Big Jake (1971)
Review by Doc Ezra
Film:
DVD:

Written by Harry Julian Fink and R.M. Fink
Directed by George Sherman
Starring John Wayne, Patrick Wayne, Richard Boone, Christopher Mitchum, Bruce Cabot, and Maureen O'Hara

Released by: Paramount
Region: 1
Rating: PG-13
Anamorphic: Yep

My Advice: Wayne fans should rent it.

In the year 1909, the West isn't as wild as it used to be...but not nearly as tame as some like to pretend. Martha McCandles (O'Hara) would like to believe that the days of shoot-outs and cattle rustlers are over and done with, despite the warnings of her ranch foreman. Unfortunately for her, John Fain (Boone) and his gang of murderers and thieves are on their way to the McCandles' ranch for a little ransacking and pillaging. After a bloody shootout that leaves nearly a dozen of the McCandles household dead and the eldest McCandles boy gravely injured, Fain and his thugs kidnap little Jacob (John Ethan Wayne), grandson of Martha, and flee, demanding one million dollars in exchange for Jacob's safe return.

Enter Martha's estranged husband, Big Jake McCandles (Wayne). Gone from the ranch for a decade, he returns to a bloodbath, a pair of resentful sons, and a kidnapped grandson that he's never even seen. Despite their differences, Jake and Martha hatch a plan to get the boy back, with Jake delivering the money demanded by the kidnappers. Rounding up his old friend Sam Sharpnose (Cabot), Jake sets out with two of his sons to track down the Fain Gang. Proceeding cautiously across the Mexican countryside and dealing with Fain's bandits and thugs, Big Jake moves inexorably towards a climactic battle with Fain and his remaining henchmen, as the steady march of progress moves further and further away from the kind of frontier world that Big Jake is a part of.

Big Jake is an interesting entry into John Wayne's filmography for a couple of reasons. First, it's a full-on family affair for John Wayne--produced by his son Michael, and featuring Patrick Wayne as one of his sons and Ethan as his grandson Little Jake. Second, the film's thematic issue of the Wild West growing tame and progressing beyond the simple, if violent, days of boomtowns and gunslingers parallel the film industry of the day, with the Western being an increasingly rare genre for big budget pictures. Wayne's own death in 1979 marks the end of an era in Hollywood, and the entire genre of cowboy pictures rides off into the sunset with the Duke.

The performances here are passable, though Wayne and O'Hara pretty much outperform anybody else involved. Some of the dialogue from Patrick Wayne and Chris Mitchum (son of actor Robert) comes across just a little too stilted, delivered without any sort of natural cadence. At the end of the day, though, this is a flick about gunfighters. So the most important thing to consider are the gunfights. In this respect, the movie delivers in spades. There are some quality shoot-outs contained herein, and the final showdown is top-notch, with the McCandles clan mopping up the Fain gang as lightning crashes in the middle of the night.

Unfortunately, the DVD gets nothing special. The anamorphic transfer looks very sharp, with not a single glitch in the video to speak of. The sound is also good, with a full 5.1 surround mix. Of extras, there were none. At all. It's pretty much unthinkable to me that someone would release a John Wayne movie on DVD without any sort of bonus material...it's not like there's a shortage of interviews, clippings, surviving co-stars, words with his children, what have you. There's a ton of material about Wayne, and little excuse not to be arsed to include some little tidbit for fans picking up his DVDs. Still worth a rental, though, on the strength of the film alone.