use of deep focus photography, but Wyler has utilized it to the point of perfection in THE BIG COUNTRY.
The repetition of the line "it's a big country" became a humorous point for a friend of mine from graduate school and I to have fun with, but this is appropriate for the wide-screen vistas and almost leisurely pace of this now-classic motion picture. Wyler breaks a few stereotypes by allowing the characters in some of the more important action sequences to be photographed from a distance -- the fist fight between Peck and Heston, and the final shootout between Ives and Bickford. Human beings are dwarfed by the landscape, often seen as no more than insects -- a decision purposely made by Wyler and his cinematographer to emphasize their petty hatreds and feuds. Particularly stirring is the sequence early in the film where the Terrill men, led by the Major (Bickford), gallop through the bleached-white canyon to reach the modest ranch of the Hannassey family. The music score accompanying this ride is stirring and grandiose. One might wonder, in fact, what this film would be like without this magnificent soundtrack. From the opening title sequence to the wordless finale, it is orchestral perfection -- possibly one of the greatest motion picture scores ever.
Although William Wyler's later production BED-HUR won scores of awards, THE BIG COUNTRY is, in my view, a greater film. Burl Ives deserved the Oscar for his role as the patriarch of a clan of cattlemen who are down-scale from their opponents -- the Terrills -- an actor who can hold our attention by merely looking out the window away from the camera. Despite his lower-class environment and his obvious hatred for Terrill (Bickford), he is still a man of justice and fair-play. In his struggle against the wealthy Major, he is the antagonist with whom we would be more likely to sympathize. His own son Buck (Chuck Connors) with a few two many rough edges is clearly a disappointment to him; he would prefer that Buck acquire a few of the gentlemanly attributes possessed by the eastern newcomer Jim McKay (Gregory Peck). The action he takes when he is forced to choose honor over love for his son might strain credibility for some viewers, but Ives makes his choice believable and touching.
Gregory Peck and Jean Simmons as the top-lined of the four leads are, at times, hard to swallow. Both are so virtuous as to be almost nauseating. Simmons is as beautiful as she was earlier in THE EGYPTIAN and later in SPARTACUS; she is a schoolteacher never seen near a schoolroom who had can afford a house to herself. Salaries in those small towns must have been more generous than they are for teachers today. All well-drawn characters are shown to have a dark or shadowy side, as we all have as human beings, but these two characters lack even a trace of a shadow. A character who has a shadow side but is able to overcome it in the end in order to emerge triumphant is not only more believable but compelling and enjoyable in a dramatic sense.
Peck appears as an eastern gentleman whose sense of honor and hatred of violence remains steadfast throughout. Only twice does he resort to fisticuffs -- once against Heston and later against Connors. In both cases, he appears to be over-matched physically. He is the one-dimensional purveyor of morality and justice -- the squeaky clean goodie-two-shoes who might be more believable if he were wearing a parson's grab. Peck (that "skinny liberal" as John Wayne once called him) has portrayed these morally upright characters before and since, mostly notably as a lawman in MacKENNA'S GOLD. The way he keeps dodging the physical affections of the amorous Native American lass (Julie Newmar) stretches credibility beyond the breaking point. In DUEL IN THE SUN, Peck plays a spoiled outlaw, again squaring off against Charles Bickford. In that film, however, the roles are reversed: Bickford is the older decent character who falls in love with Peck's backstreet half-breed mistress, Jennifer Jones -- unfortunately for him as Peck guns him down mercilessly.
Heston, not a great actor, is more believable as a character who changes his perspective regarding violence. He decides that he has fought the Major's battles long enough -- even though he relents at the last minute and is wounded in a canyon battle for his efforts. Carroll Baker is also more believable than the Simmons character as a spoiled daddy's girl with an Electra complex. The ending of the film leaves a few questions in our minds, trying to figure out what might happen beyond the classical happy ending.
In China, I often show films about American history when I am explaining the development of the English language. I have, for example, shown NEW WORLD, REVOLUTION, HOW THE WEST WAS WON, and others. I am planning on showing such films as THE LAST FRONTIER as believable views of the west as it was. THE BIG COUNTRY, one of the great westerns like SHANE and THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, would also be an appropriate choice to show the wide vistas of the American west and the concerns of those humans who are often, as shown in THE BIG COUNTRY, dwarfed by the landscape.
Movie Review: a lovely liberal fantasy
Summary: 5 Stars
A very well acted enjoyable movie that is not what you think it is when you first see it. Upon first viewing, its maturity and reason are impressive. I saw it first as a teenager and loved McKay (Peck), the educated cool easterner among hot headed, seemingly thick headed, westerners. McKay is relaxed, non aggressive, eschews violence, values reason. Yet he is very masculine and very handsome (and Peck is unbelievably good looking). Leech the overtly macho man, strong and powerfully built (Heston), every motion and gesture brimming over with testosterone, calls him a liar, but McKay refuses to be goaded into a fight. His fiancé (Carroll Baker) is ashamed and disgusted by this seeming cowardice. Later, without anyone knowing, when all are asleep, McKay goes to Leech and offers to fight him. They fight to a draw. Leech for the first time gets some respect for Mckay. He sees that he is not a coward, that he has honor, and manhood.
McKay also refuses to ride a wild mustang in front of everyone. He refuses to prove himself. Later he goes out and breaks the horse by himself.
He can fight as good as the most masculine man. He is a real man. Yet at the same time he questions the values of those who are more conventionally masculine. This is how the movie is set up. By having McKay verbally refuse to do these things, the movie makes it seem as if a genuine inquiry is being presented to us by the Peck character. That is how it seemed to my teenage mind. The movie seems to say Violence is bad. A real man does not have to be aggressive or violent. But now I question the way these values are presented in the movie. In the end it gives you the same old Hollywood ending, which because of the issues raised make it seem even more false than usual.
Peck is the soft man who rejects violence, yet who can fight as well as the tough guy, who if he does fight, will win because he is as strong, maybe stronger, than the more masculine seeming man. It is the old iron hand in the velvet glove. He appears soft but is not. He can take on a wild horse and win. This is more false than the fantasy of the strong John Wayne or Heston type who wins the battle. In the old fantasy, the man who cares about fighting and winning does that. The man who appears like he can't fight can't. Yet the new fantasy tells us this is not so. So in the new fantasy, you get to look down on violence and at the same time employ it. Our hero does not like violence, but he can fight and win with the best of them. This is the lie. In the end, our soft spoken guy, who is a bit intellectual like, can whip anyone.
A movie maker that really wanted to address cowardice and what makes a man a man would make the character not so tall and handsome. It would have been more brave to have him lose the fight with Leech. It would have been still braver to have him not fight at all and to see how that went down. He should not have ridden the horse. Maybe we should have had a scene where the horse threw him and he gave up trying to tame it. That would have been a challenge to the audience and the characters in the movie. Could we still respect him after losing the fight. If he could not win the fight or would not fight, what then would his manhood consist of? What if we had a scene with him getting beat up by Leech and we see how the Jean Simmons character (the one who really loves him) reacts to that.
As it plays out, his actions are childish and immature. But admirable ultimately. He must sneak away in the dead of night to reclaim his manhood. In the end, his values are not that different from that of the overtly manly macho guy. He values his honor. He cannot bear to be called a coward. On the one hand, he is not happy that his fiancé expects him to prove himself by fighting. He wants her to love him despite his seeming cowardice because he needs her to realize that he is not really afraid to fight. He wants her to realize that inside he is a macho man. So although seeming to reject her values, he actually respects them. He still must go and fight.
So the woman loves the man who acts like he won't fight who deep down inside knows he must fight and who will fight and who will be victorious.
On top of everything else, he is rich. He buys a coveted piece of land. So he is the perfect hero out of a book, soft spoken, modest, quiet, sensitive, but at the same time very self confident, totally secure in himself, physically strong, able to use violence as well as any macho man, and wealthy to boot.
We are told that McKay's attitude towards violence came about because his father died in a duel and no one can remember what it was about. We are supposed to think that dueling is nonsense, which it is to us. But dueling for many centuries in many cultures was taken very seriously. It involved honor and insults to honor, just as in the inner city today, we hear of violence provoked over a "dis." The violence resulting from the "dis" is often attributed to the supposed weakness of the inner city dwellers. Yet for a long time, dueling for what seems like nonsensical reasons was the prerogative of aristocrats, the wealthy and powerful.
I am not arguing we should act like this, only that such behavior has deep roots in human culture and that we should not always say everything in the past is due to inexplicable stupidity.
And in the end, he rescues his love like any hero should. The romance with Jean Simmons, the growth of their affection is very affecting. Just the way they look at each other is really great. You see love, although I don't think they touch each other once in the movie. We can see that they are made for each other. She understands him, his strength and also his weakness. She sees beneath the educated exterior to the real man. His fiancé can't do that. She belongs with Leech, the overtly masculine man. It is a lovely tale on many different levels, a lovely fantasy.
Movie Review: EXCELLENT WESTERN MIRRORING THE COLD WAR ERA
Summary: 5 Stars
The Big Country is a 1958 American Western film directed by William Wyler. It stars Gregory Peck, Jean Simmons, Carroll Baker, Charlton Heston, Burl Ives, Charles Bickford, and Chuck Connors. Based on the novel by Donald Hamilton.
Ives won the Academy Award as Best Supporting Actor as well as the Golden Globe Award. The film was also nominated for an Academy Award for the musical score by Jerome Moross.
Wealthy, newly-retired sea captain and ship-owner James McKay (Gregory Peck) travels to the American west to rejoin his fiancée Patricia (Carroll Baker), whom he had met back East, at the enormous ranch of her father, Major Terrill (Charles Bickford). Terrill is a powerful rancher who is feuding with the equally tough patriarch of a poorer, uncouth, and less refined clan, Rufus Hannassey (Burl Ives). Patricia's best friend, schoolteacher Julie Maragon (Jean Simmons), is caught between the two, as she is the owner of the "Big Muddy", a (smaller) big ranch with a vital source of water desired by both men; Hannassey desperately needs it for his cattle, while Terrill wants to gain control of it to bring his rival down.
McKay is a puzzle to Major Terrill, his foreman Steve Leech (Charlton Heston) and even his fiancee; he refuses to be provoked into proving his manhood, even when harassed. We learn that McKay's father died in a duel, and -- as McKay explains to Terrill -- no one could remember what the duel was about. One morning, McKay rides out alone, goes to the Big Muddy, and persuades Julie to sell him the ranch, promising her that both the Terrills and the Hannesseys will always have access to the river, hoping that this will defuse the conflict. She agrees to the sale.
Back at the Terrill ranch, everyone believes McKay is lost. A search party is organized and spends two days looking for him. When McKay shows up, and says he knew where he was all the time, Leech -- who is himself in love with Patricia -- calls him a liar in front of Patricia and the Major. McKay refuses to be goaded into a fight. In private, Patricia expresses her shame at what she sees as McKay's cowardice. McKay tells her he'll be moving into town in the morning, to give them both time to think things over. Early the next morning, McKay goes out to the bunkhouse to settle things with Leech. They fight away from the house, without witnesses, to an exhausted draw - which, as McKay points out, has solved precisely nothing. Leech gains a new respect for McKay.
Later, Patricia discovers from Julie that McKay has bought the Big Muddy, and goes into town to try to make up with him. However, when she mentions her father's plans for the Big Muddy, McKay tells her it's over, as he will have no part in continuing the feud. Patricia explodes with rage, telling him that he'll never be half the man her father is.
Terrill orders Leech and his men to drive the Hannassey's cattle away from watering at the Big Muddy. Hannassey, desperate, contrives a plot to kidnap Julie Maragon. Rufus offers to buy the Big Muddy in exchange for her freedom. He doesn't know whether to believe her when she tells him she has already sold the Big Muddy to McKay. Hannassey decides to keep her at the ranch, as the bait for an ambush he has prepared for Terrill and his men. To rescue Julie, they must pass through the narrow canyon leading up to the Hannassey homestead, where they can be easily gunned down.
McKay rides in alone, despite Terrill's opposition, to try seek a peaceful solution. Hannessey's eldest son Buck (Chuck Connors), who wants Julie for himself, tells her to lie to McKay about her reason for being there, or he will shoot him. McKay arrives and shows Hannassey the deed to Big Muddy, and promises him access to the water there. When Hannassey says he intends to fight Terrill anyway, McKay confronts him with the truth - that it is all just about a personal vendetta between two ruthless, vicious old men who are willing to get a lot of others killed to settle their feud. Julie, whose feelings for McKay are by now obvious, tries to protect him by saying she is there willingly, but McKay doesn't believe her. McKay and Buck begin to fight, but Rufus stops it when Buck draws on an unarmed McKay. He then decides they will settle it "gentleman style", with the dueling pistols in McKay's saddlebag. He warns the two men that he'll shoot either one of them if they violate the rules.
After walking off ten paces, both men turn and aim. Buck fires before the signal, grazing McKay's forehead. McKay slowly and deliberately takes aim. Defenseless, Buck succumbs to fear and drops to the ground in terror. McKay then fires his shot into the dirt. Hannassey walks over and spits on his son for his humiliating cowardice. As McKay and Julie prepare to leave, Buck grabs a gun from a ranch hand, but Hannassey shoots and kills him.
Meantime, Terrill, Leech and their men have ridden into the ambush and are pinned down in the canyon. Although Leech realized that the risk was too great, he is unable to dissuade Terrill from going into the canyon, and ultimately Leech follows him in out of loyalty. Acknowledging the truth of McKay's accusation, Hannassey orders his men to hold their fire. He then challenges Terrill to come out and face him man to man. The two men walk to a final showdown and kill each other. McKay and Julie ride out together.
[edit] Commentary on the Cold War
The Big Country came out during the Cold War and in the aftermath of the McCarthy hearings. The film depicts the two alternatives of diplomacy (taught by McKay) and brinkmanship and personal grudges leading to mutually assured destruction (Terrill and Hannessey). Moreover, The Big Country depicts McKay grudgingly earning the respect of others and of the audience. It is said that President Dwight D. Eisenhower showed the movie several times in the White House during his second administration.
Movie Review: A Classic to be Revisited From Time to Time
Summary: 5 Stars
I enjoy a good Western. My three all time favorites are Silverado, The Professionals and The Big Country. Those are simply great.
The set up of The Big Country is a classic. Two battling landowning families, water rights, a man from the East (James MacKay played by Gregory Peck) coming to marry the daughter of the largest landowner, Major Henry Terrill, (played by Charles Bickford) whose ranch foreman, Steve Leech, (played by Charleton Heston) has eyes and hopes for also. The prize to be won is control of The Big Muddy, a stretch of river that is used by both Terrill and his counterpart Rufus Hannessey (played by Burl Ives) when the usual watering areas start to go dry.
The land through which the Big Muddy flows is owned by Julie Maragon (played by Jean Simmons) who inherited it from her father who was a revered gentlemen who gave watering rights to all who needed them. Julie has continued the tradition, however Terrill in an effort to provoke a confromtation with the Hanesseys has driven their cattle wawy from the river.
MacKay, a retied sea captain, although quite young to have been retired arrives to meet his fiance's family, he having met her while she attended school in the East. It isn't long before he finds himself in the middle of the feuding families activities. On the ride out to the ranch, Mackay and his fiancee, Pat Terrill (Carol Baker) are intercepted and Mackay is roughed up in a hazing type of fashion by Buck Hannessey and three of his ranch hands. The Major goes looking for Buck and in the process manages to invade and shoot up the Hannessey compound while Rufus is away and beat up the three ranch hands where he finds them in town while Buck is cowering in a buckboard, undiscovered.
As one might imagine, Rufus does not take kindly to that and shows up in the middle of a large welcoming party for Mackay to tell the Major what he thinks of it his face. It is a classic scene and one of several that propelled Ives to the Academy Award that year.
It is one that also gets MacKay wondering about what kind of family he is marrying into. A series of events where MacKay refuses to be provoked into fighting or otherwise "showing his manhood" in the eyes of Pat Terrill, lead to harsh words between them and Mackay leaves the ranch, however before doing so, he goes to Leeche's bunkhouse to advise he is leaving and that he has come to say "goodbye." What follows is a classic fight between the two of them which is at best a draw and Leech gains a new respect for "the dude" while with both of them lying in the dust, winded and bloodied, Leech looks at his adversary and says, "You sure take a long time to say goodbye."
Unbeknown to his finacee, Mackay has done a survey of the Maragon land on his own and has gotten Julie Maragon to agree to sell the land to him as a wedding present with his promise that all who have need of its waters shall have them.
Maragon tells Pat of this after she finds out that the couple have parted and she is also instrumental in showing her that Mackay has his own manly way of doing things. Terrill rides into town to apologize and in the process of doing so makes matters far worse so that the rift between them is permanent.
After having his cattle run off of the Big Muddy, Rufus dispatches Buck to bring Julie Maragon to him, willingly or unwillingly. Buck has been feeding his father full of the line that Julie is "sweet on him." The confrontation between Rufus, Julie and Buck is another classic scene in which Julie disabuses Rufus of any notion that she has any interest in Buck and reveals that she no longer owns the land on The Big Muddy.
Major Terrill is told that Julie has been kidnapped and predictably organizes a rescue party to invade the Hanassey compound in Blanco Canyon which is just what Rufus wants as he has set up the mother of all ambushes to await the Terrill rescue efort which he tells Julie will make "Henry Terrill the most surprised dead man you ever saw."
MacKay also gets wind of the kidnapping and rides in alone to try and persuade Rufus to release her and demonstrates that he owns the land and promises that Hannesey will always have access to the water. He and Buck get into a confrontation that leads to one of the most dramtic parts of the movie, but before that, MacKay also tells Rufus that this is not about all them men that will die in the Blanco Canyon massacre that awaits. It is about Rufus and the Major, two selfish and pathetic old men.
Following the confronmtation with Buck, Makay and Julie are allowed to leave and as that happens the Terrill men are riding into a death trap which is sprung and the shooting starts.
Hanassey has gotten the message and rides to the area and tells his men to "Keep them covered, but hold your fire," after which he calls out Major Terrill and says this is about the two of them and they should resolve it. They do and the rest is history.
The scenery, the music and the acting in this movie are subperb, but the enduring memory one takes from this is the character of Rufus Hanessey, Burl Ives got the role because he was a poker buddy of Gregory Peck and Peck instinctively knew that this was the man for the job. One cannot imagine anyone else in that role.
This movie was made the same year that Ives also played Big Daddy in Cat in a Hot Tin Roof, yet it was the role of Rufus which brought him the Oscar.
It also brought all of us a memorable movie. If you love Westerns, you need to own this one.
Movie Review: The Big Country, in Both Senses of the Word
Summary: 5 Stars
From its gripping plot to its untraditionally brave hero standing tall amongst other engaging characters, The Big Country is a near-perfect movie. The movie functions as a sprawling allegory dealing with the themes of civility, war, and the absorption of violent Western culture with the more subtle violence of modern culture. Almost every scene is thus pulling double duty; it is adding to the characterization or the plot, and also giving rise to a deeper theme beneath the surface.
The plot features a civilized Eastcoaster, named James McKay, who infiltrates a Western town, wishing to bring about peace according to his own rules, without guns or violence. Of course, the irony in all this is that McKay, the symbol of civility, of modern culture, doesn't in fact play by different rules at all. He simply hides his violence better. Instead of fighting and engaging in violence out in the open, he does so in private, challenging Leech to a fight after turning him down in public, or taming the wild horse (an obvious symbol for the "wild" west) alone, out of the public eye. So McKay is supposed to symbolize the "superior" values of modern life--but what we find is that these values are actually the same as the old ones, and that modern life only thrives by making itself "appear" more civilized by engaging in more subtle atrocities, by keeping the violence out of the public eye. Thus, McKay, the civilized one, is actually a brawler, a tamer of horses and countries, a dueler, and a leader of armies in his own right, despite his attempts to appear peaceful and civilized.
Naturally, this is not the interpretation most people walk away with. McKay only engages in his acts of courage, bravery, and violence in private because he doesn't want to have to prove himself to others, because he thinks there is no point to it. But, of course, he does it anyway. The viewer doesn't notice that McKay, who once proclaimed that he does not play by the rules of violence and guns, is continually engaging in and supporting violence and gun-play, despite his surface protestations.
There are, of course, further interpretations along these lines. One could interpret the movie as an allegory for the evolution of modern civiliation. Hannessay represents the uncivilized wild west, while his rival who is at war with him, the more civilized of the two with the large mansion and a larger "army", represents the budding rise to power of countries like Great Britain during the era of colonization. He is ruthless and fights dirty, and despite having the advanced civil culture, complete with mansions and dances, there still lingers the blatant displays of vulgarity and violence only on a larger scale. McKay, then, represents modern culture, after the era of colonization have been suppressed. Its evils are hidden and transformed, it pretends to play by different rules though it doesn't, and it pretends to stand for freedom, destroying the colonizing powers, all while subtly manipulating the uncivilized colonies to do the dirty work. This is why McKay can get Hannessay to kill his enemies for him...to shoot his own son after the duel, and to kill his rival in a man to man duel. And also like modern developed nations, after beating his man McKay will try to befriend him, as he does with Leech, and as modern nations do when they drop bombs on a country one day, and then care packages the next.
Of course, for those with a disdain for such interpretations of movies, for such "deconstructions" of the films' original meanings, there is also a wonderful story here. One can ignore all the subtle ironies I have pointed out and cheer on McKay as the hero, as the bringer of peace, and plug one's ears and pretend not to see the hypocrisy embedded in the symbolism. McKay is, afterall, a quite likeable character. He is brave, individualistic, and humble. Even as an outsider, he manages to overcome the corruption and violence of the country he has stumbled into.
Whether one views the film with the gloss of a type of allegorical patriotism, glorifying the hero as some sort of manifestation of truly "American" values, or whether one reads more into the film's subtext and uncovers the subtle hypocrisy of the hero as a manifestation of the falseness of civility, the movie is absolutely enjoyable. It is indeed strange that McKay as a person is refreshingly honest and courageous, while as a symbol for civilization he becomes a monster, a sort of wolf in sheep's clothing. Movies that can be enjoyed for their plots with a simple viewing and which also contain interpretations and symbolism that run miles deep are quite rare. The Big Country is thus a film that can be enjoyed for its surface and its interior, and offers a truly fine movie-watching experience for anyone.