Review: The Big Country

Ex-sea captain Gregory Peck comes to the West to marry Carroll Baker and quickly angers her and her bitter, rich father Charles Bickford by refusing to be dragged into a long-time feud between family patriarchs (of differing socio-economic standings) Bickford and tempestuous Burl Ives (in a role one could also have seen Orson Welles or Charles Laughton in) over the use of water for their respective cattle. Peck intends to buy land (called Big Muddy) from local school marm Jean Simmons (Baker’s loyal best friend) so that he and Baker can make a life together, but she baulks when told that he intends to let anyone, including Ives’ clan, take the water they need from the neutral Big Muddy (she also thinks he’s a little bit of a dandy, too) that separates the warring clans’ respective homesteads. True, if Ives and his clan got control of Big Muddy, they’d deny Bickford’s mob access, but Peck isn’t having any of this petty squabbling. This dandified fish-out-of-water (he’s a genteel from back East) is also getting constant derision from Bickford’s men, principally macho, bitter right-hand man Charlton Heston, who is sweet on Baker and none too keen on Peck, who refuses any challenge to test his manliness, and is oblivious to the brutal way of life out West. Chuck Connors plays Ives’ reckless, snivelling, no-good son who harbours feelings of lust for Simmons.

Big, sprawling (clocking in at around three hours) 1958 William Wyler (“The Little Foxes”, “Mrs. Miniver”, “The Best Years of Our Lives”) western with outstanding performances by a top-drawer cast (OK, so Simmons is a bit too prim and proper for her role, but never mind), and an interesting subtext.

Producer-star Peck himself has admitted the film is a left-wing allegory for the Cold War, and a pacifist Western. I’d go even further to suggest that it’s possibly even anti-war, and certainly critical of the stereotypical representation of heroism and machismo and the pettiness of war. Peck’s character believes man has nothing to prove to anyone but himself, and sees no need for violence as a means of retribution or revenge. One must remember, by the way, that at this time, co-star Heston was a moderately liberal guy- a civil rights activist, long before he became a staunch Reagan-esque Republican, homophobe, and gun nut. After Peck and Heston finally duke it out (even a pacifist like Peck has his limits of patience) with their fists for what seems like an eternity, Peck laments ‘And what did we prove?’, which just about says it all, really.

Ives won an Oscar for his towering performance (in a character that could’ve come off cartoonish in lesser hands), but Peck and Heston are very well-suited to their parts, too (as two very different kinds of manly men), and contributions by Baker (in a role that could’ve come off as caricatured and unsympathetic in lesser hands) and the always solid Bickford (as a man who probably doesn’t like violence, but tries to tell Peck that it’s simply the way it is out West) shouldn’t be undersold (nor that of a young, flinty-eyed Chuck Connors for that matter).

The thunderous, Oscar-nominated music score by Jerome Moross (“The War Lord”, an interesting historical pic with Heston) is hard to get out of your head once lodged in there. Sprawling colour cinematography by Franz Planer (“Criss Cross”, “Death of a Salesman”, “The Children’s Hour”) is especially outstanding, the scenery looks both rugged and harsh but also gorgeous to behold. Although popular with many critics, this is probably one of the best westerns you’ve never heard of, which is amazing given the reputable cast on show.

Rating: B+