The Big Land

The Civil War has ended, but residual hatred remains. Texas cattlemen are driving their herds towards Missouri. Chad Morgan (Alan Ladd) is a former Confederate officer leading a cattle drive. Cattle baron Brog cheats him out of a fair price. He is forced to back down and his men blame him for it. He befriends local drunk Joe Jagger (Edmond O'Brien). As he heads home, he encounters farmers who can't get their grain to market and comes up with a mutually beneficial idea.

This sets up an interesting conflict at the beginning. Almost as quickly, the movie drops this idea and moves away. Morgan needs to stay in that town and fight back against Brog. The good early tension is lost and it never truly recovers. The Billy Tyler character is idiotic and he flips so quickly. Alan Ladd is a low energy lead. The story is a lot of little jumps and it feels jumpy. The story is too long and the slow pacing feels the length. Brog is a fine villain, but the other cattle buyers should be more hardened. It's not their first time tangling with Brog. The climatic gunfight is so short that it feels anti-climatic. This western story is too big for its own good.