1957 Directed by Gordon Douglas
Back home in Texas following the Civil War, former Confederate officer Chad Morgan (Alan Ladd) leads a cattle drive to Missouri, assuring fellow ranchers that their stock will bring $10 a head at auction. Instead, ruthless cattle baron Brog (Anthony Caruso) has scared off all competition and offers much less.
Orizzonti lontani, Grandes horizontes, Herrscher über weites Land, Les loups dans la vallée, Büyük Arazi, El gran país
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Los Angeles, California
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USA
Director Gordon Douglas helms this Western from 1957 that has Alan Ladd, Virginia Mayo, and Edmond O'Brien in the leading roles. The tale of a former Confederate officer who leads a cattle drive with fellow ranchers, from Texas to Missouri, they hope to strike it rich by selling their herds for $20 dollars a head. Unfortunately for Ladd's Chad Morgan, a ruthless cattle baron has scared off any competition from the auction, and offers a take-it-or-leave-it $1.50 dollar a head, which angers Chad's fellow cattlemen, but faced with earning nothing at all, they reluctantly agree to sell after Brog (Anthony Caruso), puts a bullet in one of Chad's companions. It'll be just the start of something bigger, with Chad's partners…
Alan Ladd brings the sensitive man that can handle himself (and a bunch of cattle), Edmond O'Brien brings the reformed man, and Virginia Mayo exceeds the melodrama of any three k-drama queens. Anthony Caruso is the face you want to punch. Never seen a Swede this far south of Minnesota, but it is The Big Land.
The 1950s, Pt. III: 61/100
1957 Ranked
If you have seen any western ever, you have seen The Big Land. In fact, it nicely combines a few familiar elements around a central story. Chad Morgan (Alan Ladd) is a cattle driver bringing a herd from Texas to Missouri, only to find local cattle buyer Brog (Anthony Caruso) offering just $1.50/head as opposed to the $20/head expected. Sticking around to gather the pieces of his life, he teams up with local drunk Joe Jagger (Edmond O’Brien) with the pair combining for a bold idea: have the railroad build a spur line in Kansas where Morgan can bring in cattle to market for 6 months a year and wheat farmers can bring…
Watched this with my Dad (8 years deep in an Alzheimer’s diagnosis) who has been telling me it’s the best western ever for the last 9 months or so. After watching it and discussing with my mom, we’re pretty sure he meant The Big Country. If he meant this one then he was WAY wrong. It’s fine, but JUST fine. Alan Ladd was a big hero of his in early life, so maybe it’s just about nostalgia.
The story is straightforward, the alcoholic subplot not nearly as well handled here as in Rio Bravo, and for me this is absolutely forgettable.
Except, that I spent the afternoon watching with my Dad when he’d said that he wanted us to. That’s rare enough these days to get two stars all on its own.
I think Edmond O'Brien is an underrated actor, and he is excellent in this one. He's a heartbreaker as an alcoholic.
Alan Ladd plays his usual western character whose popularity ebbs and flows, and he's great.
The WarnerColor is beautiful and I gotta love the funny little kids.
In 1953 Alan Ladd starred in Shane which some people have called the greatest Western movie. Four years later, Ladd stars in The Big Land. The film doesn't measure up to Shane but it still has the same star and Ladd's character is not too different from his leading role in Shane.
The Big Land is about hope and aspirations. A group of farmers get together to build a town so that a railroad spur can be built. With the railroad they can all become more profitable so they work together in peace and harmony. Edmond O'Brien plays Alan Ladd's partner and architect for the city. He is a recovering alcoholic. This is the only Western that I have seen…
one day I won’t have to wait forty minutes for the lead actress to show up but apparently today is not that day.
Edmond O'Brien gets the Dean Martin role and Alan Ladd plays a narcoleptic variation of the John Wayne character in this rote precursor to Rio Bravo. The failure of the whiskey-soaked gun play that follows to achieve anything near the feeling of serene euphoria perfected by Hawks is largely a result of director Gordon Douglas being unable to assume an attitude of benign indifference to the mechanics of plot - the movie always seems to be angling for a destructive set-piece that will bring a feeling of latent danger to the shopworn details of the movie's thumbnail West, while every clumsily brutal gesture threatens to add vitalizing sadism to the mix, only for the movie to withdraw back into a…
With a plot very similar to George Stevens' "Shane", Gordon Douglas' "The Big Land" demonstrates the director's ability to transform familiar stories into captivating films.
