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Yes, Toland's 'deep focus' enabled all sorts of clever set-ups, almost theatrical.
It's not so noticeable now, but back when widescreen pics were shown on terrestrial TV on narrow screens, five different viewings of the same Wyler movie could produce five different experiences, because the TV frame editor could choose from more framing options, when everything was in focus!
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I just finished a book called JEROME MOROSS’S THE BIG COUNTRY by Mariana Whitmer. Thanks to FSMer James MacMillan for recommending it to me. The last part of the book does analyze, cue by cue, motif by motif, and theme by theme this amazing score. Yes, there are academic places that I didn’t understand because I’m not a musicologist. However, I learned a lot about Moross’s life, his theater and movie scores, and about this movie.
Here are just a few items that I learned from this very interesting book.
--William Wyler first and foremost wanted Aaron Copland to score this movie, but he refused.
--Wyler might have employed Tiomkin as Tiomkin had scored some of his previous movies, but Tiomkin was too busy. Tiomkin’s songs from Friendly Persuasion and High Noon were popular, and at one time, consideration was given to composing a song for The Big Country.
--Moross was a life-long friend of Bernard Herrmann
--This movie was made during the Korean War as a rally for pacifism. (Like Friendly Persuasion.)
--It was a contentious process to make this movie, and Wyler left immediately to work on Ben Hur. He HATED the main theme and some of Moross’s music, but he was in Rome, so Moross got a lot of his music placed in the movie. (And some got cut by the evil editor.) Music that was cut out or not used impacted the dramatics of certain scenes.
--This book talks a lot about various westerns and their music. The author dissects 4 previous western scores to show how Moross’s approach is the antithesis of those four. His ballet and theater background greatly influenced his dramatic compositions in the film. This was a new and novel score with a unique approach to the visuals. (You’ll have to read it to glean that information.)
---This score left a legacy for future western scores, especially his rhythms and the use of a huge orchestra. Legacy scores (large symphonic scores) that were influenced by The Big Country were such scores as Back To The Future, The Magnificent Seven, Silverado, Dances With Wolves, and others.
--Author points out several times that there was an unnatural relationship between Carroll Baker’s Patricia and her father. That went right over my head during various viewings. Duh.
There are TONS of other wonderful pieces of information about this movie and westerns in general like The Searchers, Shane, Jubal, and many more.
How to pay for this book? It was $40.00 at Amazon for this book that has less than 200 pages. I went to my library and asked for an Interlibrary Loan. Most libraries will do this. My library got on the internet and put out a call for this book and ordered it for me. It was shipped from a university in another state. I can keep it for 3 weeks. It cost me two dollars. I’ve used that service several times.
It you liked the movie and this stunning score, check it out.
Is the the book published by Scarecrow Press in 2012?
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