Big Bad John

My review was written in June 1990 after watching the film on Magnum video cassette.

An insipid song-into-film feature, "Big Bad John" arrives nearly 30 years late with a whimper. Released in February in Tennessee, it's a minor video title.

Jimmy Dean topped the charts in 1961 with the gold record he penned and sang. He's comfortably cast as a lawman (given to aphorisms) in this movie, but material has no substance.

The morbid song lyrics paid homage to a "mountain of a man" who became a hero saving his co-workers in a mining disaster. Patchy screenplay creates an irrelevant chase motif of Dean as well as hired killer Bo Hopkins and a feuding clan all pursuing John Tyler (Doug English), who's run off with young Romy Windsor.

Poorly paced film has action crosscutting between the pursuers and the young couple getting married, setting up a home and English going to work in the mine. Time frame and logic of the story is nonsensical -it plays like two separate films spliced together.

Hectic final reel delivers the mine disaster; a survivor chalking the final song lyric sentimentality on the mine's facade and then a very phony happy ending of Windsor becoming reconciled with her real father (Dean) and pregnant with Big John's child.

Filmed on location in Texas, Colorado and New Mexico, pic looks all right but has no momentum.

Director Burt Kennedy, whose Budd Boetticher scripts and own films in the '60s were superior Westerns, seems to have succumbed to a low-key, enervating tv style.

Dean shows potential to be a tv series regular, perhaps in the Andy Griffith mold. English is miscast as the title character, way too cuddly and bland to fit the song's description.

Supporting players, mainly good old boys, have all been better elsewhere. Title song is esayed here not by Dean, but a more modern rendition by the Charlie Daniels Band, with guest artists Oak Ridge Boys.

All in all, Big Bad John was a hilarious, and touching movie. If you want romance, tragedy, and humor, this movie's got it. If you're a fan of the song (like I am) you pretty much know how it ends. But if you don't, or do and want to watch it anyway, I strongly recommend this movie. Jack Elam and Jimmy Dean are a hilarious pair with great chemistry. However, I wouldn't recommend this movie to strict urban folk. You have to understand where these people are supposed to be coming from, and only a handful of us are left. But even a few urban folk might understand it, and appreciate it for what it is: a good, down home movie that'll make you laugh, cry, and be inspired.

The cast is game for a good old country boy tale. It actually has very little to do with Jimmy Dean's title song. "Big Bad John" is more like "Big Good John.", who runs off with Ned Beatty's step daughter to save her from evil Ned. In Pursuit are Jimmy Dean and his friend Jack Elam. They are being followed by Bo Hopkins, who Beatty has hired to bring home the fleeing step daughter. The plot is thin, Dean's dog is great, and the Colorado scenery is another plus. So if you like these hixsploitation movies, you could do a lot worse than "Big Bad John." Recommended for the cast, the song, the scenery, and if you can get passed the simplistic road movie script, the movie is entertaining. Good of it's type. - MERK

This movie has always been a favorite of mine. The cast is superb and draws on the American experience as a whole. Jimmy Dean is a classic all American Sheriff who takes his buddy along on a cross country trek to find Big Bad John. What more of an American tale could you think of? Not only does this movie create a picturesque vision of the American experience, it also takes the viewer on a whirlwind of action and adventure. I would recommend this movie to everyone, and if possible you should find a copy of this so you can enjoy watching it over and over. The acting is superb, the action is superb, the emotions are real, and the story is encompassing. Great movie!

I was expecting the plot to follow the song, but it didn't. Decent cast, but they did not deliver. The plot was thin, weak, slow, and the acting was mediocre at best. If you are not expecting much it is passable, but, in my opinion, it is a waste your time. It had potential but did not deliver. It may have gotten better after the halfway point, but I don't know because that was all I could take. If you have not heard the song, it might be watchable, but I was expecting a movie that followed the song. Even for a "red neck" movie, it was bad. There are many movies of this genera that I like, but this is not one of them. Do not waste your time.