What an unexpected treat I had this evening. Turner Classic Movies ran The Big Country, beautifully restored by the Academy Film Archives.
I was 15 when the movie was released in 1958, and it has been a favorite ever since. I was crazy about horses, westerns, and the West and this movie had it all. Not the least was the country itself, vast open miles of prairie so typical of the movie’s Texas setting and my Oklahoma home.
The score sings the grandeur of big country and always transports me instantly to that time and place — both the Old West and my childhood.
Willa Cather described the vastness of the Great Plains:
Elsewhere the sky is the roof of the world; but here the earth was the floor of the sky. The landscape one longed for when one was away, the thing all about one, the world one actually lived in, was the sky, the sky!
I remember seeing The Big Country on TV with my mom as a kid. My mom was a real western fanatic. Great Flick! Hopefully, I’ll get to see it again.
Check the TCM schedule. They may run it again this week. I’ve seen it a few times over the years, but this restoration, on HDTV was really wonderful.