Directed by William Wyler
starring Gregory Peck, Charlton Heston, Jean Simmons, Burl Ives, Carroll Baker, Chuck Connors
An epic-sized story about two families warring over access to The Big Muddy river in the western frontier, The Big Country is at heart a meditation on war and peace and what it means to be a man.
Former East Coast sea captain James McKay (Gregory Peck), a peace-loving gentleman scholar (who may be a Quaker) whose father died in a "meaningless duel," comes out West to marry the rich girl Patricia (Carroll Baker) he met in Boston. From the moment he arrives he finds himself caught up in the battle between her bellicose father The Major (Charles Bickford) and his less elegant ranching rival Hannassey (a fabulous Burl Ives). It being the Wild West and all, McKay is challenged to put up his dukes at every turn: by the local bad boys led by Hannassey's son Buck (Chuck Connors) who prank and goad him, by The Major's laconic chief cowhand Steve (Charlton Heston in one of few second-banana roles) who also has eyes for Patricia, and by The Major himself, who wants McKay to take up arms in the ongoing water access war with his sworn foe Hannassey in a you're-either-with-me-or-against-me scenario.
Viewing the capacity for violence and aggression as not the true measures of manhood, McKay demurs or laughs off attempts to rile him, and is labeled a coward and a weakling. He can't understand The Major's escalating hatred for Hannassey, and notes that it's not his fight. And none of the cowboy lunks on the ranch give "the dude" credit for his strengths, like McKay's finally breaking "Old Thunder," the hellish ranch bronco, on his own terms, or when McKay -- an experienced seafarer -- goes riding off into the prairie overnight to take a look around, guided by his compass, only to have The Major send out hysterical search parties. Even when they find McKay calmly breakfasting at a prairie campfire and offering them coffee, they won't believe that he was never lost. His fickle fiancee Patricia is embarrassed and loses the faith, breaking off the engagement after McKay purchases The Big Muddy as a wedding present though making it clear he will not block Hannassey from watering his cattle there. Only Patricia's schoolmarm friend Julie (Jean Simmons) can see that McKay is nobly striving to attain something bigger and more equitable for everyone.
Finally Cowhand Steve has to give McKay his props; as animosity ramps up between them, McKay finally succumbs to fisticuffs but only during pre-dawn hours with no witnesses. The two fight to exhaustion with no winner, proving that throwing punches can't resolve real issues. But with a little more respect for McKay's eastern grit, Steve is the one who tries to stop a hellbent Major from committing what amounts to a massacre of Hannassey and his kin after they kidnap Julie to force her to hand over the deed to The Big Muddy -- something she's already sold to McKay.
In the final shootout it's just The Major versus Hannassey and both are killed, clearing the way for a new truce between the families. But did they really have to die? None of the characters feel good about how things are concluded. The irony is that though the sheer size of this barely settled region is constantly commented upon -- "It's a big country" is noted by at least four characters -- it wasn't big enough for two hard-headed patriarchs to co-exist. McKay's view of the senselessness of violence is justified.
The film is notable not only for the incredible cinematography capturing the endless vistas of the untouched West, but for the fantastic soundtrack by Jerome Moross, heightened in the thrilling overhead opening sequence following a thundering stagecoach through the sagebrush with the mesas in the distance. That rousing opening is a Western classic worth experiencing on its own, even if you don't watch the rest of the yarn.
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