The Big Country
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Movie Reviews of The Big Country
Movie Review: Wyler's Powerful Epic Highly Underrated
Summary: 5 Stars
Few westerns capture the eye and the imagination as does this majestic, cinematic opera. Bringing together the grand acting talents of Gregory Peck, Jean Simmons, Burl Ives, Carroll Baker, Charlton Heston, Charles Bickford, Chuck Connors, and Alfonso Bedoya was truly "big"; however, matching them against a magnificent backdrop that cleverly captures the endless expanse of the American frontier - hence the name - was sheer genius. With a splendid score by Jerome Moross that stands the test of time and may be the best western motion picture score ever composed (possibly a dead heat with Elmer Bernstein's 'The Magnificient Seven'), 'The Big Country', for some strange reason, has never seemed to get its due reward.
The story captures a classic struggle between two land barons, ably portrayed by Charles Bickford as Major Henry Terrill, a cultured socialite, who runs the Ladder Ranch and his nemesis,Rufus Hannessey (Burl Ives) - the patriach of a clan of western, knuckle-dragging troglodytes who occupy a ranch beyond Blanco Canyon. While the dichotomy is rich, the portrayal by Burl Ives is nothing less than cinematic poetry - it just doesn't get better than this! The speech delivered by Hannessey (Ives) at the grand ball where Terrill (Bickford) announces the upcoming marriage between his daughter, Patricia (Carroll Baker), and her betrothed, Jim McKay (Gregory Peck), is very powerful and sets the tone for the conflict. In a battle over water rights and access to the "Big Muddy" - essential to both ranchers and their cattle, many characters and conflicts are enhanced.
The skill in character development is handled with such finesse, that despite the conflict, the audience finds qualities on both sides and is eager to root for Jim McKay (Peck) when he finally decides that the woman he met back East many years ago is not the woman he wants to marry. (Carroll Baker) plays a perfect "snot" who decides that McKay doesn't quite stand-up to the test of manhood that her father (Bickford) sets. Instead, McKay falls for beautiful Julie Maragon (Jean Simmons)and decides to use the property he purchased from her - containing the "Big Muddy" - to allow both feuding ranchers to partake in quenching the thirst of their cattle.
Look for Alfonso Bedoya, magnificent character actor, as a Terrill ranch hand - formerly "Gold Hat" ("we don't need no stinkin' badges") in "Treasure of the Sierra Madre". Also, Chuck Connors, who would shortly play TV's 'The Rifleman', plays Buck Hannessey with a terrificly solid portrayal as he attempts to woo Julie Maragon (Simmons) before McKay wins her over. Charlton Heston is relegated to the "back seat" as Terrill's ranch foreman who greatly dislikes McKay and believes that McKay doesn't deserve Patricia Terrill (Baker).
Filmed in multiple Arizona, New Mexico, and California locations - including, but not limited to - Canyon de Chelly, Chinle, Red Rock Canyon, Stockton, and Marysville, "The Big Country" is and remains a western classic. You can't go wrong with this one.
ANSWERS to "The Day the Earth Stood Still" trivia questionnaire.
1. 4,000 miles per hour, 200,000 feet
2. 250 million miles, 5 months
3. Colt .45 Automatic
4. Room 309, Major White
5. 7/18/51, "LMC"
6. Two - after Klaatu is shot the second time, and while Gort is shedding his KL93 casing, he vaporizes the two sentries.
7. 1412 Harvard Street, NW, Washington D.C.
8. Robert Benson, 1st Lieutenant, January 29, 1944
9. KL93
10. Jacob - in the newspaper article
11. Nobel Peace Prize - in the newspaper article
12. fractions
13. celestial navigation
14. 3
15. 3
16. 3
Movie Review: AMERICAs GREATEST WESTERN
Summary: 5 Stars
Gregory Peck is a very introspective actor. This character trait of his fits certain roles beautifully. I think Pecks best performance was in 1958s THE BIG COUNTRY. THE BIG COUNTRY is based on Donald Hamiltons novel of the same name. Gregory Peck plays the central character named James McKay. McKay was a sea captain who looked and acted like something of a dandy as he relocated out west from back east to marry his fiancée. McKay was a man who had nothing to prove to anyone but himself. I read the novel. Gregory Peck is James McKay. Peck chose this project and co-produced it because I think he recognized that particular character in the novel that mirrored his approach to many of the roles he chose. There are wooden people in everyday life. What is behind the wooden veneer? I think that a good actor takes the roles that work best for them. Look at Pecks performance as Lewt in DUEL IN THE SUN. That is not one of Pecks typical performances. I wonder after all these years what Pecks critique would be to his performance in that film. If you do watch THE BIG COUNTRY I think that Peck actually makes very subtle references to his performance in DUEL IN THE SUN with his awkward attempt at humor, which is consistent with the character of James McKay. THE BIG COUNTRY is one of Americas greatest films. It is blessed with one of the finest scores ever written for an American film. What composer Jerome Moross gave us was true Americana as well as music in the Western genre. This score captures the spirit of what made America great. America is made up of different people and different ideals. Charlton Heston as Steve Leech, in what I think was also his best role and performance, showed us an overly assertive male quality. When he finally confronts McKay he comes away with a self-realization about his own motivations and what being a man really means. Later when put to the test he is truly torn for the first time between good sense and loyalty to the selfish and tyrannical Maj. Henry Terrill (Charles Bickford). Only the viewer can draw a conclusion on his actions. The pivotal music by Jerome Moross in this scene will tear your emotions apart. Burl Ives as Rufus Hannassey won an Academy Award for his role. For me he was the most enigmatic character in this film. Is he as tyrannical as his nemesis Henry Terrill is or not? I am still perplexed. Another good performance in this film was by Chuck Connors as the tragic Buck Hannassey. Chuck Connors as an actor deserved infinitely more recognition than he ever got and this film proves it. This was not a film of black and white characterizations. There was a lot of gray. I saw this film in the theatre when I was a little kid when it first got released. It is very strong on imagery. My heart went out to Chuck Connors as Buck Hannassey in the finale and it still does when I watch it today. This is one of my ten or so favorite films. It is slow and deliberate. It is not flashy. The critics at the time were very wrong. It is a long movie yet there is not a wasted shot in it. It packs a greater emotional punch every time I watch it. The older you get, the more you can identify with it. I was lucky enough to see it the first time when I was very young. This film has something knew to teach you every time you watch it. There are no real extras on the DVD but who cares. The film is whats important here. Some of the frames showed signs of age and breakage. I can live with that. I have this in widescreen on laserdisc but the DVD is still best overall as far as I am concerned. Im pleased. Look beyond what technology has to offer and acknowledge the art.Movie Review: Eastern gentleman tries to tame the wild west
Summary: 5 Stars
There have been many fine reviews of this film already. Thus, I will largely confine my remarks to one of the themes of the film: the incompatabilities that most contributed to the breakup of marriage plans between Jim McKay (Gregory Peck) and Pat Terrill(Carroll Baker). But, first, I would like to point out that, although not hinted in the film, the feud between the Hannasseys and Terrills was likely rooted in ethnic and religious bigotry. Hannassey is an Irish name, whereas the Terrills were most likely of English ancestry. This fits the general perception of Irish immigrants as uncouth ruffians.
Pat soon figured out that Jim was determined to be his own man in this big country, not just her father's puppet. Strike one against him. She also discovered that Jim was too aloof to the rough and tumble western ranch culture for her liking. Not only did he show minimal hostility toward the rough hazing reception by the Hannassey "boys", he refused to cooperate with the baiting challenges of riding a notoriously untamable horse or brawling with Steve(Charleton Heston), who also had the hots for Pat. The latter 2 challengers he eventually met, but only when there was no crowd to make him a spectacle, win or lose. Unlike some reviewers, I don't see Jim's aloofness from these challenges as necessasarily a sign of superior nobleness. Rather, they seem prudent responses. Also, he was much influenced by his father's death in a duel over what, in retrospect, was a rather trifling matter. It was prudent to try not to show great fear nor anger when faced with a gang of ruffian hazers in an unfamiliar territory and culture. It was prudent not to risk making fool of himself before a crowd, including his fiancee, in trying to ride a horse hinted at as being very wild, nor was it gentlemanly to engage in a fistfight over the seemingly trivial question of whether he had been lost in his solo survey of the ranch. Later, when learning of the kidnaping of his new love, Julie(Jean Simmons) by the Hannasseys, he ignored prudence and played the role of potential hero and peacemaker or dead man. The lines between courage and foolhardiness and between cowardice and prudence will always be blurred in certain circumstances.
Various reviewers have made the point that a fundamental difference between Jim and Pat was that Jim believed that what he was really like and had accomplished was more important, whereas Pat believed how others saw you was more important than what you were really like. The film biases our opinion to see Jim's ethos as the better of the two, but remember that Peck was a coproducer of the film. As I see it, in the real world, both are important. Reputation often makes the difference between success and failure in the business world, whether based on fact or fiction. However, Pat should have understood that Jim had prudent reasons, consistent with his aloofish personality, for responding to these challenges as he did. Afterall, as an ex-sea captain, Jim was used to exhibiting a degree of aloofness. Interestingly, when it came to sharing water rights that he now technically owned, something really important to all his neighbors, Jim was not aloof, declaring all neighboring parties had equal access to his water as they had under Julie's father. Julie, as a non-cattlewoman heir to her father's land, had been too weak and too connected with the Terrills to fully enforce the tradition of equal water access. Hopefully, now in league with Jim and presumably disconnected with the Terrills as well as the Hennasseys, the pair would be strong enough to enforce their critical rule.
Movie Review: Enjoyable ranch-war Western with great music score!
Summary: 5 Stars
When Jim McKay (Gregory Peck) stepped off the stagecoach in the open range of the West, Steve Leech (Charlton Heston) was already his excellent rival and adversary...
Steve - Major Terrill's strong right arm - was in love with the beautiful Pat (Carroll Baker) daughter of his boss, who intends to marry the innocent handsome Captain...
Soon than expected, McKay discovered a bitter blood feud between the Terrills, owner of a huge ranch, and the Hannasseys, simple mountain men..
Extreme hatred united the two families, the two cattlemen Major Terrill (Charles Bickford) and Rufus Hannassey (Burl Ives).
Julie Maragon (Jean Simmons) was a strategic factor in the conflict... She was the key to supply water... Both, Terrill and Hannassey wanted her part of land to have their cattle watered, but she always said 'no' to either... Why not to say 'yes' now to Jim McKay! Julie was touched by his honesty, a quality she admired in a man...
Jim, a perfect gentleman - suffering humiliation since his arrival to the big country - grew to unlike Pat's ideas and manners which were in a primitive set of values... He became aware of Julie as a sensitive woman, an understanding human being with great heart...
When Julie is kidnapped by the Hannassey, McKay goes to meet Rifus... He wins esteem and consideration from the old man but fails to refrain a hostile confrontation between the two selfish, inflexible old barons...
"The Big Country" is distinguished by its magnificent landscapes... The high, wide and impressive buggy ride spread out a lavish, sumptuous scale of the State of Texas as never has been carried to the silver screen..
The film is about land and its influence and power over people... A story that can occur everyday in every country, zone and family... The love, the hatred, the war for land, for power, for water rights... always for an asset!
Gregory Peck is outstanding as the calm anti-traditional hero, balancing a deed of bravery, strength and endurance...
Jean Simmons was a big leading lady at that time, big enough to the 'Big Country.'
Carroll Baker, famous as the thumb-sucking child-wife in "Baby Doll," is Charles Bickford's willful daughter, acting according to his law and dictate...
Charlton Heston confirms a favorable impression by giving an excellent account as the grinning, menacing rival in love with the land and with McKay's attractive fiancée...
Burl Ives - Winner of the Academy Award as Best Supporting Actor in the film - is impeccably cast as the gray-haired patriarch of a shameful, indecent, discourteous clan...
Charles Bickford (1891-1967) could play as easily the sincere man of virtue ("Duel in the Sun") as the dishonest villain... His generous character and his stubborn face fitted him perfectly to such roles as the proud misguided patriarch led by false and mistaken ideas in the range against Burl Ives...
Chuck Connors (1921-92) is always remembered for his success on T.V. notably in "The Rifleman" series (58-63). Here he plays the heavy coward, the rude and vulgar, the hypocrite impolite noisy disorderly son...
Directed by William Wyler, and filmed with an outstanding Oscar-Nominated Musical Score by Jerome Moross - that has become a classic - "The Big Country" is a spectacular Western featuring a brilliant cast at top shape.
If you like big action, big fights, big love, don't miss it!
Movie Review: A few comments
Summary: 5 Stars
As others have written very complete reviews, I just had a few miscellaneous comments I hadn't seen elsewhere.It's interesting to contrast the quiet and unassuming confidence Peck projects in his character with the characters of the westerners, who assume Peck's low-key personality means he's a coward, or at least unwilling to defend himself, despite the fact that he's a former sea captain and has probably seen more danger on the high seas in a few years of sailing than most of the ranchers have seen in their entire lives. His manhood is constantly being questioned by the cowboy types, who don't understand Peck's more restrained nature nor his background.
For example, in one scene he rides off into the desert overnight to visit a neighbor and doesn't come back the next day. They mount a search party, thinking he's lost, but he's not. He has a map and a compass, and he knows how to use them. Eventually he rides into the camp of the searchers, who haven't been able to find him yet, apparently none the worse for wear, but the ranch foreman accuses him of lying when Peck says he wasn't lost. The ignorant cowboys have no idea that a former sea captain like Peck, who could navigate a ship over thousands of miles of open sea with no landmarks with a sextent and a chronograph, would find it easy to navigate on land with a map and a compass. But the ranchers remain unconvinced.
There are several other incidents like this, and even his new wife doubts him. In the end, however, Peck shows himself to be twice the man of any of the other brash and blustery cowboy types who have doubted him all along when he single-handedly confronts Burl Ives and his gang alone at the end of the movie. He also realizes that his wife, who also doubted him, isn't worth the trouble and isn't the girl for him. Instead, he ends up with the Jean Simmons, who understood him better all along (and who tried to talk sense into his wife, unsuccessfully), and who is a much classier lady, anyway.
I have to agree with the other reviewers and say that Burl Ives is the real standout and surprise here, turning in a great performance as the crusty, scheming old patriarch of a disreputable family of ne'er-do-wells and ruffians who feels he deserves better, including his errant son, played by Chuck Connors, who also turns in a fine performance. It's too bad Connors didn't get that many other good roles like this, as he shows he's a much more capable actor than he's normally given credit for. The entire cast does a great job, actually, and Charlton Heston is also good in his role as Peck's nemesis, playing something of a bad guy with regard to Peck, but who eventually comes to appreciate Peck isn't the man he thought he was when he and Peck get into a fist fight. Both men end up taking and dishing out a lot of punishment during the course of the long fight, so there isn't exactly a clear winner, but Peck shows he can certainly take care of himself and isn't the pushover Heston had thought.
The movie also has a great score that really adds to the ambience and drama, which helps, since the movie is over 2 hours and 40 minutes long. Overall, it's a fine movie and a great western that isn't as well known as it should be. Big Steve says go rent it and don't Bogart the popcorn.