The Big Production
- The other magnum opus of William Wyler, director of Ben-Hur and The Best Years of Our Lives
- An array of top Hollywood talent is headed by prime-era Gregory Peck and Charlton Heston
- “Anti-Western” highlighting power of peaceful strength and weakness of toxic masculinity
- Arresting imagery includes master cinematographer Franz F. Planer’s sweeping vistas
- Iconic: Jerome Moross’s landmark musical score is the memorable icing on the cake
- Wuthering Heights sub-plot sees Heston’s Heathcliff yearn for his fickle Catherine
- But Carroll Baker has her sights set on status and Peck’s wealthy, cultured gentleman
- Moving, funny and elegiac; epic romance and tragedy in the best Shakespearean tradition
The Big Country: Making of a Masterpiece, Part 2 | Collectors Guide, Part 2
US insert poster
Contents
The Big Story
TCM/alt, clips/more, montage, slideshow | French trailer, TV ad, clip | Italian TV ad/#2, intro | Spanish clip
An epic family feud becomes a class battle of bitter defiance as the Terrills and the Hannesseys relentlessly fight over water rights owned by a simple schoolteacher. Only a violent showdown can resolve the stubbornness between the two opposing sides. But in The Big Country there are no winners, only losers, as each reluctant pawn in the conflict learns to their cost. – UK Warner Bros. VHS (1988)
1959 Spanish poster (style B)
The Big Country is a Western that has it all: a classic story, an all-star cast and the impeccable direction of Academy Award-winning veteran William Wyler.
The Big Country is big entertainment, a magnificent Western spectacle of rival Texas cattle barons clashing violently over the water rights of the Big Muddy ranch. Gregory Peck stars as Jim McKay, a sea captain who trades the expanse of the oceans for the open range of the West and grows to regret his choice. He becomes embroiled in a feud between Major Terrill (Charles Bickford) and Rufus Hannassey, the grizzled patriarch of a disreputable clan (Burl Ives in his Oscar-winning role, Best Supporting Actor, 1958). Both covet Big Muddy, a desirable slice of land belonging to Julie Maragon (Jean Simmons). Charlton Heston is the menacing Steve Leech, a rugged ranch foreman who loves the land and has a keen eye on McKay’s beautiful fiancée Pat Terrill (Carroll Baker). Chuck Connors and Alfonso Bedoya round out the superlative cast.
Acclaimed by Time magazine as one of the year’s Ten Best, The Big Country is distinguished by Franz Planer’s magnificent widescreen cinematography and Jerome Moross’s landmark, Oscar-nominated musical score that has become a classic. For explosive drama and rousing, thought-provoking screen adventure, welcome to The Big Country! – Sérgio Leemann, author of Robert Wise on His Films (1995), US MGM/UA VHS (1990) and MGM LD (1996)
Heston, Peck and Simmons on 1959 Spanish poster art (alternative) by Francisco Fernández-Zarza Pérez aka Jano
The Big Country – Colin McGuigan
At first, this film appears to be a typical tale of hardy folk striving to wrest a living from a harsh and unforgiving land; its Portuguese title, Da Terra Nascem os Homens, translates as From Earth Men are Born. But there’s more here than meets the eye, as it comes with a pacifist twist and the unequivocal message that both real strength and the enemy are within, especially when the latter comes in the form of blind prejudice and hatred.
Future Italian director Sergio Leone worked with Wyler on his next film, Ben-Hur, where he observed the veteran doing last-minute pick-up shots for The Big Country with Heston in the dusty sands of the specially constructed arena near Rome. Its style and scope were almost certainly an influence on Leone’s famed spaghetti Westerns:
“So many things Italy got credit for re-visioning were done first in The Big Country. There’s a crane shot near the beginning that Leone duplicates exactly [in reverse] in Once Upon a Time in the West.” – John McElwee, Shrunken Epics Reclaimed
MGM Blu-ray and DVD artwork
It’s obvious Wyler honed his craft during the silent era as, like Alfred Hitchcock, he’s a consummate proponent of the narrative technique “show, don’t tell.” In fact, not only are many of The Big Country’s most incisive moments sans dialogue, they’re devoid of music and added sound effects too. Additionally, despite clocking in at a whopping 167 minutes, there isn’t a second of spare fat even the most skilled editor could trim away without harming the overall narrative.
Even further, this lean beast manages to pack in an inordinate amount of information in a continual feat of spectacularly economical storytelling. Frequently, with just a word, a glance or even a subtle expression, multi-layered dynamics, moods and motivations are established, giving the audience a real sense of seeing and feeling every character’s inner life. With each viewing, my love and admiration for it increases by leaps and bounds; it’s almost certainly my favourite Western, and definitely one of my favourite films, full stop. For the prototype of Peck’s signature role of Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), look no further than Jim McKay. Despite its length, there’s never a day when I wouldn’t be willing to watch it at the drop of a (derby) hat. Simply put, this is moviemaking at its finest and, as I’ve proved with multiple screenings, it’s the perfect Western for people who think they don’t like Westerns.
The Big Country/A Big Mess – Victoria Balloon
The Saturday Evening Post illustration by Harold von Schmidt
- US: Dell paperback (1958, reissued 1971, 1980, 1988)
- Dell 32-page tie-in comic/alt
- UK: Allan Wingate hardback (1958)
- Panther Books paperback (1958)
The script is based on a short story by action-adventure author Donald Hamilton, who is otherwise best known for his long-running Matt Helm series . Ambush at Blanco Canyon was published as a four-part serial in The Saturday Evening Post throughout February 1957 but when it was reprinted as an expanded novel the following year, it had taken on the name of its screen incarnation. But that version didn’t come easy: the final screenplay only emerged after a lengthy process involving six writers, four separate scripts, arduous daily rewrites during shooting and a final adjudication on the screen credits by the Writers Guild of America.
- Italy: La Frontiera paperback (1987)
- France: Hachette Point Rouge paperback (1972)
- Spain: Libro Plaza paperback (1960)
(rear)
The Big Production
A cycle of “A-Westerns”, often epic in scope and significant in subject matter, began and ended in the 1950s. Shane and High Noon were considered the cycle’s launch, and The Big Country its final splashdown. Director William Wyler populated the latter production with a cast as imposing as the film’s title demanded and chose Franz Planer as director of photography. The five-time Oscar-nominee’s versatile cinematography had distinguished not only Wyler’s Roman Holiday, but several Stanley Kramer productions and two films for Max Ophüls. The story was a familiar sagebrush drama: feuding families come to blows in a cattle community. But the Technirama format fascinated the director. He loved the idea of having that much space to play with…
A Fine, Big, Brawling Western – Life | US pressbook
The stars align: clockwise from left: Alfonso “We don’t need no… stinkin’ badges!” Bedoya, Charles Bickford, Jean Simmons, Charlton Heston, Carroll Baker, Burl Ives, Chuck Connors, Gregory Peck and William Wyler. Bedoya, a longtime alcoholic, died before the film was released.
- William Wyler: The Authorized Biography (1973) – Axel Madsen
- William Wyler (1979) – Michael Anderegg
- Wyler: A Guide to References and Resources (1984) – Sharon Kern
- A Talent for Trouble: The Life of Wyler (1996) – Jan Herman
The Big Country was the first film to bear Gregory Peck’s name as producer, fulfilling a desire born during his work with William Wyler on Roman Holiday. And his co-producer on the film was none other than Wyler, who later said he would never make another picture with Peck. The reason, according to co-star Charlton Heston, concerned a buckboard sequence early in the film in which Peck felt one of his close-ups needed reshooting. Wyler suggested they wait for a rough assembly of the scene before making a final decision. Peck acquiesced. But when the scene was assembled, and he still felt strongly about the change, Wyler flatly refused. For Peck, this betrayal escalated a simple artistic issue into a much larger ethical one. Following the film’s completion, the co-producers didn’t speak with one another for over two years… until their paths crossed again at the Academy Awards ceremony. As Wyler left the stage holding 1959’s Best Directing Oscar for Ben-Hur, Peck extended his hand and congratulated him. Wyler accepted the gesture, but quickly added [with a grin], “I’m still not going to reshoot that buckboard scene…”
- Wyler: Interviews (2009) – ed. Gabriel Miller
- Wyler: The Life and Films… (2013) – Gabriel Miller
- A Wonderful Heart: The Films of Wyler (2013) – Neil Sinyard
- ReFocus: The Films of William Wyler (2023) – John Price
The truth, of course, is rarely as simple as a good story, and according to Peck the falling out also had to do with lingering script problems and Wyler’s penchant for overshooting, which pushed an already hefty $3.5m budget to $4.1m. As co-producer, Peck was forced to become involved with such unpleasantries. The actor discusses it in his interview for the Directed by William Wyler documentary.
Big fun in the country: L-R: Burl Ives, Charlton Heston, Carroll Baker, William Wyler, Jean Simmons, Gregory Peck, Charles Bickford, Chuck Connors and Alfonso Bedoya (alt).
Charlton Heston, too, was confronted initially with painful decisions concerning the film. He was offered the role of the “heavy” in The Big Country the same day that Orson Welles, with whom he had just finished working in Touch of Evil, approached him to play the lead in Don Quixote. Heston met with Wyler and Peck and tried to explain to them why the part of ranch foreman Steve Leech was not good enough, but was bullied into taking it by his agent Herman “the Iceman” Citron. On the day he finally committed to the project (July 16, 1957) Welles called to inform him that Quixote was moving forward as a tele-film in Mexico. This threw the actor into a destructive dilemma. By the 22nd, however, things had resolved themselves negatively on the Welles project: an elaborate plan to enter Mexico on tourist permits and later pay a fine ran into a snag. Heston wouldn’t have gotten his passport back in time to make The Big Country location. He reluctantly dropped out of the Quixote project [which was never completed] and finished his costume fittings for the Western.
Heston began shooting his scenes on August 1, 1957. After his heady experience with Welles, he was ill-prepared for the treatment he would receive at Wyler’s hands—the director was renowned for exhausting actors with long series of takes, after which he would invariably walk away, failing to inform them of his satisfaction or lack thereof. In addition, the arc lights were hurting Heston’s eyes, and he finally persuaded Planer to modify the set-ups. To his credit, Heston praises Wyler with a degree of objectivity few other put-upon actors would have been able to summon: “Willy was the best director of performance in film.” Then again, as a result of their working relationship, Charlton Heston won the Best Actor Oscar in 1959 for Ben-Hur.
Gregory Peck’s Taupe “City Clothes” in The Big Country – Nick Guzan
Connors makes a not-so neighbourly acquaintance with Peck and Baker (uncropped)
Wyler (1902-81) was born in Germany, educated in Switzerland, and studied violin in Paris, where he was visited by distant cousin Carl Laemmle, then head of Universal Pictures. The meeting resulted in his move to New York City where he joined Universal’s publicity department in 1922. Although an examination of his career in the sound era reveals a director willing to tackle any genre, The Big Country was dearly in his future. By 1924, he was assistant-directing Western two-reelers at Universal City, and between 1925 and 1928 he directed over two dozen feature oaters. After that he branched out, rarely returning to the genre on which he’d cut his directorial teeth. One such revisitation occurred in 1940 with The Westerner, a literate, witty, low-keyed character piece featuring Gary Cooper, and Walter Brennan as Judge Roy Bean.
Wyler’s approach was to agonize endlessly over the script before shooting (in addition to the listed screenwriters of The Big Country—James R. Webb (Vera Cruz, Apache), Robert Wilder (Written on the Wind), and Sy Bartlett (13 Rue Madeleine, Twelve O’Clock High)—there was further input by Jessamyn West who had written Friendly Persuasion for Wyler, as well as two unused drafts by [Topaz author] Leon Uris), and then to continue wrestling with the film on the set, solving problems only after intensive soul-searching witnessed by cast and crew. The technique worked; Wyler earned himself three Academy Awards for Direction, and nine additional nominations. His impressive roster of films includes Dodsworth, These Three and its more honest remake The Children’s Hour, Dead End, Jezebel, Wuthering Heights, The Letter, The Little Foxes, Detective Story, The Collector, How to Steal a Million, and Funny Girl.
Making The Big Country – Robert Siegel
Back at the Drake Ranch, near Stockton, California, Charlton Heston’s location shooting ended on Sept 7th, and he flew to Los Angeles to begin work on Cecil B. DeMille’s remake of The Buccaneer under Anthony Quinn’s direction. Despite his ambivalent experience with Wyler, the director had apparently been satisfied with Heston, for the actor was immediately offered the role of Messala, another “heavy” in Ben-Hur. Finally seeing The Big Country in Rome (while shooting Ben-Hur) on July 2, 1958, Heston was pleased with the results, but honestly opined that the acting honors belonged to Burl Ives and Chuck Connors. (Despite his modesty, Heston gives a layered, often dryly humorous performance whose virtues have stood the test of time.)
Chuck Connors in The Big Country
Ives, having recovered from a skirmish with the blacklist and its aftermath, was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar, and might have been competing against himself that year had MGM listed him in the Best Actor category for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. He wore a Western ribbon tie and tuxedo to the Oscars” ceremony, and beat out Arthur Kennedy, Theodore Bikel, Lee J. Cobb and Gig Young. His award was presented to him by Bette Davis and Anthony Quinn.
Jerome Moross’s magnificent score for The Big Country lost out that same night to Dimitri Tiomkin’s The Old Man and the Sea. Moross (1913-83) was Brooklyn born, and studied piano at the Juilliard School. Paeans, his first orchestral work, composed at age eighteen, was conducted by his friend Bernard Herrmann. Known for mixing symphonic traditions with ethnic American folk idioms, he was the pianist for the touring production of Porgy and Bess. He began working in Hollywood in 1940, orchestrating film scores for other composers, including Aaron Copland’s for Our Town, and Hugo Friedhofer’s for William Wyler’s The Best Years of Our Lives. The pounding, modern compositions of The Big Country became an instant classic; Moross broke with film music tradition by not using leitmotifs for individual characters, and by creating cues that were complete compositions rather than fragments.
The Big Country – Jeff Arnold
The film opened on October 1, 1958, at New York City’s Astor Theater, its gala premiere benefitting the National Jewish Hospital in Denver. Reviewers around the world were polarized, sometimes within the same review. Some praised the staggering vistas, while others saw these panoramas as vessels empty of drama. Still others gravitated toward the pacifist theme of the narrative. About this, Bosley Crowther of The New York Times wrote that Wyler and co. “have attempted to make the most bellicose hymn to peace ever seen.” Films and Filming took perhaps the weirdest stance, seeing Major Terrill (Charles Bickford) as a fascist dictator, and Hennessey (Ives) running “his less prosperous community like a communist dictator.” Meanwhile at the White House, President Eisenhower, a devout Western aficionado, had viewed the film four times in a row!
In fact, The Big Country was widely interpreted as a Cold War statement about failed pacifism. Yet Wyler’s preoccupation with the theme predates the Cold War. In a medium where protagonists are considered better off obsessed, Wyler preferred his heroes to be well-balanced men prodded into action against their will, and only after great deliberation, by an obsessive antagonist. This choice often placed the films’ co-stars into a better position to earn Oscars than the leading players; consider both The Westerner (Brennan) and The Big Country (Ives).
The Big Country – Kevin Deany
Watching The Big Country today, in more cinematically informed times, one finds many of the 1958 critics who roasted the film naïve in their perceptions, for even on a technical level the movie’s uncomfortable emptiness clearly appears to have been Wyler’s thematic intent. Look at the first sequence, as Peck (Jim McKay) exits the stagecoach in the rudimentary western town of San Raphael. The sound mix is remarkably bare: a few incidental noise tracks, no music, or noticeable “room tone.” For former ship’s Captain McKay, accustomed to the roar and swell of the sea, these vast spaces are filled with a palpable silence. And since McKay is the protagonist, the film is subjectively captured from his point of view, hence the stylistic choice that Wyler explores through numerous variations until the end; he directorially refused the opportunity to have his main character assimilate, and instead gave us an accumulation of vistas that resonate as much with alienation as natural grandeur.
When Heston saw the camera being set-up two hundred yards away during his fistfight sequence with Peck, he thought he was hallucinating. They would appear to the lens like grains of sand?! Well, yes! That was the point. The extreme long shots make the fight pointless. The ways in which Wyler and Planer use the large screen as a weapon against mankind’s pretentions of territorialism is coolly experimental. Though again, most reviewers didn’t take it that far. Variety’s critic remarked, “This is one of the best photography jobs of the year and compares favorably with anything that has been accomplished with Cinerama, Todd-AO or CineMiracle.” True, but “surfacy.” – Roy Frumkes, US MGM/UA LD (1996)
The Big Country – Brian Eggert
Ms Simmons gets a Peck on the forehead…
Related articles
- Making of a Masterpiece: The Big Country – The Big Production
- Making of a Masterpiece: The Big Country, Part 2 – The Big Picture
- William Wyler Collectors Guide: The Big Country – The Big Releases and The Westerner (1940)
- William Wyler Collectors Guide: The Big Country, Part 2 – The Big Score
- Multiple-Language Version Film Collectors Guide: The Big Trail (1930)
