X
- 1958
- Approved
- United Artists
- 2 h 46 m
- 1958
- Approved
- United Artists
- 2 h 46 m
Summary A New England sea captain in the 1880s arrives at his fiancée's sprawling Texas ranch, where he becomes embroiled in a feud between two families over a valuable patch of land.
Directed By: William Wyler
- 1958
- Approved
- United Artists
- 2 h 46 m
- 1958
- Approved
- United Artists
- 2 h 46 m
The Big Country
61
7.5
Where to Watch
Summary A New England sea captain in the 1880s arrives at his fiancée's sprawling Texas ranch, where he becomes embroiled in a feud between two families over a valuable patch of land.
Directed By: William Wyler
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 12 Critic Reviews
61
75% Positive
9 Reviews
9 Reviews
17% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
8% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 12 Critic Reviews
61
75% Positive
9 Reviews
9 Reviews
17% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
8% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
Although The Best Years of Our Lives remains Wyler’s most essential assessment of the American psyche, The Big Country is stunning for how it meshes the intimate strife of a particularly white American stripe of self-resentment with the epic vista of Technirama Technicolor.
A huge, sprawling western with just about everything: brilliant photography, superb music, an intelligent script, and excellent performances, including one from Heston that is one of the best of his career.
Wyler's return to the western form (where he specialized in the silent era) is a vast range-war saga full of majestic vistas and full-blooded characters brawling and firing away. [07 Jan 2011, p.C5]
William Wyler’s sprawling Western about iron-willed ranchers squabbling over desirable land, The Big Country, is one of the prime wide-screen epics of the late ’50s, but today it’s remembered mostly for composer Jerome Moross’ magnificent Big Sky score.
Although the story – based on Donald Hamilton’s novel, with Jessamyn West and Robert Wyler credited with the screen adaptation – is dwarfed by the scenic outpourings, The Big Country is nonetheless armed with a serviceable, adult western yarn.
Finely crafted, though, with some marvellous camerawork (Franz Planer), an outstanding performance from Heston, and a vague message about violence predictably underscored by a marathon fist-fight between Peck and Heston. [31 Aug 2005]
Godawful allegorical western from the height of the cold war (1958), with lanky Yankee Gregory Peck caught between two superpower ranchers who are fighting it out over water rights. Directed by William Wyler in that glassy, studied way of his that gives craftsmanship a bad name.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 4 User Ratings
7.5
100% Positive
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
0% Mixed
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
0% Negative
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 4 User Ratings
7.5
100% Positive
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
0% Mixed
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
0% Negative
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
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Awards
Academy Awards, USA
• 1 Win & 2 Nominations
Golden Globes, USA
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
Laurel Awards
• 2 Nominations
