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What we have here is a blood feud over water rights between two ranching families headed by Major Henry Terrill (Charles Bickford) and Rufus Hannassey (Burl Ives), with school teacher Julie Maragon (Jean Simmons) caught in the middle. Directed by William Wyler with ravishing cinematography by Franz Planer, we follow a memoir which involves the engagement of Easterner James McKay (Gregory Peck) to Terrill’s beloved daughter Pat (Carroll Baker) . Frankly, what he sees in her continues to elude my notion. Some reviewers have dismissed this as a “B” movie but I do not. The quality of the acting (notably Ives’s which earned him an Academy Award for best supporting actor) is outstanding. Although in what I guess could be considered a minor role as Steve Leech, Terrill’s ramrod, Charlton Heston delivers a remarkably nuanced and controlled performance as does Chuck Connors as Buck Hannassey. This is great less a western than a sight of two patriarchs (Terrill and Hannassey) who play a zero sum game to procure control of access to water on which they and their herds obviously depend. But there is something else at work in this tall but (for whatever reasons) under appreciated film. Julie Maragon is quite willing to allow both patriarchs access to the water. That is not the core issue: rather, it is the conflict between the inflated egos of two proud and stubborn men who dislike each other.
For me, one of the most memorable scenes occurs when, fair before dawn, McKay and Leech finally have it out. It is an awkward but inevitable and immensely effective fist fight, with grand of it filmed as if we were observing it at a distance. Of course, the fist fight achieves nothing other than demonstrating that McKay is more of a “man” than Leech once understanding. Before they launch throwing punches, McKay insists that no one know about their fight. Leech totally misunderstands McKay’s reasons. Another memorable sequence of events focuses on Terrill and Hannassey as they slowly and carefully work their design through a canyon to their final confrontation. To divulge, theirs is a zero sum game except that neither wins. In these and other scenes, Planer’s cinematography and Jerome Moross’ music fetch blend effectively with the cast’s proper performances under Wyler’s direction.
Why has The Gigantic Country been under appreciated, if not totally ignored among western films? I have no plan. I really don’t.
THE Titanic COUNTRY, the rocky collaboration of co-producers William Wyler and Gregory Peck, is a expansive, expensive deconstruction of the ‘classic’ western genre and values, placing an Eastern bright (Peck) in the midst of them, questioning their validity. The film’s sheer size ultimately defeats director Wyler’s goal, but what emerges is calm a rip-roaring drama, with terrific performances by Oscar-winner Burl Ives, Chuck Connors, Charlton Heston, and Charles Bickford.
Buy,Download, Or Stream The Big Country! Click Here
Buy,Download, Or Stream The Big Country! Click Here
Eastern ship captain James McKay (Peck) arrives in a GIANT-like Western town to marry Patricia Terrill (Carroll Baker), whose father (Bickford) is a major landowner in the residence. He immediately draws the ire of top hand Steve Leech (Heston) when he refuses to discard an Eastern-style hat (Leech obviously is Patricia’s jilted lover, as well, setting the stage for an eventual physical confrontation between the two men) . Patricia is gorgeous, but shallow and testy, unlike her more musty, sensitive friend, schoolteacher Julie Maragon (Jean Simmons), and one wonders what McKay saw in her to earn him propose!
En route to the Terrill ranch, McKay and Patricia are intercepted by a wild, acrobatic gang of cowboys, led by Buck Hannassey (Connors), son of the Terrill’s mortal enemy and biggest rival, Rufus Hannassey (Ives) . After a long chase/trick riding demonstration (punctuated by one of the film’s many sizable musical themes, by composer Jerome Moross), Patricia’s venomous reaction to Buck’s escapades leads to McKay’s being manhandled, roped, and roughed up, a bit. While McKay is forgiving, Col. Terrill (Bickford) uses the incident to invade the Hannassey ranch in force, and then roam into town, pistol-whipping Hannassey men (Buck hides to protect himself) .
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Thus begins McKay’s education of ‘The Device of the West’, and his rebellion against it’s traditions. He refuses to budge a wild passe mustang in front of all the ranch hands and humiliate himself (the ‘initiation’ of the ranch), later breaking the stallion on his gain. He navigates the ample Terrill estate with a compass, then refuses to publicly fight the disbelieving Leech, who’d led a search party to acquire him (McKay later takes Leech on, before dawn, when there would be no audience, then questions what purpose the fistfight served…an act that forces Leech to reflect how trivial and out-of-kilter his arrangement of life is) . He refuses to endorse the Terrill/Hannassey feud, but buys the ‘Big Muddy’, a water-rich property, owned by Julie, which both sides covet, offering the water to everyone (which costs him Patricia’s hand) .
McKay’s intellect and compassion reveals impartial how petty and bigoted both Col. Terrill and Rufus Hannassey are, but like two aging bulls, the pair inevitably march towards a deadly showdown by the film’s climax, as futile and meaningless as McKay and Leech’s earlier brawl. A ‘Blood Feud’ must be settled in blood, even when favorite sense proves it ridiculous.
Epic in scope, with the Wyler ’style’ clearly evident in pacing and characterization, THE Expansive COUNTRY may have misfired as an ‘Anti-Western’, but is tranquil an engaging, spicy production, and certainly deserves a site in any film fan’s collection.
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