BY JOHN
M. WHALEN
“A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do.†That’s the
stock phrase you hear in most western films. But in William Wyler’s sprawling,
richly produced western extravaganza, “The Big Country†(1958), Jim McKay (Gregory
Peck) spends nearly three hours NOT doing what a man’s gotta do. And he reaps
the scorn of just about everybody, including his fiancé Patricia Terrill (Caroll
Baker), who lives on a gigantic Texas ranch with her father Major Henry Terrill
(Charles Bickford). McKay is a retired ship’s captain from back east, and he’s
come west to marry Pat and start a new life. But you know right off it’s not
going to be easy when he steps off the stagecoach dressed like a dude and ranch
foreman Steve Leech (Charlton Heston) advises him that he doesn’t think it’s a
good idea for him to go around wearing that funny looking derby. Sure enough when
he and Patricia ride their buckboard out to the Terrill ranch some rough
cowboys, known as the Hannasseys, chase him down and pull that hat right off
his noggin and give him a bit of a roughing up. When McKay doesn’t get all
riled up about it, Patricia suspects her new fiancé might be a little bit
chicken.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, when Leech sets McKay up to
be humiliated by riding a killer bronc, and McKay declines the invitation, once
again Patricia is disappointed. Everybody goes through that initiation, she
tells him. McKay rides off and goes to visit Julie Maragon (Jean Simmons), who
owns a valuable piece of land, and doesn’t come back until next day. Leech
tells the major McKay was lost—“the lostest man I ever saw,†thus causing McKay to call him out as a liar.
Now in these parts when a man calls you a liar you either go for your gun or
start swinging a fist or two. But instead McKay tells him he doesn’t intend to
let him draw him into a confrontation with horses, guns, or fists. Well, that
tears it. Pat can’t have any respect for a man who won’t stand up for himself.
McKay thinks it’s time to go back to town and rethink this marriage business.
All this takes place against the backdrop of a larger
conflict between the major and his next door neighbor, Rufus Hannassey (Burl
Ives) and his three sons, including the wild and vicious Buck (Chuck Connors).
They’ve been squabbling over the Big Muddy and water rights for years. Terrell
has the upper hand. He’s got the larger spread, more men and money, while the
Hannasseys live in relative squalor on an arid piece of dirt with little water.
The major uses the Hannassey boys’ hazing of McKay as a pretext to ride out to
their spread and teach them a lesson, which includes shooting holes in the
Hannassey’s water tower and later driving Hannassey’s cattle away from the
water of the Big Muddy.
“The Big Country†is based on a novel by pulp writer
Donald Hamilton, best-known for the Matt Helm books that were turned into Dean
Martin comedy/action flicks. (One of them, “The Wrecking Crew†with Sharon Tate
is featured in Quentin Tarantino’s “Once
Upon a Time in Hollywood.â€)_ But Wyler hired Quaker author Jessamyn West (“Friendly
Persuasionâ€) to write an adaptation that put pacifism front and center as the
central theme of the film. In 1958 the Cold War was in progress and the threat
of nuclear annihilation had everybody nervous. (It’s still a threat, but now we
have Netflix and binge-watching to keep us from thinking about it.) With “The
Big Country†Wyler tried to preach that there is a better way to solve disputes
other than by giving in to violence which can only end by wiping out
civilization. (“The Big Country†is the opposite of a Sam Peckinpah western,
where violence and destruction are portrayed as inevitable and ultimately cathartic.)
It’s an odd movie, in which most of the scenes are filled with tension and the
threat of violence, but fail to have a satisfactorily pay off. For example,
McKay walks away from the killer bronc, but later rides the horse when no one
is around to witness it except Ramon (Alfonso Bedoya), one of the Mexican ranch
hands. And when McKay decides to leave the ranch he wakes Leech up in the
middle of the night and fights him when no one is awake to see it. He makes the
point that he isn’t a coward, but doesn’t feel the need to prove it to anybody.