BIG JAKE

US, 1971, 117 minutes, Colour.
John Wayne, Richard Boone, Maureen O'Hara, Patrick Wayne, Christopher Mitchum.
Directed by George Sherman.

Big Jake is a typical latter-day John Wayne western with plenty of action against villain Richard Boone, some fiery interchanges with wife Maureen O’Hara? and some (reactionary!) treatment of his sons in their mid-twenties. The film nods to Easy Rider, Butch Cassidy and Wild Bunch trends, but might-is-right Wayne morality and the horses win out at the end.

Action audiences like it and one can always argue the pros and cons of Wayne's American stances.

1. Was this just another John Wayne western? Was there anything distinctive about it?

2. Did you like the credit sequences with the contrast of the civilised East and the uncivilised West in 1909? What was the message? Did the film follow up this theme?

3. What did the film say about the influence of the West by 1909? Did the credits say that the Western tradition was an ennobling one? Did the rest of the film say that the old Western traditions were dead and discredited? What illustrates your answer?

4. The gang at the opening were shown to be vicious. Were they typical of the villains of the West?

5. Was Jake McCandles? a typical hero of the West? Was he a good man? of what did his heroism consist?

6. What impact did the kidnapping and the massacre at the peaceful ranch have on you? Did you feel that such brutality needed to be avenged? Why?

7. What did the film say about cars and motorcycles taking over from the horse in the West? Did you enjoy Michael's taunting the villains with his bike? However, the cars and bike were rendered useless and the horse and donkey were successful. What side did John Wayne take in the dispute between old ways and new ways? Did he set up the dispute fairly or was the dispute 'rigged' in favour of the horse?

8. why were Martha and Jake estranged? What kind of woman was Martha? What kind of authority did Jake stand for, especially in his attitude towards his sons? Should his sons have submitted to him as they did?

9. Jake believed in a justice and self-defence where you shot an evil man before he could harm you. Is this kind of justice morally based? Was it a taken-for-granted code in the West? Could there have been any other code there?

10. Should there be any code of honour or ethics in a shoot-out or should it be no holds barred? What attitudes towards the taking of life should a man have in a shoot-out? Is this question irrelevant?

11. The action in this film and much of the dialogue was tongue-in cheek. How seriously did the film take itself?