The Best Old Movies on a Big Screen This Week: NYC Repertory Cinema Picks, October 7-13
The Big Country (1958)
Directed by William Wyler
Wyler used to joke that he spent the early part of his life thinking up new ways for people to fall off horses. He was one of the few people who intimately understood the function Westerns could serve and The Big Country is truly one of the best. Gregory Peck finds himself caught between feuding clans when he marries into the wealthier of the two. His zen negotiation tactics don’t sit well with the hot-blooded denizens of this fabled land. Wyler paints the West like he knew that no one had seen it look quite this spectacular, and his cast simmer like frying eggs under the sprawling sky and their insurmountable blood hatred. It’s the Seven Samurai of westerns (more so than that film’s plodding remake The Magnificent Seven) and it uses the sheer power of the land to strip away the masks men wear to appear strong. Scout Tafoya (October 13, 7:30pm, at Light Industry)