True and False Masculinity in ‘The Big Country’

The award-winning 1958 epic features sweeping cinematography, an all-star cast, and an impressive presentation of what makes a man truly manly.

James McKay (Gregory Peck) refrains from reactivity in his mature approach to conflict, in "The Big Country." United Artists

NR | 2h 46min | Western | 1958

“There’s some things that a man has to prove to himself alone, not to anyone else.” In the 1958 Western film “The Big Country,” lanky James McKay (Gregory Peck) quietly utters these words to his fiancée when she doesn’t understand why he refused to prove his horsemanship skills on an unbroken stallion and, later, fight a man who called him a liar.