I love a good Western. There's just something about a Western that makes you feel all rough and tough and ready to set off on a horse, with your hat on and your guns blazing. And of all my favorite Westerns, I absolutely adore "The Big Country". It's a movie I watch regularly, and it just gets my blood pumping, from the very beginning strains of Jerome Moross's masterful accompaniment and the first shot of the wheels of the stagecoach and the hooves of the horses pulling it. I just love it.
Directed by William Wyler, "The Big Country" stars Greg Peck as a former ship's captain, who comes West to marry his intended, Carroll Baker. Right away, his Eastern sensibilities bring him into conflict with his future father-in-law, local cattle baron Charles Bickford, and ranch foreman Chuck Heston (who also happens to be in love with Baker). It seems that Bickford is locked in a feud with another rancher, Burl Ives, and both of them are eager to gain control of the only available local water source, The Big Muddy River. The river happens to run through a ranch owned by Jean Simmons, and she maintains the peace by allowing both of them access. When she decides to sell the Big Muddy to Greg Peck, the bullets and the fists start flying.
