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Post by TheGoodMan19 on Jun 4, 2019 19:46:28 GMT
Never seems to make the "Greatest Westerns" list. To me, it's borderline. The plot is kind of weak, we seen the range war before. But there are some damned good acting in it. Burl Ives gets all the ink and a probable well deserved Oscar (he hammed it up a bit). I thought Jean Simmons and Carroll baker were wasted (Simmons, who I love was as out of place as John Wayne in Macbeth). But Peck, Heston, Bickford and Connors were brilliant. I think it's Charleton Heston's best performance. Chuck Connors also. It's not The Searchers, The Wild Bunch or Unforgiven but it's close.
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Post by wmcclain on Jun 4, 2019 21:52:34 GMT
The Big Country (1958), produced and directed by William Wyler. A grand, rich-looking western with several strong angles to it. We have the East vs West notions of law and justice. Sea captain Gregory Peck is aghast at the violent feuding between two powerful families. But is patriarch Charles Bickford wrong when he points out they have to enforce their own law on the frontier? You'd think Peck, used to long sea voyages, would understand that, but as a newcomer perhaps he sees opportunities for compromise more clearly. And he might be wiser and more just than the others. It is hard to control vigilante justice once it begins. There is also the contest of characters: between those whose courage must be publicly displayed, conforming to a social code, and those who follow conscience and an internal moral compass, regardless of public opinion. Ranch foreman Charlton Heston is the perfect example of the former: the tough and virtuous cowboy challenged by Peck's contrary example. Heston oozes masculine contempt for the rival who does not measure up. We quickly decide he is a better match for ranch daughter Carroll Baker, and he agrees. Apart from that, the setting is oddly domestic: the West has been settled and now it's struggles over water rights, property titles, love and marriage. The big ranch house with grand parties is a frontier fantasy. The story has more comedy than I remember. At 2 3/4 hours it takes some endurance to get through. A few "relationship" scenes could have been compressed. We have the big beatdown between Peck and Heston, then duel #1 between Peck and Connors, then a somewhat overblown duel between the old men. Chuck Connors was born to play villains; no way to remove than dangerous glint in his eyes. Burl Ives, Jean Simmons and Carroll Baker are all fine. Charles Bickford is irreplaceable as the hard, unsmiling patriarch. Alfonso Bedoya, who plays Ramón the stable boss, died eight days after finishing this film. The score is the traditional Copland-inspired Americana of the West. Filmed in Technirama. Available on Blu-ray. What a dull original poster for a Technicolor film.
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Post by mattgarth on Jun 5, 2019 0:18:19 GMT
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Post by kijii on Jun 5, 2019 0:54:34 GMT
Favorite scene -- the ranch hands who had abandoned boss Bickford as he enters Blanco Caynon rejoin him one by one. Well, you know mine. Heston and Peck fist fighting out in the moonlight with no audience there to see them. This is a fist fight that goes on and on and on..until they both basically fall over from exhaustion...and the fight actually sounded like a fit fight: flesh hitting flesh...
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Post by OldAussie on Jun 5, 2019 1:45:14 GMT
Favorite scene -- the ranch hands who had abandoned boss Bickford as he enters Blanco Caynon rejoin him one by one. Yep, great call. And it's my favourite Heston performance too.
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Post by TheGoodMan19 on Jun 5, 2019 2:19:27 GMT
Burl Ives crashing Charles Bickford’s party is my favorite scene. Ives might have been a bit hammy but he was good there. And the final scene with him and Chuck Connor
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Post by OldAussie on Jun 5, 2019 4:48:40 GMT
Ives had some great lines and made the most of them.
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Post by themanwithnoshame on Jun 5, 2019 5:01:46 GMT
Favorite scene -- the ranch hands who had abandoned boss Bickford as he enters Blanco Caynon rejoin him one by one. Well, you know mine. Heston and Peck fist fighting out in the moonlight with no audience there to see them. This is a fist fight that goes on and on and on..until they both basically fall over from exhaustion...and the fight actually sounded like a fit fight: flesh hitting flesh... Yeah, one epic fistfight.
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Post by mattgarth on Jun 5, 2019 5:02:14 GMT
Peck helpfully offers to show Ives how to load the dueling pistols, and an offended Burl responds:
"Teach your grandmother to suck eggs! I've been handling guns like this, flintlock and caplock, since before you were born!"
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Post by cynthiagreen on Jun 5, 2019 6:57:31 GMT
For me it one of the greatest - I prefer it to the others cited and of traditional classic westerns can only name RED RIVER as a superior one .....not sure THE OX BOW INCIDENT really a western.
Epic in scale and achievement - great score, terrific cast - not one slacker - and a great sense of having fun - with both Western tropes and the audience. "There have been better westerns, but it is difficult to think of many which have been more enjoyable" said Michael Parkinson.
And yes - that fist fight is usually what I think of first, although the Baker/Heston clinch, when the hoity toity land baron's daughter realises that the right man for her is one of the hired help, comes a close second. The "change partners" dance sequence is beautifully done, as the quartet of leads realign their romantic interests. The bucking bronco. The turning cartwheel as the familiar theme starts up. Ives' magnificent entrance at the party. The thundering hooves towards the finale. Peck & Simmons' quiet flirting at Big Muddy (or is it Little Muddy ? it has been a while - will dust it off at weekend -thanks). Simmons fending off Connors' unwanted attentions. Baker aggrieved that Peck turns the other cheek with Connors and his boys. So many memorable moments and highly rewatchable.
Heston was superb - and what a hottie here, but I like him equally in TOUCH OF EVIL, RUBY GENTRY and THE NAKED JUNGLE, so not sure I could choose a "best".
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Post by politicidal on Jun 5, 2019 14:34:36 GMT
7/10.
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Post by telegonus on Jun 6, 2019 6:53:12 GMT
Thanks for posting and for the link, Matt. Great scene, Blanco Canyon, with the music and movement perfectly orchestrated, yet done with some subtlety, allowed the viewer to think and breathe a little; not in yer face. I love it. While watching it I couldn't help but think that they couldn't do this today, and certainly not because we lack the technology. We lack the artistry. I wonder also whether younger audiences with "sit" for this, take it all in, as a seamless experience, without snarky comments.
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Post by hitchcockthelegend on Jun 6, 2019 10:43:38 GMT
I could have sworn I had already posted my review on this thread, I think I'm going crackers I'm not going to go on living in the middle of a civil war. Retired sea Captain James McKay (Gregory Peck) arrives in the sprawling land of the West to marry fiancée Patricia Terrill (Carroll Baker). With an amiable, almost pacifistic approach to life, McKay confounds the ranchers he is now mixing with. Particularly the Terrill ranch foreman Steve Leech (Charlton Heston) who takes an immediate dislike to him. Not only that but it seems that James has landed right in the middle of a family rivalry between the Terrill's and the Hannassey's: just as it's about to fully ignite into war. Directed by William Wyler (Ben-Hur/Mrs. Miniver), The Big Country is adapted from a short story called Ambush at Blanco Canyon that was written by Donald Hamilton. Beautifully photographed by Franz Planer on location at the Red Rock Canyon in Mojave, California and at the three-thousand acre Drais ranch in Stockton, the film is epic in many ways. Though the story, with its twin themes of violence begets violence and you don't have to act tough to be tough, is a thin one, it's given such an operatic make over by Wyler that it's not hard to be swept away by it all. Helped enormously by the afore mentioned Planer, music composer Jerome Moross, and an impressive and on form cast (Heston in superb tough guy mode and Burl Ives delivering a Oscar winning performance as head Hannassey patriarch Rufus), it's a big production in many ways. Overall, The Big Country sees a small story made big as it's told in an astutely classic style. With memorable acting, gorgeous scenery, big music and notable moments of action (a fist fight between Peck & Heston alone is epic and apparently took three days to get right) it's a must see for the Western enthusiast. 8/10
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Post by TheGoodMan19 on Jun 6, 2019 17:27:39 GMT
I remember seeing a reviewer (real one not some amateur doofus who thought The Hangover was robbed at Oscar time) who complained that Gregory Peck seemed out of place in TBC. Ummm, he was supposed to be out of place.
Dwight Eisenhower's favorite film, if I recall. Thought it was appropriate to mention, seeing what anniversary it is.
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Post by petrolino on Jun 7, 2019 23:43:40 GMT
This was my late aunt's favourite western. She loved the scope, religion and majesty. She was also a sucker for anything Gregory Peck.
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Post by teleadm on Jun 8, 2019 17:08:25 GMT
Love the theme music!
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Post by llanwydd on Jun 10, 2019 3:55:38 GMT
A movie guide I once owned called this an anti-western, whatever that means. Westerns are not one of my favorite film genres but I loved this one. Ives was great, Heston was great as always. Peck has done better but he played a very likeable character.
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