Big Jake

 

         My Dad's Birthday was a week ago and of all the actors that my Dad loved, cherished as well as consider him a personal hero, John Wayne, without a doubt would certainly be one of those actors, my Dad would most certainly say was his favorite actor as well as one of his personal hero's close to pitching legend Bob Gibson. So, starting June 10th through July 10th, I'm for the first time ever going to be doing a John Wayne month each day or week I'm going to be reviewing a John Wayne classic first to start off is Big Jake, a gritty Wayne and more importantly the last film with John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara together. 

         The avenging head of the McCandle clan returns to his estranged family and leads the search for his estranged kidnapped grandson. Big Jake (John Wayne) sets off, his sons (Patrick Wayne and Christopher Mitchum) in tow, to deliver the ransom to the kidnappers, but has little intention of handing it over without a fight. 

         Here is the strange and funny thing, of all the John Wayne films that are classic and iconic, from his young and middle age years and with Big Jake, rewatching this for the first time it's surprisingly one of the most shockingly violent films of all of John Wayne's films, and sure you can look at some of his earlier films that were shockingly violent, but you necessarily don't see what happens and sure you don't see some extreme violent scenes but it gets shocking with the blend of the music into the action sequences, moreover has that holy crap, and I guess it's due to the seventies where I would imagine the audience is wanting more extreme violence and maybe that's the case when you think about it and it goes from some films like Psycho or any classic film from the sixties where they're pushing the envelope. The most interesting aspect of the film is of course the Duke working with obviously his sons, like his youngest son Ethan Wayne playing his grandson but more importantly Patrick Wayne playing his eldest son for which was the tenth time each father and son shared the screen together, though more importantly each share the greatest scene where Patrick Wayne mock Duke's character by calling him "Daddy" for which proceeds with Duke putting Patrick in his place, furthermore a fun fact Pat as asked by a audience member if he truly calls his Dad, "Daddy" and to Pat's words "You Know, all my life, I called him Daddy". Though strangely with this film particularly this film besides another film, where Patrick Wayne shares a big role, along with his father and I'd say this is Pat's best role in my mind. Both Wayne and actor Richard Boone do a great job playing the opposite of each other in terms of Protagonist and antagonist where each of them respects one another then Boone becomes threatening, and then later on Wayne turns the tables for which really is spectacular acting from each of the them though in a strange way I don't know many of Richard Boones other films besides Big Jake. A surprising factor about the film is both director George Sherman and John Wayne where close friends since Republic Pictures were a thing in the thirties. And so, by the time of this films production Sherman was in bad health to the point where there were days he was unable to direct the film, furthermore Wayne volunteered to help with the films direction when Sherman was unavailable and once the films complete Wayne insisted that Sherman be the sole director for Big Jake, for which in all fairness shows how a good friend Wayne is when it comes to his best bros. I got to say this is one of the many John Wayne films I remember watching growing up and just loved Wayne in the movie and this film alone shows how great a presence Wayne is and more importantly why he's the best American out there. More importantly, rewatching this again I can understand why my dad always loved John Wayne as an actor. I would highly recommend watching Big Jake for many reasons it's his more grittier performance and is defiantly a fantastic action and Western epic from beginning to the final frame, plus 1971, marked the final year as well as era where the Duke reigned as the highest paid actor and later on in life was almost like a passing of the torch as well as an end of a fantastic career for John Wayne. And so, I hope you all get excited for John Wayne month because I'm playing to look up films I haven't seen in a while as well as films I have not seen.