The Big Country

This article is about the 1958 film. For other uses, see Big Country (disambiguation).

The Big Country
Theatrical release poster by Saul Bass
Directed by	William Wyler
Written by	James R. Webb Sy Bartlett Robert Wilder
Based on	Ambush at Blanco Canyon by Donald Hamilton
Produced by	Gregory Peck William Wyler
Starring	Gregory Peck Jean Simmons Charlton Heston Carroll Baker Burl Ives Charles Bickford Chuck Connors
Cinematography	Franz F. Planer, ASC
Edited by	Robert Belcher John Faure Robert Swink (sup)
Music by	Jerome Moross
Distributed by	United Artists
Release date	August 13, 1958 (1958-08-13) (Atlantic City)
Running time	166 minutes
Country	United States
Languages	English Spanish
Box office	$3.5 million (US and Canada rentals)

The Big Country is a 1958 American epic Western film directed by William Wyler, starring Gregory Peck, Jean Simmons, Carroll Baker, Charlton Heston, and Burl Ives. The supporting cast features Charles Bickford and Chuck Connors. Filmed in Technicolor and Technirama, the picture was based on the serialized magazine novel Ambush at Blanco Canyon by Donald Hamilton and was co-produced by Wyler and Peck. The opening title sequence was created by Saul Bass.

Burl Ives won the Academy Award as Best Supporting Actor for his performance, as well as the Golden Globe Award. The film was also nominated for an Academy Award for the musical score, composed by Jerome Moross. The film is one of the few in which Heston plays a major supporting role rather than the lead.

Plot

Former sea captain James McKay travels to the American West to join his fiancée, Patricia, where she lives on an enormous ranch, Ladder Ranch, owned by her father, Henry Terrill. Mr. Terrill has the biggest ranch in the area and everyone refers to him as "The Major."

Terrill's ranch foreman, Steve Leech, picks up McKay at the stagecoach depot in town and delivers him to the home of Patricia's friend, Julie Maragon, who is the town's only schoolteacher. Patricia introduces Jim to Julie and they become fast friends. Leech offers to escort McKay and Patricia back to the ranch, but Patricia refuses.

However, Jim and Patricia are accosted by a group of drunks led by Buck Hannassey who is the son of Rufus Hannassey, the Major's bitter enemy. In spite of the harassment and mockery by the drunken Hannassey gang, McKay chooses to make light of the incident in stating that he has experienced far worse during his life as a sailor. Patricia is incredulous that McKay insists that the boys meant no harm.

The next morning, the Major's foreman, Steve Leech, tries to trick McKay into riding a bucking bronco named "Old Thunder." Sensing that Leech seems too eager to get him on that particular horse, McKay declines the invitation. McKay later finds out that the cowboys who work for the Major always go through the same ritual with newcomers.

It is seen as a joke to have any newcomer bucked off of Old Thunder. McKay presents a pair of dueling pistols once owned by his father to the Major as a gift. When the Major learns of Buck Hannassey's drunken harassment of his daughter and future son-in-law the day before, he gathers his men and leads a raid to the Hannassey ranch. McKay tries to stop them, but the Major refuses to change his mind.

The Major's cowboys find neither Rufus nor Buck at the Hannassey place so they settle for terrorizing the Hannassey women and children instead. They also shoot holes in the Hannasseys' water tank which threatens the survival of the Hannasseys because water is a precious commodity in the west. They ride into town where they find Buck's posse and beat and humiliate them while Buck hides in the back of a wagon, intimidated by the cowboys.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, McKay privately rides and tames Old Thunder after many unsuccessful attempts. McKay swears his only witness, the ranch hand Ramon, to secrecy.

Drive-in advertisement from 1958

A gala is held on the Terrill ranch later that evening in honor of Patricia's upcoming wedding to McKay. At the height of the festivities, an armed Rufus Hannassey crashes the party and accuses the Major of the hypocrisy of pretending to be a gentleman when his actions earlier that day speak otherwise. Rufus accuses the Major of scaring women and children and goads Terrill into a direct confrontation.

Terrill doesn't take the bait and Rufus finally rides away on his horse. The next day, McKay secretly goes to Julie Maragon's abandoned ranch, known as the "Big Muddy." The Big Muddy Ranch is the location of the town's only nearby river and as such is a vital source of water for both the Terrill and Hannassey cattle during times of drought. McKay persuades Julie to sell the Big Muddy Ranch to him in the hopes of securing a wedding gift for Patricia. McKay also wants to end the conflict between Terrill and Hannassey by allowing both men's cattle unrestricted access to the river. When Ramon reveals to the Major and Patricia that McKay has left to go riding into the Big Country, they are immediately alarmed. Patricia is concerned that McKay will be lost or injured in the unfamiliar area, so the Major sends out a search party led by Steve Leech in order to bring McKay home. What they don't realize is McKay is proficient with his compass from his days of sailing around the world. McKay isn't lost at all and shows up at the camp of the search party that night. Everyone tells McKay that he was foolish to ride out alone.

Patricia is relieved when McKay and the others return to Ladder Ranch. However, she begins to imply that McKay is no match for the Big Country. Leech calls McKay a liar when McKay explains that he was never really lost or in danger. McKay again chooses to ignore the insults rather than fight with Leech. Patricia is disappointed that McKay would allow any man to call him a liar. She considers it an embarrassment to herself as well as McKay. She says that you don't allow a hired hand to insult you. McKay and Patricia don't see eye to eye on much of anything and reconsider their engagement. Everyone is upset and goes to bed. Before dawn and without an audience, McKay finally challenges Leech to a "farewell" fight. Their prolonged fistfight ultimately ends in a draw. Later that same morning, Julie Maragon arrives to tell Patricia about McKay's purchase of the Big Muddy Ranch as a wedding gift. Initially, Patricia is convinced to make amends with McKay. However, when she learns of McKay's plan to allow the Hannasseys equal access to the water, Patricia leaves McKay for good.

Wanting to lure the Major into an ambush in the canyon leading to his homestead, Rufus takes Julie Maragon hostage. McKay arrives to rescue Julie and personally promises Rufus that he will give Hannassey equal access to the river on Big Muddy Ranch. Nevertheless, Jim finds himself in a clash with Buck. They are given an ultimatum by Rufus to settle their disagreement like gentlemen and he forces them into a shootout using the old dueling pistols. Buck fires before the signal and misses. His bullet grazes McKay's forehead and thus leaves Buck open to be shot by McKay. Buck hides again. The display of cowardice convinces McKay to spare Buck. The frustrated Buck jumps to his feet and grabs another gun from a nearby cowboy to shoot the unarmed McKay.

Rufus shoots to kill his own son all the while insisting that it is not honorable for Buck to shoot an unarmed man. Then Rufus, McKay, Julie, and Ramon ride down into Blanco Canyon. Rufus challenges the Major for a final confrontation of a one-on-one showdown. Armed with rifles, the two old men advance and kill each other, thus ending the feud between the Terrills and the Hannasseys. McKay, Julie and Ramon ride off into the sunset, ready to start their new life together on the Big Muddy Ranch.

Cast

• Gregory Peck as James McKay
• Jean Simmons as Julie Maragon
• Carroll Baker as Patricia Terrill
• Charlton Heston as Steve Leech
• Burl Ives as Rufus Hannassey
• Charles Bickford as Maj. Henry Terrill
• Alfonso Bedoya as Ramón Gutierrez
• Chuck Connors as Buck Hannassey
• Chuck Hayward as Rafe Hannassey
• Buff Brady as Dude Hannassey
• Jim Burk as Blackie / Cracker Hannassey
• Dorothy Adams as Hannassey Woman
• Chuck Roberson as Terrill Cowboy

Production

Robert Wyler and Jessamyn West wrote the first screenplay for the film based on the Donald Hamilton story that had been serialized in The Saturday Evening Post. Leon Uris wrote a second screenplay and Robert Wilder wrote another, with the final script by James R. Webb and Sy Bartlett. After arbitration, Webb, Bartlett and Wilder received screenplay credit and Wyler and West received adaptation credit. Uris was not given credit as his script deviated too much from the original story.

Director William Wyler was known for shooting an exorbitant number of takes on his films, usually without explaining to the actors what to do differently except "[make it] better", and this one was no exception. Many of the actors, including Jean Simmons and Carroll Baker, were so traumatized by his directing style that they refused to speak about the experience for years. Simmons later said they constantly received rewrites for the script, making acting extremely difficult. Gregory Peck and Wyler, who were good friends, fought constantly on the set and had a falling out for three years, although they later reconciled. Wyler and Charles Bickford also clashed, as they had done 30 years previously on the production of his 1929 film Hell's Heroes. Burl Ives, however, claimed to have enjoyed making the film.

Before principal photography was complete, Wyler left for Rome to start work on Ben-Hur, delegating creation of the final scenes involving McKay and Julie to his assistant Robert Swink, whose resulting scenes pleased Wyler so much that he wrote Swink a letter stating: "I can't begin to tell you how pleased I am with the new ending... The shots you made are complete perfection."

Locations

The Blanco Canyon scenes were filmed in California's Red Rock Canyon State Park in the Mojave Desert. The ranch and field scenes with greenery were filmed in the Sierra Nevada foothills near the town of Farmington in central California. Today Snow Ranch, a working cattle ranch, is also used during the winter months (of lower fire risk) by a club of the National Association of Rocketry for launches of model, mid, and high power amateur rockets.

Reception

Bosley Crowther of The New York Times wrote in a negative review, "for all this film's mighty pretensions, it does not get far beneath the skin of its conventional Western situation and its stock Western characters. It skims across standard complications and ends on a platitude. Peace is a pious precept, but fightin' is more excitin'. That's what it proves." Variety called the film "one of the best photography jobs of the year", with a "serviceable, adult" storyline "which should find favor with audiences of all tastes." Harrison's Reports declared it "a first-rate super-Western, beautifully photographed in the Technirama anamorphic process and Technicolor. It is a long picture, perhaps too long for what the story has to offer, but there is never a dull moment from start to finish and it holds one's interest tightly throughout." Richard L. Coe of The Washington Post called it "super stuff. Franz Planer's photography of Texas is downright awe-inspiring, the characters are solid, the story line firm, the playing first-rate, the music more than dashing in this nearly three-hour tale which should delight everybody."

John McCarten of The New Yorker wrote, "Of those involved in this massive enterprise, Mr. Bickford and Mr. Ives are the most commendable as they whoop and snort about the sagebrush. But even they are hardly credible types, and as for the rest of the cast, they can be set down as a rather wooden lot." Philip K. Scheuer of the Los Angeles Times called the film "too self consciously 'epical' to be called great, but at its best, which is frequently, it's better than good." The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote that the picture's attempts to convey a message were for the most part "superficial and pedestrian," and found that "the pivotal character of McKay, played on a monotonously self-righteous note by Gregory Peck, never comes alive. It is mainly due to the power of the climactic canyon battle, and Burl Ives' interesting playing as Rufus, that this remains a not unsympathetic film, decorated pleasantly by Jean Simmons and with spirit by Carroll Baker."

The film was a big hit, being the second-most popular movie in Britain in 1959. On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 100% based on 13 reviews, with an average rating of 7.4/10.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower liked the movie so much, he screened it on four successive evenings in the White House during his second administration.

Playmobil designed an entire cowboy line based on the architecture of the film.

In a poll of 500 films held by Empire, it was voted 187th-greatest movie of all time.

Accolades

Ives won the Academy Award as Best Supporting Actor, as well as a Golden Globe Award. The film was also nominated for an Academy Award for the musical score by Jerome Moross.

Award	Category	Nominee(s)	Result
Academy Awards	Best Supporting Actor	Burl Ives	Won
	Best Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture	Jerome Moross	Nominated
British Academy Film Awards	Best Film from any Source		Nominated
Directors Guild of America Awards	Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures	William Wyler	Nominated
Golden Globe Awards	Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture	Burl Ives	Won
Kinema Junpo Awards	Best Foreign Language Film	William Wyler	Won
Laurel Awards	Top Action Drama		Nominated
	Top Score	Jerome Moross	Nominated

Preservation

The Academy Film Archive preserved The Big Country in 2006.

Comic book

Main article: The Big Country (comics)

A comic-book adaptation of the novel and tie-in to the movie was first released in 1957.

See also

• List of American films of 1958

External links

• The Big Country at IMDb
• The Big Country at the TCM Movie Database
• The Big Country at AllMovie
• The Big Country at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films