Hi Timshell, but with Heston-Baker - it's one-sided! Heston sure wants her - and is protective of her - but she really wants nothing to do with him. I think that Peck and Simmons have it all over Heston-Baker as a couple in that movie.
I like The Big Country very much (but not for its over the top ending). I like its great sympathy for Chuck Connors (otherwise the villain of the film). Wyler has an appreciation for his character's masculine vigorous spirits, his exuberance. There's a joy the movie takes in that early scene when Connors and his brothers are showing off on their horses - and a sympathy for Connors in his dealings with Burl Ives. Connors gives one of the better portrayals of an ignorant, conceited virile male I've ever seen.
And the film's portrayal of Charlton Heston's character - is GREAT! Again, Wyler shows the character great sympathy - we understand him completely - and feel deeply when after having squelched the disturbed feelings of his ranch hands over his boss's tactics - Heston finds it harder and harder to defend and follow his leader - the man he's always thought of as his father. It's like what I imagine Heston would have looked like, spoken, felt like - if he'd been a U.S. Senator (as so often he was urged to run for office to become) reluctantly grudgingly evolving to vote for conviction of President Nixon on the impeachment charges.
Of course it's Burl Ives who almost steals the movie! Great story, wonderful music, great narrative to the plot, wonderful acting - I love it.
Many have said it was an allegory of the Cold War - but I don't think so. There was no real "Big Muddy" in Europe - neither the USSR nor America was yearning to get Finland or Austria (the only real equivalents of The Big Muddy) on their side. Otherwise, the two sides were simply lined up and opposing each other.
But I think the movie is a metaphor - for the very area where Wyler grew up - as a German speaker in largely German speaking Alsace - part of Germany when Wyler was growing up - but of course as every Alsatian knew, it was coveted by France - in fact Frenchmen burned for its return - until it was recovered in 1919 - and lost again to Germany for several years in 1940. I can easily imagine the story appealing to Wyler - with France as the civilized family and the Germans seen as the uncivilized family.
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