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| Big names on a deliciously orange, sweltering backdrop adorns this poster for William Wyler's The Big Country |
The Hannasseys are primitive louts, the Major says, - but what does McKay say about the matter, now that he is engaged to the Major's spoiled daughter and has bought Big Muddy, the land that the two families are fighting over?
The Big Country is written by Sy Bartlett (That Lady (1955)), James R. Webb (Kings of the Sun (1963)) and Robert Wilder (Flamingo Road (1949)), with Jessamyn West (Stolen Hours (1963)) and Robert Wyler (Murder Goes to College (1937)) contributing writing, adapting Donald Hamilton's (The Demolishers (1987)) Ambush at Blanco Canyon/The Big Country (1957/1958), and co-produced and directed by German-born American master filmmaker William Wyler (Lazy Lightning (1926)), whose 40th feature it was.
This is truly an astounding western from the hey-day of the genre. Co-producer/co-star Gregory Peck (The Guns of Navarone (1961)) plays McKay, the annoyingly pacifist hero, who almost seems to revel in humiliations. Some western experts say that The Big Country was the initiator of the wave of pacifistic westerns in the coming decades.
Charlton Heston (Ben Hur (1959)) and especially Burl Ives (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)) weigh up for Peck's cotton-mouthed McKay. They both play eminently.
Everything is big in Technicolor and 'Technirama', - one of the period's many new formats designed to lure people away from their new TV sets and back to the cinemas to buy tickets. The cinematography (by Franz Planer (Roman Holiday (1953))) at times leaves you breathless, as the filmmakers really succeed in capturing the feeling of 'the big country'.
Despite Wyler and Peck clashing throughout production, culminating in the latter walking off set and the former telling journalists that he would never again work with Peck, - not even for a million bucks (!), and that they could quote him for it, - the film impressively enough bears no witness of the strife.
The score by Jerome Moss (Wagon Train (1959-1964)) is also grand.
The Big Country is a swell time full of adventure, love, action and swooning landscapes. A certified classic.
Related posts:
William Wyler: How to Steal a Million (1966) - Wyler and stars win with Paris-set cinematic cream puff
Top 10: Best epic movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Ben-Hur (1959) - Perhaps the greatest epic film of all time
The Big Country (1958) - A big western gift
The Desperate Hours (1955) - Wyler's top-drawer true-crime home-invasion thriller
Top 10: The best B/W movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Top 10: The best adventure films reviewed by Film Excess to date
Roman Holiday (1953) - Wyler takes us to marvelous Rome on an unforgettable romantic adventure
The Heiress (1949) - De Havilland triumphs in sensational Wyler adaptation (producer/director)
Cost: Reportedly 4 mil. $
Box office: In excess of 3.5 mil. $ (North-American rentals alone)
= Uncertain
[The Big Country premiered 13 August (USA) and runs166 minutes. Shooting took place from July - November 1957 in California and Arizona. Little is available online concerning the film's commercial reception: It was reportedly a 'big hit', the year's 2nd biggest hit in the UK, - however the high cost means that it may not have turned profitable. US President Dwight D. Eisenhower called it "simply the best film ever made", screening it on 4 consecutive nights at the White House. It was nominated for 2 Oscar, winning Best Supporting Actor (Ives) and losing Score - Drama/Comedy to Dimitri Tiomkin for The Old Man and the Sea. It was also nominated for a BAFTA and won a Golden Globe, among other honors. Wyler returned with Ben-Hur (1959). Peck returned in Pork Chop Hill (1959); Heston in The Buccaneer (1958); Ives in Wind Across the Everglades (1958). The Big Country is fresh at 100 % with a 7.40/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of The Big Country?
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