Big Jake is a traditional John Wayne Western with a strangely unacknowledged level of modern savagery. It's got all the adventure and comic relief you'd expect, but every so often the level and intensity of the violence exceeds anything you'd anticipate. Sometimes that contrast appears to be intentional. Sometimes it's just odd. What it does is give this film an edge that makes it stand out from the many other Wayne Westerns.
Set in 1909 as 20th Century civilization has finally taken root on the East Coast, this story concerns the still largely untamed American Southwest along the border with Mexico. John Fain (Richard Boone) leads a crew of 8 other vicious killers on a raid of the McCandles ranch, massacring a number of people and kidnapping the grandson of ranch owner Martha McCandles (Maureen O'Hara). Confronted with a million dollar ransom demand for the boy's return, Martha summons her long absent husband Jacob (John Wayne) to deliver the money and get his grandson back. Joined by his faithful dog, his sons James and Michael (Patrick Wayne and Christopher Mitchum) and his old Indian friend Sam Sharpnose (Bruce Cabot), Big Jake McAndles heads out through the beautiful countryside to battle Fain's raiders, greedy cowboys and the bitter resentment of his son James.
Amidst the shootouts, brawls, scenery, gags and other elements of the Wayne Western, an interesting theme is woven through Big Jake. This is a tale about how the folks who lived and prospered in the Wild West, both good and bad, weren't all that pleasant. Jacob McAndles is a hard man. His Indian friend is a hard man. His wife is a hard woman. Even his dog is a hard beast. These are people (and an animal) of unflinching will who will risk and inflict death without hesitation. Michael McAndles, whose nicer manners and love of the latest 1909 technology represents the new era, has trouble accepting his father's ruthless violence. Big Jake serves as both an ode to the uncompromising strength needed to tame the frontier, yet doesn't shy away from the rough and unappealing aspects of that strength.
That bluntness explains some of the graphic violence in this movie. It's not quite at the level of Sam Peckinpah, but Big Jake is bloodier and more cold blooded than most other Westerns. Not all of the moments of barbarism fit that explanation. For example, two characters meet extremely brutal ends without them having any emotional impact on the other characters.
The best parts of this movie are Wayne (unsurprisingly) and his interactions with Bruce Cabot and Richard Boone. Wayne and Cabot mine a lot of humor out of their age, while Wayne and Boone perfectly capture the idea of men who are so tough they don't feel any need to show off. Wayne's scenes with his younger co-stars don't come off as well, particularly when Big Jake has to deal with the obviously forced and exaggerated anger from James, though perhaps that generation gap was on purpose.
Big Jake is about a legendary Wild West figure who's so legendary everybody knows him, but they all think he's already dead. But though the movie accepts that the time and place for someone like Big Jake may have been ending, it argues there's still a little more room for that sort of spirit.
Set in 1909 as 20th Century civilization has finally taken root on the East Coast, this story concerns the still largely untamed American Southwest along the border with Mexico. John Fain (Richard Boone) leads a crew of 8 other vicious killers on a raid of the McCandles ranch, massacring a number of people and kidnapping the grandson of ranch owner Martha McCandles (Maureen O'Hara). Confronted with a million dollar ransom demand for the boy's return, Martha summons her long absent husband Jacob (John Wayne) to deliver the money and get his grandson back. Joined by his faithful dog, his sons James and Michael (Patrick Wayne and Christopher Mitchum) and his old Indian friend Sam Sharpnose (Bruce Cabot), Big Jake McAndles heads out through the beautiful countryside to battle Fain's raiders, greedy cowboys and the bitter resentment of his son James.
Amidst the shootouts, brawls, scenery, gags and other elements of the Wayne Western, an interesting theme is woven through Big Jake. This is a tale about how the folks who lived and prospered in the Wild West, both good and bad, weren't all that pleasant. Jacob McAndles is a hard man. His Indian friend is a hard man. His wife is a hard woman. Even his dog is a hard beast. These are people (and an animal) of unflinching will who will risk and inflict death without hesitation. Michael McAndles, whose nicer manners and love of the latest 1909 technology represents the new era, has trouble accepting his father's ruthless violence. Big Jake serves as both an ode to the uncompromising strength needed to tame the frontier, yet doesn't shy away from the rough and unappealing aspects of that strength.
That bluntness explains some of the graphic violence in this movie. It's not quite at the level of Sam Peckinpah, but Big Jake is bloodier and more cold blooded than most other Westerns. Not all of the moments of barbarism fit that explanation. For example, two characters meet extremely brutal ends without them having any emotional impact on the other characters.
The best parts of this movie are Wayne (unsurprisingly) and his interactions with Bruce Cabot and Richard Boone. Wayne and Cabot mine a lot of humor out of their age, while Wayne and Boone perfectly capture the idea of men who are so tough they don't feel any need to show off. Wayne's scenes with his younger co-stars don't come off as well, particularly when Big Jake has to deal with the obviously forced and exaggerated anger from James, though perhaps that generation gap was on purpose.
Big Jake is about a legendary Wild West figure who's so legendary everybody knows him, but they all think he's already dead. But though the movie accepts that the time and place for someone like Big Jake may have been ending, it argues there's still a little more room for that sort of spirit.