As one of the final motion pictures made by the Duke in the early 1970s, Big Jake is a great film. While many may emphasize the film’s particularly violent tone (in fact, this author has before), one of the things that makes this Western particularly unique is that it stars John Wayne opposite not just one of his sons, but two of them. In fact, the entire picture was a family affair, and while Big Jake may have been forgotten by many in comparison to other films such as The Searchers, True Grit, or the Duke’s final movie, The Shootist, it was a production near and dear to the star’s heart.
‘Big Jake’ Was a John Wayne Family Affair
Over the years, the Duke’s second son, Patrick Wayne, starred in nearly a dozen pictures alongside his father. Movies like The Quiet Man, The Alamo, and McLintok! all feature the father-son duo in various roles together, something Wayne was no doubt proud of. But as far as on-screen chemistry is concerned, Big Jake takes the cake. As Jacob “Big Jake” McCandles, the Duke is forced to bring his son, James, into submission as the pair (joined by McCandles’ other boy, played by Christopher Mitchum) travel the desert in search of his Jake’s grandson. In fact, this is where both John and Patrick Wayne share an on-screen first.
Who plays Wayne’s kidnapped grandson? Well, it’s none other than the Duke’s real-life youngest son, John Ethan Wayne. Credited as “Ethan Wayne” on screen — and named so after the Duke’s infamous “Ethan Edwards” character from The Searchers (another film that John and Patrick shared) — this marked the one instance in the film where one of Wayne’s boys wasn’t quite old enough to play his son. Instead, Ethan Wayne plays his father’s grandson, “Little Jake,” and boy is he convincing. After Little Jake is kidnapped by Richard Boone’s villainous John Fain, Big Jake springs into action, and the rest is history. Neither John nor Patrick Wayne had previously worked alongside Ethan before, making Big Jake not just the first time that the three of them were united on camera, but a notable moment for the entire Wayne family. Of course, it doesn’t end there…
Like many of the Duke’s on-screen adventures, Big Jake was likewise produced by Wayne’s own production house, Batjac Productions. Batjac was responsible for a host of Westerns over the years. Wayne started the production company in the 1950s, and continued to produce films through the mid-70s. However, proving the Wayne family’s influence over Big Jake, the man credited directly as the producer on this film was none other than Duke’s firstborn son, Michael A. Wayne. Although Michael got his shot on camera back during The Quiet Man and Wayne’s infamous Gengis Khan performance in The Conqueror, the eldest Wayne boy preferred to be behind the camera. As such, he was an associate producer on The Alamo before graduating to a full-fledged producer on McLintok! After that, he had a hand in producing a good number of his father’s films after that, including Chisum, Cahill U.S. Marshall, and Brannigan. He would even produce Batjac’s final film, McQ, which starred his father as a — wait for it — Seattle detective.
This Western Was a Turning Point for the Duke
While the Wayne family worked together to make Big Jake a reality, you may not find the results to be particularly family-friendly. In fact, Big Jake was heavily criticized at the time for its expressive use of violence (something the Duke wasn’t particularly known for), and this wasn’t his only ’70s film that would garner such a response. The following year, The Cowboys was released and offered an even more grisly display, even going so far as killing Wayne’s lead character on the screen. In many ways, Big Jake primed audiences for what they would see in this next film, and if Big Jake was the Duke’s last attempt to bring his family together on the screen, The Cowboys was him effectively passing the Western torch to the next generation.
Of course, Wayne would still star in a number of films throughout the ’70s, many of them not even Westerns, with The Shootist bringing a climactic end to his career. None of Wayne’s children were involved in their father’s final on-screen role, and the film was made entirely independent of Wayne’s Batjac Productions. In fact, aside from actors like Richard Boone and James Stewart, who had worked with the Duke previously, the only “family” member who appeared this time around was his trusted steed, Dollor, a sorrel whom he worked with on a number of films over the years. Big Jake wasn’t Duke’s best picture, nor was it his last, but it was a significant moment in John Wayne’s 50-year-long career — one that brought his family together for a meaningful Western about the power of one family in the face of adversity.