The Big Country

Gregory Peck stars as sea captain James McKay, who follows his love, Patricia Terrill (Carroll Baker), to her family cattle ranch in Texas and lands in the middle of a range war between his fiancée's cattle baron father Maj. Henry Terrill (Charles Bickford)—who still wears his military rank like a badge of authority—and a scruffy family of desert rats led by Rufus Hannassey (Burl Ives). Although McKay has traded the endless oceans for the open prairie, he navigates the latter with the same tools and self-reliance he used at sea, while also befriending his fiancée's best friend, Julie Maragon (Jean Simmons), a schoolmistress who shares his pacifist philosophy and determination to keep the peace between the sparring families. Charlton Heston is Bickford's loyal foreman, who carries an unrequited torch for Patricia, and Chuck Connors is Hannassey’s bullying son. Oscar-winning director William Wyler helms this sprawling Western epic with poise, polish, and old-fashioned Hollywood professionalism. Peck displays stiff sincerity as the noble hero, but the supporting cast steals the show, especially Ives (in an Oscar-winning performance) as the crusty white trash patriarch whose sense of honor is stronger than his sense of family—a man who is more honest than Bickford’s moneyed robber baron. Backed by Jerome Moross’s rousing score, this newly remastered edition features extras including audio commentary by film historian Sir Christopher Frayling, the 1986 American Masters documentary Directed by William Wyler, interviews, an archival behind-the-scenes featurette, and image galleries. Highly recommended. (S. Axmaker)