A late Wayne Western, depending heavily on recycling better (and no better) earlier pictures. Strung together in a one-suspect kidnapping yarn are the family feuds and father/son reconciliations first encountered in Shepherd of the Hills, with Hondo, The Searchers and McLintock plundered along the way. But this is 1971, the year of Dirty Harry, so a new brutality attaches awkwardly to the familiar goings on; and where the humour in The Searchers served to mark that film's epic passages of time, Big Jake's knockabout with motorbikes and mud fights merely, and tiresomely, prolongs the pursuit.
Details
Release details
Duration:
110 mins
Cast and crew
Director:
George Sherman
Screenwriter:
Harry Julian Fink, RM Fink
Cast:
John Wayne Richard Boone Maureen O'Hara Patrick Wayne Chris Mitchum Bobby Vinton Bruce Cabot Glenn Corbett Harry Carey Jr John Ethan Wayne