The Big Country
Short description
Set in the late nineteenth century, The Big Country follows James McKay, a wealthy sea captain from the East who travels west to marry Patricia Terrill, the daughter of a powerful rancher. McKay arrives expecting a quiet wedding but finds himself in the middle of a long-running dispute between Major Henry Terrill and the Hannassey clan over access to water for their cattle. The land at the center of the quarrel belongs to Julie Maragon, and both sides want it. McKay's calm, peaceable manner puzzles the local ranchers, and Patricia herself is disappointed by his refusal to take part in their violent ways, while the ranch foreman Steve Leech resents him from the start.
William Wyler directed the film, the seventeenth of the twenty-two features he made. It came between Friendly Persuasion in 1956 and Ben-Hur in 1959. Gregory Peck leads the cast as McKay and also produced, alongside William Wyler and Robert Wyler. Jean Simmons, Carroll Baker, Charlton Heston, Burl Ives and Charles Bickford appear in supporting roles, and the screenplay was written by Robert Wilder, James R. Webb and Sy Bartlett.
The film was released in August 1958 and took in about four million dollars worldwide. On IMDb it holds a rating of 7.9 from roughly 24,000 votes, and on TMDB 7.6 from over 400 votes, while the critics' rating stands at 7.5 from twelve reviews.
What's left behind the scenes
- Filming on the movie had such a depressing effect on Jean Simmons (1929-2010) that for many years after its completion, she refused to even talk about it. In one interview in the late 1980s, she said that filming was simply unbearable because, as soon as the actors learned their lines for the next day's shooting, they were brought a revised script and had to sit up all night learning the new version of their lines, and then in the morning they were given yet another rewritten script, and this happened constantly.
- Gregory Peck (1916-2003) and director William Wyler (1902-1981) became friends several years before the start of work on this film. This happened during the filming of the comedic melodrama "Roman Holiday" (Wyler, 1953). Although the actor and director were friends, this did not prevent them from constantly arguing and quarreling. After one such argument, Peck simply walked off the set, and Wyler angrily declared to reporters that he would never work with Peck again in his life. Peck and Wyler reconciled three years later, but the director kept his word and never worked with Peck again.
Similar movies
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
