When McKay first arrives in town and meets Julie at the gate, some object (boom mic?) is visible above their heads (center screen).
(This is noticeable in the mid-90s laser disc release and was corrected for the 2001 DVD so the boom doesn't show.
) Towards the end of the scene where McKay is learning to ride the bucking horse he is thrown from the horse, lands, removes the straw from his hair and then removes the straw from his hair again when he is helped up.
When Steve Leech first picks up Jim McKay in the buckboard he drives past Buck Hannassey and gang standing outside the saloon mocking Steve.
The sun is nearly down as the shadows are very long.
Steve then drives around the corner to Julie's house and now the sun is directly overhead.
There are two kinds of mouth pieces cowboys use to handle a horse.
In the scene where James McKay keeps on mounting and falling from that horse Thunder, sometimes the horse is using a "bridle" and sometimes he's using a "brake".
During Buck's dying scene, Hennessey is heard saying "damn your soul" but his lips move to "damn you".
As Steve and the major ride into Blanco canyon, Steve's bandanna is tied over his right shoulder, he looks back to see riders coming and it is over his left shoulder.
In the scene where Gregory Peck first visits Jean Simmons on the "Big Muddy" property and they gaze across the river, a long string of tall high voltage electrical towers can be seen arrayed against the most distant (California) hilltops.
They are seen again in a later scene shot from a similar angle.
The plot of "The Big Country" takes place in the 1800's.
Just before the duel between McKay and Buck Hannassy, Leech says to the Major that they haven't heard a single shot.
Yet Rufus Hannassy shot at Buck to prevent him shooting an unarmed man not five minutes earlier.
In the barn scene, Alfonso Bedoya puts a blanket on the horse.
The horse promptly turns his head and pulls off the blanket.
Gregory Peck can be seen suddenly turning away from the camera, and putting his hand over his mouth to suppress a laugh.
The S-shaped portion of the canyon where Hannassey's men trap Terrill and his ranch hands between barriers is the same location (supposedly further down the canyon) where Terrill later walks to confront Hannassey.
A large round, white boulder can be seen half-way up the middle of the far canyon wall in all of the aerial shots and over Gregory Peck's head in the final ground-level shot when the shoot-out concludes.
When Rufus crashes the party and dares the Major to shoot him, he takes three steps down the stairs and is directly in front on the Major.
When he turns to leave he takes ten steps just to get back to the stairs.
However, since he walks past the major to leave through another door, he actually never returns to the same path on which he entered.
When McKay is pulled off the carriage by the Hannassey's, the rifle appears in McKay's hands.
When McKay asks Ramon for advice about riding Thunder, McKay's right hand shifts position between shots.
At 1:47:23, Ramon takes his hat off with his left hand, then with his right, then has it in his left.
During passenger unloading from the stage, the little girl in the pink dress gets off the stage twice.
When Steve Leech (Charlton Heston) starts out to catch the major, the sky is deep blue and clear, but when he catches him just seconds later, it's a cloudy sky.
Steve's bandana is also tied differently.
Clearly the scene was shot in more than one take.
I first saw "The Big Country" at a drive-in around 1961 sitting in the back seat of our family's sedan. The view from there was the equivalent of sitting in a movie theatre behind three fat men wearing sombreros.
Simply one of the best westerns ever made, if not the best. Dazzling cinematography and a simple story that enchants for its near on 3 hours.
It was Sam Peckinpah who, following the massive and controversial success of his epic and violent western THE WILD BUNCH in 1969, said: "The Western is a universal framework on which it is possible to comment on today." That approach can be said to have started in the 1950s with the more topical adult westerns like HIGH NOON and SHANE, and which greatly expanded into the 1960s, culminating with Peckinpah's masterpiece near that decade's end.
Often overlooked by classic fans, even those with a Western bent, TBC is not your typical sagebrush saga for it runs wide and deep. It's also a long one, projecting for the good part of 3 hours.
Peck's sons should have been given bigger roles but Peck alone is awesome.
One of those classic movies that cling to the heart.I saw it on the big screen over 47 years ago and still i find it entertaining me all the the time.
Forget the nonsense about this movie being a left-wing allegory of the Cold War. If you're like me you're heartily sick of the left's mendacity on the whole issue, making movies &c.
Peaceful Jim McKay (Gregory Peck) is a wealthy shipping line owner from the east. He has just arrived to marry fiancée Pat Terrill (Carroll Baker), and lands himself in the middle of a land war in the west.
That scene is fantastic. It's gritty, sweaty and suspenseful.
