Big Jake (film)

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Big Jake is a 1971 Western film, starring John Wayne and directed by George Sherman. Set in the year 1909, Wayne, plays Jacob "Big Jake" McCandles, an aging rancher estranged from his family, whose ranch is raided by a ruthless gang of outlaws, led by John Fain (Richard Boone), who murders some of the workers, wounds McCandles eldest son (Bobby Vinton) and kidnaps his young grandson and hold the boy for ransom. While the lawmen in their new automobiles are ambushed, McCandles, with two of his other sons and an old Indian friend, takes justice into his own hands and goes to fight the bandits and rescue his grandson. While McCandles starts off estranged from his sons, and punching them around, they become united in this quest, and each make vital contributions.

John Wayne's real life son, Patrick Wayne, stars as James McCandles in the film, as does Robert Mitchum's son, Christopher Mitchum. Wayne's youngest son Ethan Wayne stars as his grandson, Little Jake, in the movie.

[edit] Themes

Along with themes of violence and the nature of family, there is an interesting discourse on the collision of Wayne's character with modernity, which was a part of Wayne's real life. His politics and stardom where out of sync with the modern culture, but still popular, at the end of the 1960's and early 1970's.

[edit] Trivia

When first released, Big Jake received some discord among John Wayne fans, who decried the film's seemingly bloodthirsty attitude to violence.
The couple who wrote the screenplay for this film, Harry Julian Fink and Rita M. Fink, also wrote the original script for Dirty Harry, which was also released in 1971.
This was the last film John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara appeared together.
Some of the theme music was composed by famed composer Elmer Bernstein.
The popular line "I thought you were dead" which many characters say to McCandles when they find out who he is, was later homaged in John Carpenter's Escape from New York.