Big Jake
Big Jake is a 1971 Western film directed by George Sherman, written by Harry Julian Fink and Rita M. Fink, produced by Michael Wayne, edited by Harry Gerstad, starring John Wayne, Richard Boone and Maureen O'Hara, narrated by George Fenneman, and shot on location in Durango, Mexico.
The supporting cast features Patrick Wayne, Christopher Mitchum, Glenn Corbett, Jim Davis, John Agar, Harry Carey, Jr., Ethan Wayne and Hank Worden.
Big Jake was released to generally favorable critical reviews but to a lukewarm box office performance. It was the final film for Sherman in a directing career of more than 30 years.
Plot
In 1909, there is a raid on the McCandles family ranch by a gang of ruthless outlaws led by John Fain. They kidnap Little Jake, the grandson, leaving a ransom note and heading back for Mexico, where they have been hiding out. Martha, the head of the family, is offered the help of both the army and the Texas Rangers in hunting the gang. She replies that this will be "a harsh and unpleasant kind of business and will require an extremely harsh and unpleasant kind of person to see it through." In consequence, she sends for her estranged husband, the aging Jacob "Big Jake" McCandles, a near-legendary gunfighter who wanders the west with his Rough Collie, simply named Dog.
