Directed by William Wyler
Starring Gregory Peck, Jean Simmons, Carroll Baker, Charlton Heston, Burl Ives, Charles Bickford, Chuck Connors
The Big Country (1958) is coming to Blu-Ray from Kino Lorber with a slew of extras — commentary, documentary, interviews, etc.
The cast is a great one. Burl Ives won an Oscar for his incredible, and incredibly mean, performance. But, to me, Chuck Connors steals the picture — he’s absolutely perfect in a complex, tragic role.
Franz F. Planer’s Technicolor and Technirama cinematography is beautiful, offering up stunning vistas that live up to the film’s title. The opening credits were created by Saul Bass, and the score by Jerome Moross is one of the best to ever grace a Western.
The old Blu-Ray was a huge improvement over the DVD, but it had some distortion problems. Let’s hope those are sorted out for this new one. And I hear the stereo tracks still haven’t turned up.
50 Westerns From The 50s. 
Sounds like the next best thing to my dream of someday seeing The Big Country on the big screen.
Ditto.
*sigh*, so I’ll just have to buy another copy of this movie 😉
Hmmmm…..I dunno I will pass on this one-the film has always,to me
seemed to be a Western for folks who normally don’t like Westerns.
Totally agree about Connors though.I don’t even have it on DVD I dislike
the film so much.
Frayling doing the commentary is another turn off.
Only plus factor (for me) is Larry Cohen on Chuck Connors.
as one of the extras.
I remember Larry telling Chuck that BRANDED was meant to reflect
McCarthyism and right winger Connors had him bounced from the show-
so that should be fun.
Still what do I know-I’m more excited about Kino’s THE HUNTING PARTY
than this,I mean Ollie,Hackman,L.Q.Jones,Mitchell Ryan and Rayford
Barnes in the same movie!
Speaking of Chuck,and Kino’s continued interests in the old United Artists
vaults I hope they give us Arnold Laven’s underrated GERONIMO on Blu
Ray-Chuck’s blue eyes aside I really like Laven’s film.Shot by the great
Alex Phillips in widescreen a huge plus.
I won’t be buying THE HUNTING PARTY .Cruelty to animals ( a cow getting it’s throat cut in the opening scene is not for me) and no I won’t be buying the UK release either with that scene cut.(no pun intended)
gcwe 1,
I don’t remember the scene from the UK cinema
release;then I wouldn’t because the scene was cut.
I wonder if they actually did this for real with Spain
not having a good record on ethical treatment of animals
in films. Some of the horse falls in Spaghetti Westerns are
incredibly brutal-but then again they are in vintage Hollywood
Westerns;trip wires and the like.
Didn’t Peckinpah actually have the chickens heads blown off
(with explosive charges) in PAT GARRETT &B BILLY THE KID.
John K ,I don’t know about that scene with the chickens in PAT GARRETT ,but it would be unfortunate if it did happen .I have a book about James Stewart and I seem to recall where he was one of the first actors who had concerns about using trip wires with horses .I seen your requests on Kino Lorber and one of them ,THE LAST COMMAND has English on the German release which I have.
Yesm the chickens in Pat Garrett really were explosively beheaded. As I recall the cast and crew ate them. If eating animals is against your beliefs I’m not going to start an argument about it, but really what happened is that some domesticated chickens were decapitated and eaten, which is the fate of domesticated chickens unless they are kept for eggs. I doubt they suffered any more than they would have had their heads been hacked off with a cleaver.
Tripping horses is a different matter and I agree that we should deplore it.
Chip ,I do eat meat and chicken and not an animal activist ,if those chickens didn’t suffer much then that’s fine ,it’s just unnecessary violence with animals that concerns me.
Hi Linnet, that’s a great line, “a Western for people who normally don’t like Westerns”. I don’t know if that applies to me for THE BIG COUNTRY, I have not seen it in a long time. and only remember it did not grab me. If an actual discussion ensues about the movie, instead of how great the Blu-Ray is, I’ll dig out my VHS copy from PBS and watch it, to follow along.
The Larry Cohen/Chuck Conners BRANDED story, I remember, was the one where Cohen was standing in the middle of the western street and Conners on horseback galloped at Cohen to make him jump aside. Cohen did not move! Conners rode around him. Cohen said Conners had a certain amount of respect for him, after that, for Cohen standing his ground. Actually Cohan was too startled to do anything.
Gee,thanks Bob-though I must say that I stole a line from john k
who said that about BUTCH CASSIDY & THE SUNDANCE KID many moons
ago on FWOTF.
The more I think about it the more I would like Kino to release Arnold
Laven’s GERONIMO with a Toby voice over.
So much to cover here especially on the eternally underrated Laven
and Alex Philipps.For example-WITHOUT WARNING (ultra cool unheralded
Noir) THE MONSTER THAT CHALLENGED THE WORLD-Pat Fielder,
Paul Landres,Tim Holt,LAST OF THE FAST GUNS,SIERRA BARON,
Chuck Connors-BRANDED-Larry Cohen-Levy Gardner Laven-
Levy Gardner Reynolds-BRANNIGAN-McQ-THE GLORY GUYS-Peckinpah-
and that’s just for starters-jeepers I have not even mentioned LGL’s
TV credits.Go Toby,GO!
Trivia Note: Larry Cohen wrote a comedy Western about a couple of
cowboys who inherit a run down ranch-he intended it to co star The Duke
and Clint. Wayne hated the thing but Clint loved it and tried to develop it
at Malpaso.Larry persuaded Michael Wayne to re-submit another draft
of the script to Duke-which he did while the pair were on a boat trip.
The Duke then threw the script overboard…”not that Goddamn thing
again!”
According to Kino the audio on this release will be the same as the one on the previous BLU RAY ,but someone commented on their Facebook page that they read a decade ago where the 6 track mag tracks were recovered in Germany .I’m not very tech minded ,but I presume they were talking about stereo .I don’t hold up too much hope for Kino chasing after these if they are still around.
Great review of Kino’s THE INDIAN FIGHTER over at
DVD Savant.
Glenn is happy with the picture quality and even happier
with Toby’s commentary-he loves the way Toby tends to
focus on the film rather than (unlike others) directing attention
to himself……amen.
Can’t wait for this to drop through my letterbox.
Glad to hear Glenn digs the commentary on The Indian Fighter. My wife helped out with the research and found a lot of great stuff about how the movie came together. I’d love to find out if Kirk Douglas ever checks it out, and what he thinks.
Toby Re Kirk Douglas — check with Alan Nevins at Renaissance Literary and Talent Management 323-848-8305 at P.O. Box17379 Beverly Hills, Ca 90209.
Returning to topic-though this animal rights in the movies
is an interesting diversion and perhaps should be carried further.
In vintage Westerns a horse was just a prop and treated as such.
In JESSE JAMES no horse is gonna make that jump-the poor critter was
forced into a greased schute and tipped into the water a long way down-
the footage of the stunt was re-used in Ray’s THE TRUE STORY OF
JESSE JAMES.
Good to hear about Jimmy Stewart-also Errol Flynn was very upset about
the amount of horses killed making THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE.
Flynn tried in vain to stop the carnage but the studio sent a second unit
to Mexico to continue filming- where anything goes.
Eastwood was also a champion of banning trip wires from his Westerns.
Anyway-back to Peck who starred in three of the most “overblown”
Westerns of all time DUEL IN THE SUN-THE BIG COUNTRY and the
lamentable McKENNA’S GOLD.
THE BRAVADOS is not perfect but better than those three.
THE BRAVADOS has just been released as a stunning region free
Blu Ray by Explosive Media.The gorgeous scenery looks jaw dropping
in high def.
THE BRAVADOS is nowhere good as THE GUNFIGHTER but for all it’s
flaws (the worst being Joan Collins) it’s still a compelling watch.
Felicia Farr in the Collins role would have raised the game of the film by a
long shot.
Chip- great to see you Chipping in (sorry!) in English.
While I prefer smaller films, The Big Country is one that has grown on me, thanks largely to folks on this blog. Ives and Connors alone are worth the price of admission.
The Gunfighter is a masterpiece, one of the key 50s Westerns. I’m also a fan of The Bravados.
I’ve never been able to make it through McKenna’s Gold. What a mess.
Hey Chip,
According to http://www.westernmovies.fr the excellent Elephant label
are going to release TAKE ME TO TOWN on Blu Ray in August.
I’m quiet excited about this-it’s a Douglas Sirk picture that I have
never seen-although I guess it’s more Americana than Western.
I DO wish Sidonis would stop putting those “forced” subtitles on their
DVD’s and Blu Rays-I just will not buy them because of this.
A film that has been discussed here before;Mark Stevens
austere GUN FEVER,is now reviewed on http://www.westernmovies.fr.
They seem to approve of the picture quality and the screengrabs show
the threadbare budget this piece of “pulp poetry” was given.
The French website notes this is,thus far the only Mark Stevens Western
released in France.
Were it not for Sidonis ghastly “forced subs” I’d buy this in a heartbeat.
CUSTER OF THE WEST,1967 is being released soon from Kino Lorber .Robert Ryan has a brief cameo which was done for free as a favour to the producer .
Even though I love Robert Shaw, I haven’t been able to make it through that movie.
Just straying off the dusty trail ,has anyone seen Robert Ryan’s last film THE ICEMAN COMETH .I’ve never seen it but the trailer looks good ,at 240 mins it’s a long film
THE ICEMAN COMETH is one of those oddball movies that you like for all the great actors and performances, but after you watch it you ask yourself ‘What in the hell was that about?” and then you wonder “how much pot and lsd was the producer on when he set up this movie?”.
I LOATHE Robert Shaw a B Movie actor who somehow ended up on
the A List.
As good as he was in FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE (and that’s where
he should have stayed) when he suddenly up-graded his attitude
and his performances became unbearable.
Has anyone seen the dreadful beyond belief A TOWN CALLED
BASTARD or that awful Swashbuckler thing he made.Shaw is terrible
in those films.At the time he was putting it around that he was a bigger
star than Paul Newman…what a jerk!
I only saw the Godawful pirate film ‘cos the support feature was
MUSTANG COUNTRY-a dumb-ass attempt by Universal to revive Fifties
double bills. OK MUSTANG COUNTRY was far from Joel’s best but the
Shaw claptrap made it look like RED RIVER.
There is some kudos in CUSTER OF THE WEST at having an ego maniac
playing an ego maniac-also the film re-teams Ryan with his THE
PROUD ONES co-star Jeff Hunter. Hey Kino when are you gonna
give us a Blu Ray of THE PROUD ONES a vastly underrated Western if
ever there was one.
Hi Linnet ,I agree with you about THE PROUD ONES being underrated ,so for all you BLU RAY fans I hope this does get released on that format ,but I wouldn’t hold my breath.I recently bought the double sided wide and full screen version which I should have bought in the first place .Robert Ryan is first rate in this