The Big Country

1958

Action / Drama / Romance / Western

19
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 91% · 12 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 91% · 5K ratings
IMDb Rating 7.9/10 10 23825 23.8K

epic love triangle parent child relationship ranch honor fistfight

Plot summary

Retired wealthy sea captain Jim McKay arrives in the Old West, where he becomes embroiled in a feud between his future father-in-law, Major Terrill, and the rough and lawless Hannasseys over a valuable patch of land.

Director

William Wyler Photo
William Wyler

Top cast

Carroll Baker Photo
Carroll Baker as Patricia Terrill
Chuck Hamilton Photo
Chuck Hamilton as Party Guest
Shailar Coby Photo
Shailar Coby as Buck Hannassey
Chuck Hayward Photo
Chuck Hayward as Rafe Hannassey
720p.BluRay 1080p.BluRay
1.35 GB
1280*544
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
2 hr 46 min
Seeds 10
2.63 GB
1920*816
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
2 hr 46 min
Seeds 13

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by louro 9 / 10

One of my Favorites

I love movies, and this is as close to perfect, as it gets. First of all can, you imagine a movie with such a cast. Heston, Peck, Ives, Bickford, Connor, Baker, and Jean Simmons ( one of my favorite actors ). Throw in the scenery, the incredible musical score, and a plot with romance, and minimal violence, and you have a classic. On a home widescreen with the volume high, I am sure even compared to todays movies it is entertaining and ageless. As a footnote, I saw this movie years ago and it stuck in my mind. One day while listening to CBC radio on a call in request segment someone called in and asked for the theme from Big Country. It stirred me to track down a copy of the movie. I also like the story about Heston thinking of turning it down ( An Actor's Life ) since his part was secondary. His agent said are you nuts to turn down Willy Wyler. This movie led Wyler to cast him in Ben Hur.
Reviewed by skoyles 10 / 10

One of the greatest Westerns; one of the greatest movies

A masterpiece, pure and simple. I saw "The Big Country" when It came out and I was in my very early teens. I thought it was over at the one hour thirty-nine minute mark; it was the longest motion picture I had ever seen. And I could not appreciate it at the time. Oh, I liked Peck's character very much but missed all the amazing nuances of the complex characters, for this is not only a Western but also a capital "R" Romance, a study in loyalties (most clearly seen in Heston's role. Is this his finest performance? Ives won the Oscar, and deservedly so, but Conners never again came close to the talent he showed as Buck, and Bickford crowned his long career in this triumphant human drama of love, family, power, blood, money and land. The true star of this wonderful motion picture is actually the title character: it is about "The Big Country". It is the West. It does not matter if it be Texas or Alberta; it could as easily have been oil rather than cattle (as was attempted not nearly so well in "Giant"); or it could have been gold (as in the inferior "Pale Rider"): Wyler here captures the essence of the West in a pre-Leone Shakespearean human epic of the West.
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