Customer Reviews

The Big Country

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Captain James McKay leaves the sea and goes west to claim his bride and make a new life. When he is taken to task by the locals, McKay quickly learns the rules of the game and makes his mark. This is Donald Hamilton action at his best and is not the typical "shoot-em-up" western. Great reading!

I bought this book because I have always liked the movie "The Big Country", and have been an avid reader of the Matt Helm Series, by this author, Donald Hamilton.

I anticipated a good, enjoyable book, but "The Big Country" exceeded my expectations. Everyone in the book was believable: I could understand why they behaved as they did (something that is not true in the movie, even though I love it!). As is usual, there were subplots in the book that were cut from the film: a pity, because those subplots were excellent, and better revealed the character of the hero, Captain James McKay.

In some ways, I liked the book more than the movie. I recommend both, however.

very good development of the characters. The author of the Matt Helm series also wrote some excellent westerns

Donald Hamilton's book is notable in that it features a Western hero who doesn't engage in gun slinging. Despite the gushing of some, let's not forget that this was 50s pulp. Hamilton didn't turn it out as a great masterpiece, and it just isn't. The book is not overly long, and some sequences in the book that were left out of the movie were just repetitive filler in the book in the first place.

Hamilton didn't seem to have a great deal of feel for how long it takes to ride a horse from place to place. Characters bop around over long distances as if they were in horseless carriages. LOL He was hardly alone in this failing, but there is so much constant travel in this book that it is somewhat more exposed than in some others.

However, the book gave us one of the best films ever in the Western genre, and we have much to thank it for in that regard. My main regret is that there is not a sequel, either of the book or the film, to show Captain McKay establishing his ranch and the marriage that seemed inevitable at the end of both book and film.

Don't take my criticism to suggest that the book is not a good read. It is. However, if you spend the major bucks that Amazon sellers want for a used paperback, you may wind up disappointed. If you must have it, Google it occasionally and find it listed at a used bookstore that doesn't realize they can try to charge an arm and a leg for it. I got my copy for $4 plus $2.50 shipping from an online list from a used book store not so many years ago, and I've seen it recently for as little at $15.

And if you are a fan of westerns and for some reason haven't seen the film yet, by all means do, its a "must see" for western fans. However, make sure that you see it in wide screen format. The Pan and Scan shown on such channels as Encore Westerns detracts FAR too much from the majesty of some scenes. TCM always shows the widescreen, and the DVD was also done correctly.

It would behoove the powers-that-be in the Amazon pantheon (or at least delegate an appropriate minion) to actually read the cover of the book that is pictured above. Were they to do this, they might find that the name of the author is Donald, not David, Hamilton.

Perhaps we might be persuaded to assuage our censure in the supposition that one or more of them worked at one time for the New York Times or CBS Evening News.