The Big Country
THE BIG COUNTRY (PG)
D: William Wyler
United Artists (William Wyler & Gregory Peck)
US 🇺🇸 1958
166 mins
Western/Drama/Romance
W: James R. Webb, Sy Bartlett & Robert Wilder [based on the novel ‘Ambush at Blanco Canyon’ by Donald Hamilton]
DP: Franz Planer
Ed: Robert Belcher & John Faure
Mus: Jerome Moross
PD: Frank Hotaling
Cos: Emile Santiago & Yvonne Wood
Gregory Peck (James McKay), Jean Simmons (Julie Maragon), Carroll Baker (Patricia Terrill), Charlton Heston (Steve Leech), Burl Ives (Rufus Hannassey), Charles Bickford (Maj. Henry Terrill), Alfonso Bedoya (Ramon Gutierrez)
William Wyler’s sprawling epic Western stars Gregory Peck as James McKay, a retired sea captain who travels to the great American frontier to join his fiancée at her father’s huge ranch and becomes embroiled in a land battle between Major Henry Terrill and a rival family headed by Rufus Hannassey.
McKay is immediately teased upon his arrival, not only by the sons of Hannassey, but also by Terrill ranch hands, especially Steve Leech who himself seeks romantic interest from the daughter, Patricia Terrill, who turns out to be a quite immature young lady, whereas Jean Simmons’ school teacher, also caught up in the lane battle, provides a much more suitable match for McKay.
Peck is quite perfectly cast as the stoic, gentlemanly type, whilst Simmons & Carroll Baker do the best they can with the underwritten roles that they is given.  This is really a film where the two family patriarchs in supporting roles stand out as the best performances in the movie, with Burl Ives’ work considered worthy enough of the Best Supporting Actor Oscar.  Personally, I think Charles Bickford is equally as good.
The rousing score by Jerome Moross also deserves a special mention. As it plays over the opening credits, you know that this is going to a movie that is epic in scale as the setting that the action takes place in.Â
The only criticisms I have are in the final act, where the family dispute culminates in a shootout not only between McKay & Hannassey’s son, but the two family heads themselves, both of which I found were quite unconvincingly resolved.  Nevertheless, the rest of the film makes for stirring entertainment.
8/10
