GREGORY PECK's innate ability to play a man of integrity is never better utilized than it is by director William Wyler for THE BIG COUNTRY. In fact, Wyler is able to draw expert performances from all of the male leads, who really do exceptional work here. It's the men who dominate the film and Wyler gives them all a chance to show what they can do. The film itself is a bit overblown, even for an epic western.
As the most villainous of BURL IVES' sons, CHUCK CONNORS stands out in a very aggressive role as the gang of four who welcome Peck to "the big country" by taunting him with reckless energy as they lasso him, tear his hat off, shoot at it, keeping his fiancé, CARROLL BAKER in check to witness their humiliating tactics. But Peck is a gentleman from the east, a Sea Captain returning to the west to marry the woman he thinks he loves and his way of dealing with bullies upsets his fiancé who fails to understand his values and always underestimates him.
As it turns out, JEAN SIMMONS becomes the real woman for him--and after many a plot turn he ends up rescuing her from a fate worse than death after she's captured by Ives and his unruly, cowardly son Connors.
It's a complex story of an age old feud over water rights that involves, principally, Ives and CHARLES BICKFORD as the headstrong men who are unable to settle a score peacefully even when Peck tries to intervene. It's an epic tale, sprawling and a bit rambling over the course of two hours and forty-five minutes, but Wyler holds it all together for maximum interest, aided and abetted by a wonderful western score by Jerome Moross that has become classic.
Peck never had a role that suited him so admirably and CHARLTON HESTON is excellent as Bickford's right hand man with unwanted designs on Carroll Baker. His fist fight with Peck is a classic of its kind. And ALFONSO BEDOYA (tbe grinning bandit from TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE)as Ramon, the sometimes dull-witted hired help with his halting English, is excellent.
Summing up: A sturdy but overblown western with a classic score, full of strong performances by an expert cast.
As the most villainous of BURL IVES' sons, CHUCK CONNORS stands out in a very aggressive role as the gang of four who welcome Peck to "the big country" by taunting him with reckless energy as they lasso him, tear his hat off, shoot at it, keeping his fiancé, CARROLL BAKER in check to witness their humiliating tactics. But Peck is a gentleman from the east, a Sea Captain returning to the west to marry the woman he thinks he loves and his way of dealing with bullies upsets his fiancé who fails to understand his values and always underestimates him.
As it turns out, JEAN SIMMONS becomes the real woman for him--and after many a plot turn he ends up rescuing her from a fate worse than death after she's captured by Ives and his unruly, cowardly son Connors.
It's a complex story of an age old feud over water rights that involves, principally, Ives and CHARLES BICKFORD as the headstrong men who are unable to settle a score peacefully even when Peck tries to intervene. It's an epic tale, sprawling and a bit rambling over the course of two hours and forty-five minutes, but Wyler holds it all together for maximum interest, aided and abetted by a wonderful western score by Jerome Moross that has become classic.
Peck never had a role that suited him so admirably and CHARLTON HESTON is excellent as Bickford's right hand man with unwanted designs on Carroll Baker. His fist fight with Peck is a classic of its kind. And ALFONSO BEDOYA (tbe grinning bandit from TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE)as Ramon, the sometimes dull-witted hired help with his halting English, is excellent.
Summing up: A sturdy but overblown western with a classic score, full of strong performances by an expert cast.