Big Jake (1971)

When her grandson (Ethan Wayne) is kidnapped by a gang of outlaws for a million dollar ransom, his grandmother (Maureen O'Hara) calls in her estranged husband (John Wayne), who's never seen his grandson, to take the money to Mexico where the gang is holding the boy. Directed by George Sherman (AGAINST ALL FLAGS), this is one of Wayne's better post TRUE GRIT vehicles. Westerns had changed and the westerns of Sam Peckinpah and Sergio Leone had introduced a more brutal and violent West than westerns Wayne was comfortable with. The violent opening of this film as well as its bloody finale reflects this change. Wayne is more Wayne than ever and not surprisingly doesn't seem out of place in this "new" West. Filmed in Mexico, William H. Clothier (THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE) takes advantage of the panoramic locations and there's a suitable if derivative Elmer Bernstein underscore to move things along. The large cast includes Richard Boone, Patrick Wayne (wooden as ever), Glenn Corbett, Bruce Cabot, Christopher Mitchum, John Agar, Virginia Capers and Harry Carey Jr.