After "Psycho" came out, many commentators made the point that it made Americans afraid to take showers. After seeing the Duke take a shower in this movie, I had the feeling that he, at least, was never afraid.
Of course, two barrels of 12-gauge slugs does a lot to calm your fears.
Always remember that YOU are unique. Just like everyone else.
That's only maybe my 10th favorite scene in this movie..which is why this is on my short-short list of best Wayne films.
shareI think this is the first time I've seen this film since it came out back in 1971
I forgot how good it was
Poor Bruce Cabot this and "Diamonds Are Forever" were his last two films and he dies in both, true in Bond he was a bad guy.
I still like to know how his guy knew to shoot WHITE when Blofelt give the order to Bond thinking he was Bert?
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As I recollect, this is the only scene in the movie where someone gets shot and there's no bullet hole or blood. But, maybe they couldn't figure how to get 18 squibs to go off together. Or, maybe they thought the damage done by a double-barreled shotgun at that range was a bit too much.
shareThey probably didn't want to risk getting an R rating. For a John Wayne movie that would have been unthinkable.
shareActually one of my big issues with this movie is that some of the people who get shot have squibs full of (very phony-looking) movie blood, and others don't.
The fact that Duke shot Roy Jenson point-blank with a double-barrel shotgun, no doubt full of double-aught buckshot, and Roy not only doesn't shed a drop of blood, but isn't damn near cut in half, really relegates this film to the slag heap, IMHO, for that kind of sloppiness and inconsistency.
If they decided to make Roy's death bloodless, so as to avoid an R-rating, they should have had Duke at least use a handgun, with the idea that the wound would have been small enough that we, the audience could have missed it.
This is one of my least-favorite John Wayne pictures and I say that as a die-hard fan of the Duke.
The opening slaughters have a lot of blood because the villains are being established as 1971-style merciless monsters.
When Wayne uses that shotgun on Roy Jenson, the intent is, frankly, Bugs Bunny comedy . It HAS to be a shotgun to get the effect of the doors blowing off and Jenson flying through the air. But I take your point on the lack of blood.
I'm a big fan of "Big Jake," but with reservations. Unlike the more serious lat Wayne movies "The Cowboys" and "The Shootist," this one is a "pop classic," intended for fun with an undertow of ultra-violence that was required in 1971 and actually makes the final shootout more exciting. That it has Maureen O'Hara for nostalgia and Richard Boone for top-drawer villainy, plus a group of Wayne and Mitchum kids for family values -- well, its quite an entertainment package.
And a note on John Wayne -- pretty old, pretty overweight -- DOING that shower scene. He plays it modestly, with a towel draped over his upper torso and(we see) long-john pants down below, but still: John Wayne was willing to show off his out-of-shape torso and gut in a shower scene, for comic effect.
Also: I've always felt that tall, big men like John Wayne could get away with weight gain a lot more easiliy than shorter men(like Martin Balsam or Ned Beatty) could. Same with Richard Boone in the same movie(who covers HIS gut with a big poncho.) Its as if the men didn't get fatter. They just got bigger.
I think you just have to accept that back then, that's just the way they did things and IMHO I'd rather have inconsistencies in blood or showing it or not than have it like today's ultra violent shows that show every little tiny detail of how somebody gets shot, stabbed, sliced, brains spilled out all over blood everywhere etc. yes they should have shown a small pattern of blood from the shotgun, perhaps a super fast shot of it, would have been better, more realistic of course but in the end I don't really care that much.sometimes reality is best to show what really happens when somebody gets shot but today's movies and tv shows even on basic cable go WAY to far like the walking dead did in the opening episode of this last season where they showed negan bashing skulls to a pulp on just normal television that any little kid can turn on and watch.
shareWhen I was a kid and saw that scene I thought it was cool he has his shotgun with him and was able to get the guy before he got him, I couldn't help but think of that scene when the movie got brought up. The Good, The Bad & The Ugly when Tuco shoots the guy from the bath tub makes me think of this movie as well. I tell you some of these old Westerns are some of the best movies ever made. I can't get enough of them. Big Jake is in my top 5 Westerns of all time, I watch it once or twice a year every year.
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I'm always reminded of this scene when I watch the original star wars when Han shoots first in the cantina. It's a very similar scene and that's the main reason I HATE the special editions where Han doesn't shoot first, it totally ruins the Han Solo character because he's supposed to be a badass like John Wayne.
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