The Big Country (1958)

I said before that I couldn't really characterize William Wyler's directorial style. Now I must be getting the hang of it, because as I watched TBC, I thought of two others: Friendly Persuasion and The Westerner. They're all set in the 19th century and have protagonists who are big on peace.

Rather unusually for a western, the hero in this one, James McKay (Gregory Peck), is a ship captain -- and a fish out of water. He comes to the frontier because it's home to Patricia Terrill (Carroll Baker), his intended. Apparently, no one warned him that her wealthy father, Henry (Charles Bickford), is leading one side of a feud with the rugged Hannassey clan, led by Rufus (Burl Ives), over access to a waterhole on land owned by Julie Maragon (Jean Simmons), who's on good terms with Jim and Pat but unwilling to sell to either patriarch. Like Julie, Jim doesn't let social closeness color his judgment of the situation. But to call him neutral would be misleading; he simply seeks a third option....

When I read the synopsis, it sounded to me like a cross between A Fistful of Dollars and The Quiet Man. That's not really a fair assessment, but the story does a good job of making Henry and Rufus look about morally equal, the former merely projecting more of a veneer of class. If anyone herein can be called an unambiguous villain, it's Buck Hannassey (Chuck "The Rifleman" Connors), who misreads Julie's neighborly demeanor and forces kisses on her. (Glad this isn't the kind of flick where the woman gives in on that.) Rufus makes perfectly clear how ashamed he is of this son. Not that the others behave much better when provoked.

The strangest thing about Jim is that he has manliness to spare, yet he exhibits it only in private. When a foreman (Charlton Heston) challenges him to ride a notoriously uncooperative horse, Jim disappoints all the onlookers by walking away; later, he tries until he succeeds but tells the stable hand not to let anyone else know. It's one thing not to show off; it's another to make the town think you're a coward. This, along with his willingness to extend an olive branch, drives a major wedge between him and Pat, and I had not counted on how their arc turns out.

Netflix asserts that the real star is the scenery. I hadn't given it much thought until the climax, set in the aptly named Blanco Canyon. It doesn't look like any other western scene in my memory, and the beautiful blankness has a way of accentuating the intense action (for the time).

At 166 minutes, it's not exactly light viewing. One tradeoff is that Jim's striving feels longer and thus his victories feel more earned, while the failures feel costlier. Plus, you really do get the sense that it is, as characters say often enough to annoy Jim, a big country. Worth my time.