The Big Country
Gregory Peck, Jean Simmons, Charlton Heston; Directed by William Wyler
The Big Country tells the story of two warring families out in the west, and the innocent Navy captain who gets in the way. When Jim McKay (Gregory Peck) arrives in town from the East Coast to marry his fiancé, he is immediately hounded and harassed for standing out in his fine clothes and well-mannered demeanor.
After McKay refuses to fight back against several bullies from the Hannassey clan, he begins to earn a reputation as a coward. This especially vexes his wife-to-be, the daughter of the head of the Terrills, who can't stand the shame of having a pacifist in the family. The couple eventually part ways. Meanwhile, local schoolteacher Julie Maragon has found herself smack in the middle of the Hannassey/Terrill war. She owns a valuable piece of land called 'The Big Muddy', a stretch of land through which a river runs, and which happens to be the only watering hole within hundreds of miles that could sustain whole cattle herds. While Julie has declared that both families may have continuous access to the river for their animals, neither family will concede to play fair. One of the Hannassey sons sets to wooing the schoolteacher in order to get possession of the deed, and the Terrill family sends out war parties to intercept cattle runs to 'The Big Muddy', in the hopes of killing the rival herd by denying them water. Tensions are brought to a boil when McKay buys the land from Julie, and both families find themselves riding towards a bloody conclusion to their long-standing feud.
William Wyler’s epic is one the most beloved classics of the Western genre. With particularly great performances by Gregory Peck, Jean Simmons, and Burl Ives (who won an Oscar for his role as head of the Hannassey family), this film shines with its message of peace and forgiveness, all the while running through an undercurrent of anger, spite, and raw emotion. There is a terrific scene between Mr. Peck and Charlton Heston, in which the two go out into the middle of an isolated strip of land at dawn to have an all-out fist fight to settle their wrongs to each other. There is no music, only the sound of the fight, which goes on for several minutes and only ends when the sun has risen. Heston’s character had challenged McKay to fight on several on several occasions in front of other people, but McKay would not take the bait, and by the end of their secluded brawl, the two men have gained new respect for one another and change the course of future events by way of it. On the whole, The Big Country boasts a satisfying (if not at times a bit predictable) classic story, drawing on influences from Romeo and Juliet and offering a slew of multi-dimensional characters who never break the rules and betray our trust by acting contrary to their personalities.
The biggest criticism here is that the film runs a good twenty to thirty minutes longer than it needed to. The pace drags dreadfully slow somewhere in the middle, and cuts could have been made to create a good momentum that would have moved the story along at a better rate. Still, The Big Country is a very enjoyable film, peppered with great moments of human drama and high tension that culminate to a gratifying and very tragic conclusion.
Grading:
Story = A-
Originality = B+
DVD Features = N/A
Acting = A
Enjoyability = A-
Visuals = B+
Overall = B+
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