Il grande Jake

This was a John Wayne film I greatly enjoy and was surprised at the wonderful old automobiles from the 1900's driving up and down every trail and even motorcycles. John Wayne played the role as Jacob McCandles who was looked up to as a man you did not mess with and respected. Maureen O'Hare, (Martha McCandles) seeks the help of her husband after years of being separated when their grandchild is kidnapped for a ransom for One Million Dollars. The gang of crooks is headed by Richard Boone, (John Fain) who will kill women and children in cold blood and think nothing of it. Patrick Waynes son has a role in this film along with the Polish Prince of Music and Song, Bobby Vinton. Maureen O'Hara had a very brief appearance only in the beginning and end of this film and this was also the last film that Wayne and O'Hara appeared together. Very entertaining film, you will not want to miss this great film Classic from 1971.

Some comments here have mentioned how much the Western "Big Jake" reminds them of "Dirty Harry." Actually, both films were written by the same screenwriters -- Harry and Rita Fink -- though additional writers were brought in on "Dirty Harry." Both films were developed and shot around the same time. "Big Jake" came out in summer 1971, and "Dirty Harry" came out at Christmas 1971. John Wayne said he was offered "Dirty Harry" before Eastwood took it (but Dirty Harry was also supposedly offered to Paul Newman, Frank Sinatra, Bill Cosby and Walter Matthau before Eastwood, too!)

The twice-repeated "do you feel lucky?" speech in "Dirty Harry" and the twice-repeated "your fault, my fault, nobody's fault" speech in "Big Jake" prove to me that the same writers worked on both scripts.

Also, Richard Boone must be singled out. This powerful, amusing actor always made a great villain. Wayne had tried to get him as the villain for several films before "Big Jake" (he'd done a cameo in "The Alamo"). Boone finally said "yes" to "Big Jake" and the verbal showdowns between Big John and Big Boone in "Big Jake" are a wonder to behold.

BTW, Boone turned down a lot of movie parts during the 70's (like the Robert Shaw part in "The Sting") but came to help out his old friend Wayne twice in that decade: "Big Jake" and "The Shootist" (1976.)

Though Big Jake doesn't go down with the greatest of John Wayne's films I put it in the class of The Comancheros which I also found entertaining. This film is the right mixture of chemistry and action. No doubt helped by the fact that John Wayne was surrounded with family literally.

John Wayne is the estranged patriarch of a family who owns a big cattle spread just as he did in McLintock. A gang of kidnappers came on the place while most everyone was on roundup and killed several people and kidnapped Wayne's grandson. Grandmother Maureen O'Hara sends for her estranged husband to deal with the kidnappers as he sees fit. Being this is a John Wayne movie, you already know how that is.

Son Michael Wayne is the producer and sons Patrick and Ethan play Wayne's son and grandson. This is a bit of a change for Patrick Wayne. From back in the days of The Searchers, Pat Wayne always played callow youths in his father's and in other films. Here he's a grown man and quite bitter at his father. The conflict between them crackles on the screen. Christopher Mitchum, the son of another Hollywood icon, plays another Wayne offspring as does Bobby Vinton.

The action flows pretty good here and the tension does not let up for a moment. There are some good comic moments, but they are well integrated into the plot of the story.

Of the Duke's films post his Oscar from True Grit, Big Jake is one of his best and a personal favorite of mine.

There has been no tougher or more formidable Western heavy than Richard Boone… He has occasionally depicted hard-bitten nobility, as his portrayal of General Sam Houston in "The Alamo" or the ageing cavalry officer in "A Thunder of Drums"—but more often his grim, craggy features have led him to villainy…

He was Randolph Scott's intelligent, embittered adversary, smooth as a rattlesnake and twice as treacherous, in the Tall T; he wrapped non-conforming farmers in barbed wire in Man Without a Star; as mean, sadistic Major Salinas, he persecuted Rory Calhoun in Way of a Gaucho; and he gave Paul Newman a rough ride in Hombre. In "Big Jake," he was—as always—a powerful presence and one of the screen's most efficient scene-stealer…

George Sherman's "Big Jake" was the Duke fifth and final film played opposite the lovely redheaded Maureen O'Hara who plays, here, his wife Martha McCandles…

The movie opens in 1909 where nine men crossing the Rio Bravo into Texas… Their leader—a sadistic gunrunner—John Fain (Richard Boone) is ready for his bloody McCandles' raid where ten people were slaughtered and Big Jakes's grandson, the 8-year-old Little Jacob (Ethan Wayne) is kidnapped, and a ransom note is left demanding one million dollars in $20 Bills for Jacob's safe return…

Martha—quite sure that this job requires an extremely harsh and special kind of man to attend it— called back her husband, absent for many years, to pay the ransom, and take back home the little boy alive…

Jacob McCandles (Wayne)—who has never seen his grandson—responds to his wife's call and organizes a hunting party to track down the dangerous and violent men…

With his two sons, his faithful Indian scout (Bruce Cabot), his loyal dog, and with a large red strongbox packed to the back of a good mule, McCandles initiates his very daring hunt…

There are some hard feelings among Wayne's resentful boys, and as the film progresses, Wayne's blue eyes were gentle and revealing a wonderful caring father but also his eyes turn to blue steel as he took that decision to get alive his grandson… The heart of the film is Wayne interacting with his wife and what he has in store for his sons next...

Patrick Wayne plays Wayne's older son who is short on ears and long on mouth… Christopher Mitchum rides a 'crazy bicycle,' carries a Bergman 1911, and a rifle with one fancy new telescope...

With great action scenes, great photography and with a terrific Elmer Bernstein musical score, "Big Jake" is one of Wayne best Westerns

First I have to say that I am a huge JW fan. In this film JW is his classic Kick A** self. There is some sentimental stuff in here, about the old man's relationship with his grown sons. Basically it is good old John Wayne Action. When the bad guys get the drop on him, all you can think is "Big mistake" This film is set in the early 1900s. There is an interesting parallel between the passing of the baton from one generation to the next (Jake and his grown sons) and the passing of technology. We see new fangled weapons and a motor car. (Naturally Jake rejects these)

Finally: You got to love the idea of Big Jake owning a dog named ..... DOG.