The Big Country

The Big Country is a fine Western, directed by the estimable William Wyler, and featuring Gregory Peck and Charlton Heston, with a supporting performance by Burl Ives that won an Oscar (he was put up in the lead actor category by the studio for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, but thankfully he ended up winning for this one).

The film begins majestically, with a stagecoach racing across open land, and the instantly recognizable theme by Jerome Moross, which is Aaron Copland-like in its sweep. The stagecoach is carrying Peck, an easterner and former sailor who is coming west to marry his sweetheart, played by Carroll Baker. She's the daughter of a rancher, Charles Bickford, who is engaged in a Hatfield/McCoy-like feud with Ives and his bunch, led by Chuck Connors (who would go to play TV's Rifleman).

Peck, much like James Stewart's Destry, is a peaceable man, not interested in the macho code of the West. Heston, who is the foreman of the ranch and sweet on Baker, tries to test Peck's manhood, but Peck won't bite. Eventually Peck realizes Baker is not the woman for him, and comes to admire her friend, the schoolmarm, Jean Simmons, who owns land that provides water for both Ives and Bickford.

Though a bit long, this film has all the elements of a great Western, particularly the use of the endless vistas of land. Wyler really uses the scenery to great effect, and also makes the point of how useless violence can be. There's a terrific scene in which Peck and Heston finally have fisticuffs, but Peck wants to do it in the middle of the night, with no witnesses. Wyler uses some extremely long shots, showing the two men as small figures in a vast landscape.

I was really caught up in the story, and the ending is very suspenseful. If you like Westerns, and even if you don't, this a very good film.