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Holistic Guidance - The Big Country
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List Price: $14.98
Our Price: $9.99
Your Save: $ 4.99 ( 33% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD)
Starring: Gregory Peck, Jean Simmons, Carroll Baker, Charlton Heston, Burl Ives
Directed By: William Wyler
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 9780792849230
Format: Anamorphic
ISBN: 079284923X
Label: MGM (Video & DVD)
Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD)
Number Of Items: 1
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen
Publisher: MGM (Video & DVD)
Region Code: 1
Release Date: 2001-03-20
Running Time: 167
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Theatrical Release Date: 1958-10-01
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Editorial Reviews:
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One of Hollywood's greatest directors teams with a cast of incredible screen legends for this bold,sweeping tale of a ship's captain who ventures west to find a hotbed of jealousy, hatred and dangerous rivalries. As the reluctant hero is thrust into the maelstrom, he must summon all of his resolveto save not only his own life, but also the life of the woman he loves. Four-time Academy AwardÂ(r) winner* William Wyler directs this action-packed adventure that triumphs as "a work of art" (Motion Picture Herald). Starring Gregory Peck, Charlton Heston, Jean Simmons, Chuck Connors and Burl Ives (in an OscarÂ(r)-winning** performance), this magnificently entertaining epic will take your breath away with unbridled suspense, exhilarating excitement and explosive drama on a grand scale.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Inferior quality DVD
Comment: I bought this movie because it ia my favorite western, however after watching it without any problems, it will no longer play. It was handled with the utmost care, no scratches, didn't touch surface, next time I inserted it, just would not load. All of my other DVD's work fine.The Big Country
Customer Rating:
Summary: Eastern gentleman tries to tame the wild west
Comment: There have been many fine reviews of this film already. Thus, I will largely confine my remarks to one of the themes of the film: the incompatabilities that most contributed to the breakup of marriage plans between Jim McKay (Gregory Peck) and Pat Terrill(Carroll Baker). But, first, I would like to point out that, although not hinted in the film, the feud between the Hannasseys and Terrills was likely rooted in ethnic and religious bigotry. Hannassey is an Irish name, whereas the Terrills were most likely of English ancestry. This fits the general perception of Irish immigrants as uncouth ruffians.
Pat soon figured out that Jim was determined to be his own man in this big country, not just her father's puppet. Strike one against him. She also discovered that Jim was too aloof to the rough and tumble western ranch culture for her liking. Not only did he show minimal hostility toward the rough hazing reception by the Hannassey "boys", he refused to cooperate with the baiting challenges of riding a notoriously untamable horse or brawling with Steve(Charleton Heston), who also had the hots for Pat. The latter 2 challengers he eventually met, but only when there was no crowd to make him a spectacle, win or lose. Unlike some reviewers, I don't see Jim's aloofness from these challenges as necessasarily a sign of superior nobleness. Rather, they seem prudent responses. Also, he was much influenced by his father's death in a duel over what, in retrospect, was a rather trifling matter. It was prudent to try not to show great fear nor anger when faced with a gang of ruffian hazers in an unfamiliar territory and culture. It was prudent not to risk making fool of himself before a crowd, including his fiancee, in trying to ride a horse hinted at as being very wild, nor was it gentlemanly to engage in a fistfight over the seemingly trivial question of whether he had been lost in his solo survey of the ranch. Later, when learning of the kidnaping of his new love, Julie(Jean Simmons) by the Hannasseys, he ignored prudence and played the role of potential hero and peacemaker or dead man. The lines between courage and foolhardiness and between cowardice and prudence will always be blurred in certain circumstances.
Various reviewers have made the point that a fundamental difference between Jim and Pat was that Jim believed that what he was really like and had accomplished was more important, whereas Pat believed how others saw you was more important than what you were really like. The film biases our opinion to see Jim's ethos as the better of the two, but remember that Peck was a coproducer of the film. As I see it, in the real world, both are important. Reputation often makes the difference between success and failure in the business world, whether based on fact or fiction. However, Pat should have understood that Jim had prudent reasons, consistent with his aloofish personality, for responding to these challenges as he did. Afterall, as an ex-sea captain, Jim was used to exhibiting a degree of aloofness. Interestingly, when it came to sharing water rights that he now technically owned, something really important to all his neighbors, Jim was not aloof, declaring all neighboring parties had equal access to his water as they had under Julie's father. Julie, as a non-cattlewoman heir to her father's land, had been too weak and too connected with the Terrills to fully enforce the tradition of equal water access. Hopefully, now in league with Jim and presumably disconnected with the Terrills as well as the Hennasseys, the pair would be strong enough to enforce their critical rule.
Customer Rating:
Summary: My purchase of Big Country
Comment: The Movie, The Big Country, one of my all time favorites, The price was Great and I received it much sooner than I had expected.
Thanks, Carolyn
Customer Rating:
Summary: One of the best in the westerm genre.
Comment: With as title like this, you would expect a big cast of big actors, and this film delivers. It gets center stage in my DVD cabinet, as one of my favorite westerns, and near the top of my alltime favorite movies.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A terrific story and a great family film.
Comment: This is a terrific movie and is a fabulous family film. Almost all of the left-wing allegory of the Cold War that William Wyler et al intended in the film is lost to history and will only be noticed by those looking for it. The cast is so fabulous that Charlton Heston is a secondary star in this film. He plays Steve Leech, the foreman of the Terrill Ranch and was raised there since a boy by Major Terrill (played by Charles Bickford).
Gregory Peck plays James McKay, a ship's captain who has come to this "Big Country" to marry the Major's daughter, Patricia (pronounced Patreesha by the Major) played by Caroll Baker. McKay immediately finds himself embroiled in the fight between the poorer but more numerous Hannasseys and the Terrills, who consider themselves more deserving and elite. Each side wants another ranch owned by the local school teacher Julie Maragon (Jean Simmons) because it has the only water in the region. Her family has had the ranch since the family was given it by Mexico generations previously. One of the people McKay has trouble with is the foreman Leech because Leech wants Patricia, but can't have her (since he is a hand and not good enough).
McKay is bewildered by the fight and everyone fails to read McKay correctly. They see his being unwilling to fight and escalate trouble as cowardice and his shrewdness in not being duped into riding a horse that would throw him as timidity. McKay goes about doing what he thinks best when he thinks best and this causes him some trouble, but he has a higher goal in mind. Of course things culminate in a large conflict, but not in the way you might predict and even if you do, it is handled very well.
Burl Ives plays Rufus, the head of the Hannassey clam He is so compelling on the screen that he won the Oscar for best supporting actor in 1958 for this role. Chuck Connors (only 11 years Ives junior) plays his oldest son, Buck. I will leave the rest of the plot for you to discover.
Enjoy it as a straight story and a Western of a different flavor rather than looking for some silly allegory.
Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI
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