***SPOILERS*** This story follows Donald Hamilton's basic premise: intellect, courage, and perseverance will win the day. Mr. Hamilton is the author of the really great action/thriller series of books about a character named Matt Helm. Now, younger readers will probably never appreciate these book as much as us old farts do, but trust me they were great. The difference lies in how Hollywood dealt with the control of the story by the screenwriter. THIS movie is one of the best conversions (of western stories) ever made. Two others are Elmore Leonard's "Hombre", and Louis Lamour's "The Quick And The Dead". All good reads, but when shown on the screen, they are different and better than the author had originally produced. This is very rare, indeed, because usually is it exactly the opposite. Mr. Helm's character Matt Helm is transformed from a serious assassin to a drunken clown, complete with circus acts. By the way, Dean Martin was a great actor who could play great parts if the were given him. P.S. Eastwood would have made a perfect Matt Helm. Enough griping.In this story Gregory Peck plays Jim McKay, a fellow who is a very wealthy shipping magnate who comes west to marry a beautiful, but spoiled, and flawed, girl, Pat Terrill, played perfectly by Carol Baker. On the way, he is misunderstood, and misinterpreted to the point of deadly stupidity. Burl Ives plays Rufus Hannassey, A barrel of a man who has without a doubt one of the soliloquys I've ever heard. Short, sweet, eloquent, to the point, and daring. I liked him immediately. Chuck Connors plays his son - a cowardly bully who's hobby is probably pulling wings off of flies. Jean Simmons is the darkly beautiful Julie Maragon, the REAL love interest. The fatal flaw in not understanding someone plays out to a tragic, but hopeful end, in this almost Shakespearean drama. There is plenty of action, but, in the end, it is applied intelligence that wins the day - as it should be. The battle between brute force and brains is played out every day in life, and in this movie the right side wins. I rank this as one of the very best westerns (and movies) ever made. It is a 10 plus.

A ship's captain ventures out west in pursuit of his intended bride, only to get caught up in a feud between rival ranch families.Epics were popular in the latter 50's, including, for example, Giant (1955), Raintree County (1957) and this one (1958). Typically, they involved A-productions with headliner casts and sweeping dramatic canvasses. Of course, as epics, run-times usually exceeded 2-hours plus, so the challenges to both filmmakers and viewers were obvious.To me, this epic western is as good as any from that cowboy-obsessed period. The secret, I think, lies in an unusually persuasive male cast, and a cleverly suspenseful screenplay. I don't think I've seen more broad-shouldered male leads in one movie than are featured here with Peck, Heston, and Connors. Add the commanding Ives and Bickford as feuding patriarchs, and the sum-total makes for an unusually compelling male cast. Then split them all into rival families with outsider Peck caught in the middle, and the subplots almost smolder with tension. And, oh yes, mustn't forget the ladies, Baker and Simmons. Baker seems a little too Hollywood to be convincing, but both hang in there.Peck's character McKay amounts to an interesting variation among western stereotypes. He's very much self-enclosed. First and foremost, he must answer to his own self-imposed rules no matter how others might view him. As a result, he appears a coward by refusing to respond to provocations like being roughed up or insulted. Thus his apparent pacifism in the face of personal abuse implies a strict inner code and not simply a lack of guts as we eventually find out. Then too, it's this independence of mind plus a sense of humane values that enables him to work out a solution to the debilitating feud over the watering hole. Happily, the results show that Peck is darn near perfect in his under-stated role.Anyway, it really is a big country on screen, a boggling stretch of prairie and sky as far as the eye can see. From the sheer emptiness, it looks like location for cast and crew was not much fun. And mustn't forget the film score, which, as I recall, made it onto the pop-charts of the day. In fact, hearing again the distinctive opening melody brought back welcome memories. Speaking of memories, who would have thought Ben Hur would make such a delectable villain, but Heston did. Same goes for The Rifleman Connors whose menacing squint is a real grabber. I was hoping for a face-off between the two brawny hunks.All in all, the various threads weave into an effective whole, while cast and visuals add up to a highly entertaining package, despite the lengthy run-time.

The law of averages makes it inevitable than any major performer, whether vocalist (Sinatra) or actor (Michael Caine) if sufficiently prolific will turn in a percentage of dross. Ironically Gregory Peck, one of the finest and most underrated of major actors, turned out two of the most disappointing big-budget, all-star cast, 'westerns' in a tad over a decade, Duel In The Sun and this one, The Big Country. Though far and away the best thing in it Peck is hamstrung by the essential dullness of the story and pedestrian directing of William Wyler (who, together with Peck and Audrey Hepburn) had hit one out of the park only five years earlier with Roman Holiday. It's just hard to work up a sweat about Peck's non- conformist secure-in-his-own-skin role when the best 'all-male' opposition they can come up with for him to clash with giant Redwood Charlton Heston flaunting his Forestry Commission training in every scene and strewing the set with sawdust. From the comments I've read here I'm in the minority and not for the first time. Sue me.

I've always liked Gregory Peck, and I think he's great here, but it's Charlton Heston's nuanced performance that prompts these comments. I've stated elsewhere (in my comments for TREASURE ISLAND, for instance) that Charlton Heston was more than capable of playing a believable Bad Guy and that he could've made a career out of doing just that had he so chosen; and one of his finest turns came in THE BIG COUNTRY. Shakespearean in scope, THE BIG COUNTRY features Heston as the ranch foreman Steve Leech. It's a nuanced performance, with Leech at first coming off as little more than a hard-driving b****** with a thing for the woman who would become Peck's girl- but the character goes through a very dramatic change that showcases Heston's range: the "Bad" Guy morphs into a Not So Bad Guy After All. The times Heston impresses on screen are about as numerous as the films he starred in (or even co-starred in, or had what amounted to a bit part in). The man was a consummate professional and it's always a pleasure to watch him work. There'll never be another like him.