They wanted gold. They gave them lead instead!

In 1909 New Mexico, ruthless outlaw John Fain and his gang attack the opulent McCandles ranch. Because most of the hands are on a roundup, those who remain are easily overcome. More than ten men, women and children are killed or seriously wounded, including Jeff McCandles, whose nine-year-old son, Little Jake, is kidnapped. As the gang rides off, Fain throws a ransom note to Martha McCandles, the strong-willed family matriarch, demanding one million dollars. Family friend Buck Duggan, head of the Texas Rangers, does not want Martha to pay the ransom and suggests trailing Fain into Mexico, but she refuses, convinced that the job calls for a particularly unpleasant and harsh sort of man, her long-estranged husband, Jacob McCandles. After receiving an urgent note from Martha, Jake and his dog arrive at the McCandles train station, where he is greeted enthusiastically, except by his son James, who resents his long-absent father and sarcastically calls him "Daddy," precipitating a fistfight. Despite their long-held animosity, Jake and Martha still love each other, and Martha gently tells Jake about his grandson, whom he has never seen. She then shows him a trunk filled with one million dollars, and he agrees to handle things as she wishes. They soon begin to bicker over details, though, and each remembers how stubborn the other is. Minutes later, their youngest son, Michael, arrives at the station on his motorcycle, informing them that he has seen the gang while reconnoitering, and that Little Jake is alive. He then suggests a plan whereby the Rangers would drive automobiles ahead to a spot where they could ambush the approaching gang. Jake is adamant that the plan will not work and refuses to go along with it. Although Martha endorses Michael's proposal, she agrees to let Jake try doing things his way, as a backup plan. Jake then sets out on his horse, accompanied by his dog and four pack animals, at first riding parallel to the Rangers' automobiles, but gradually lagging further behind. The next morning, Jake is joined by his old friend Sam, an Apache tracker. Meanwhile, Michael, who has been riding his motorcycle in front of the convoy of automobiles, circles back to tell them that he has seen the outlaws. Driving ahead, the party sees what they think is a perfect place to ambush Fain's gang. Unknown to them, Fain and his men have their own ambush plan and attack the convoy from hiding places in the surrounding hills. During the ambush, the automobiles are incapacitated and several of the Rangers are killed or wounded. Michael furiously rides his motorcycle around the gang to distract them, then loops close by their horses, making Fain realize that they must leave immediately. Grabbing Little Jake, who has been hiding, Fain and his men then ride off. In the midday sun, just as buzzards are circling the stranded Rangers, Jake and Sam arrive. Buck apologizes for his mistaken judgment, but Jake cannot take the wounded men back to town. Instead, he and Sam, now accompanied by James, who had been with Buck, and the trunk of money, continue following Fain's trail. A short time later, they see Michael's motorcycle and what appears to be his body down on a cliff. When Jake discovers that Michael is alive but was just pretending to be dead in case the Fain gang was approaching, he knocks him down for frightening him and for risking his grandson's life with his ambush plan. Michael then continues with Jake, despite a buckshot wound in his posterior. When they camp for the night, James, who chafes under his father's orders, confronts him about why he left the family, suggesting that Jake had "a weakness for the ladies." Jake refuses to discuss it, then roughly removes the buckshot from Michael's backside. With Sam's scouting, they know that the Fains are only about three or four hours away. At a stop on the trail, Michael tells Jake that he is an excellent rifle shot, but when he tries to shoot a new type of weapon, a semi-automatic pistol, he cannot control it and forces everyone to dive for cover. That night, as James customizes his holster so that he can quick draw the semi-automatic pistol, Fain rides up to camp, saying he is a messenger. He tosses Little Jake's underwear to Jake, who pretends merely to be a hired hand. Fain says that they should go to Escondera and wait, then warns that others have heard about the trunk full of money, but no matter what happens, he must bring the one million dollars or the boy will be killed. After Fain rides out, Sam tells Jake that two men are close enough to camp to have heard everything. Jake orders them killed, but one escapes. The McCandles arrive in the booming oil town of Escondera during a fiesta. After they check into a hotel, Jake devises a plan to have Michael hide in the room while James creates a distraction for Sam secretly to return. Later, as James drinks and flirts with dancehall girls in the saloon, Jake goes to the barbershop to take a bath. At the appropriate moment, James starts a fight that spills over onto the street, enabling Sam to sneak back their hotel room undetected. At the barbershop, one of Fain's men tries to kill Jake in the shower, but Jake shoots him first and kills him. Meanwhile, when men break into the hotel room to steal the trunk, Sam and Michael kill them. When Jake and James return, his sons see that the trunk contains only newspaper and assume that Jake has stolen the money. Michael and James then fight with their father but are both knocked out by him. After Jake revives them, he reveals that he and Martha had secretly decided that they would not reward the kidnappers, who had already killed many of their ranchhands. As they are talking, Pop Dawson, one of Fain's men, comes to their room and reveals the details of exchanging the money for the boy, telling Jake that there will be a sharpshooter keeping Little Jake in his sight for an hour after the exchange to ensure that nothing goes wrong. When alone, Jake tells Michael that his job is to kill the sharpshooter, then goes with Sam and James to meet Pop. Pop is suspicious that "the fourth man" is not with them, but Jake tells him that he was killed and his body is at the jail. Although skeptical, Pop does not want to go to the jail to check the story. Unknown to Pop, Michael is trailing behind as the men ride off. At a deserted hacienda outside town, Pop tells Jake to go inside with the trunk. After Fain greets him, Jake tells the other members of the gang to come out where he can see them. Fain then tells Jake to open the trunk, but Jake refuses until he sees Little Jake. When the boy appears, Fain warns that Little Jake's head will be shot off by his brother Will if anything happens. Jake then throws the trunk's key to Fain, who is momentarily stunned when he sees that the trunk only contains newspaper, enabling Jake to draw his gun. Fain yells to Will to shoot Little Jake, but Michael kills him first, enabling Little Jake to run away. In the melee that follows, all of Fain's gang members are killed, as is Jake's dog, who, in trying to save his master's life, is brutally killed by a machete wielded by one of Fain's men. Fain himself is mortally wounded by Michael, after which the McCandles family head for home.

Orig. title:

Big Jake

Genre: Western

Directed by: George Sherman, John Wayne

Starring: John Wayne (Jacob McCandles), Richard Boone (John Fain), Patrick Wayne (James McCandles), Christopher Mitchum (Michael McCandles), Bruce Cabot (Sam Sharpnose), Bobby Vinton (Jeff McCandles)

Screenplay: Harry Julian Fink, Rita M. Fink

Country: USA

Year: 1971

Score: 71 %