Il grande Jake

A very entertaining John Wayne western. Richard Boone makes a great villian. It's action packed much more in the style of a Clint Eastwood Dirty Harry picture than a vintage John Wayne. Most highly recommended of Wayne's movies in the post-True Grit period.

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.

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

He is not dead...NOT HARDLY!! This movie was great. I can't believe I had never seen it. I loved the way he put his kids in place every time they got out of line. Especially that guy with the mustache (Wayne's real life son). I have seldom seen movies where there is so much suspense. The mean man with the blanket was super good also at being a MEAN AND BAD GUY!!!! John Wayne is the best cowboy ever. He looked and acted tough and was apparently TOUGH in real life. I wish Maureen O'Hara would have been in this movie more. She is so good looking. John Wayne was so fearless. I loved the way he bled RED PAINT. Back then, the blood looked like RED PAINT. Haha.

I give this movie a perfect 10!