Opening credit’s narrator describes President William Howard Taft as 300 pounds of pure republican then precedes to introduce every one of the bad guys like the starting lineup of a basketball team, fuck yeah. 

I maintain that Big Jake is a terrible title however, Big John - Big Jake - Big western goes incredibly hard as a tagline.

Opening credit’s narrator describes President William Howard Taft as 300 pounds of pure republican then precedes to introduce every one of the bad guys like the starting lineup of a basketball team, fuck yeah. 

I maintain that Big Jake is a terrible title however, Big John - Big Jake - Big western goes incredibly hard as a tagline.

Starting to enjoy this whole Western thing

Starting to enjoy this whole Western thing

My dad wanted me to watch it and then took a nap as soon as I put it on. Go figure. It’s a standard John Wayne movie, which is usually pretty good. I like how his dog’s name was “Dog”

My dad wanted me to watch it and then took a nap as soon as I put it on. Go figure. It’s a standard John Wayne movie, which is usually pretty good. I like how his dog’s name was “Dog”

Westerns are a major blind spot for me, so take this with a grain of salt... I thought Big Jake was just fine. Seeing as this came later in his career, it feels like it was probably the last good movie John Wayne made. It has the perfect premise for an actor who basically played himself all his life - the manly man. I liked the humor, found the acting to be okay, and was impressed by some of the stunt work. (Though the exaggeratedly red blood made me lol.) But this movie played it very safe - the bad guys were basically caricatures, of course the one native character that gets lines sacrifices himself for the white man, and I never once was really worried for the grandson. And I get what the intro was going for but I found it tedious. However, I was surprised how well-written it was - it did a solid job balancing it's two genres: action/adventure and comedy. This also makes me more interested in checking out John Wayne's other films (especially The Searchers) as well as try to fill in the gaps I have with Westerns.

Westerns are a major blind spot for me, so take this with a grain of salt... I thought Big Jake was just fine. Seeing as this came later in his career, it feels like it was probably the last good movie John Wayne made. It has the perfect premise for an actor who basically played himself all his life - the manly man. I liked the humor, found the acting to be okay, and was impressed by some of the stunt work. (Though the exaggeratedly red blood made me lol.) But this movie played it very safe - the bad guys were basically caricatures, of course the one native character that gets lines sacrifices himself for the white man, and I never once was really worried for the grandson. And I get what the intro was going for but I found it tedious. However, I was surprised how well-written it was - it did a solid job balancing it's two genres: action/adventure and comedy. This also makes me more interested in checking out John Wayne's other films (especially The Searchers) as well as try to fill in the gaps I have with Westerns.