John Wayne’s Big Jake co-starred his son Patrick and it marked the only time they played father and son onscreen. Big Jake is John Wayne’s most violent Western by far, with the film being uncharacteristically bloody by the star’s standards. Wayne had a distaste for the increasing violence in American cinema seen in the likes of The Wild Bunch, so he made sure to balance Big Jake out with ill-fitting scenes of slapstick. While he’s not credited for it, Wayne also filled in as co-director when helmer George Sherman fell ill during production.

The 1971 Western cast Wayne as the тιтular Jake, who reunites with his estranged family after his grandson is kidnapped during a violent raid. Big Jake co-stars Christopher Mitchum (son of screen legend Robert Mitchum) and Patrick Wayne as Jake’s sons, who accompany him on the ride to pay the ransom. Patrick had worked with his father on many other movies at this point, including Wayne’s favorite Western of his own, The Searchers and his father’s controversial war movie The Green Berets.

Big Jake Was The First Time John And Patrick Wayne Actually Played Father And Son

The tenth time was the charm for the Waynes

John and Patrick Wayne had appeared in nine movies together in the 20 years before Big Jake. For whatever reason, none had paired John and Patrick as father and son before, which felt like a very obvious move. It certainly works in Big Jake’s favor, since the Waynes share an easy chemistry – even though their characters are at odds for much of the runtime. Patrick’s James is feeling raw over his father abandoning the family years before, and it takes time for the pair to trust one another.

This element gives Big Jake an emotional spine lacking from many of the later John Wayne’s Westerns, which recycled his greatest hits to diminishing returns. In his later career, Wayne played into his image as a paternal figure too, playing surrogate father figures in Westerns like The Cowboys or his final film, The Shootist. Big Jake is the most obvious example of this since he’s playing alongside his actual son, giving their interactions a spikier edge.

Perhaps the Waynes wanted to resist playing father and son until the right project came along. Many of Patrick’s earlier roles in films like The Quiet Man were uncredited or small bit parts, intended to give him experience on a film set. However, by the time Big Jake came along, Patrick knew how to carry himself on screen. That said, his father is still the dominant force in all of their scenes.

Big Jake Was A Wayne Family Affair

The Western feels like a Wayne family holiday at times

Patrick wasn’t the only member of the Wayne clan to work on Big Jake. John Wayne’s youngest son Ethan plays Little Jake, the kidnapped grandson that Big Jake has never met; this adds a touching quality to their eventual meeting during the finale. The movie itself was produced by Michael Wayne, who was the eldest of John Wayne’s seven children. Michael Wayne produced much of his father’s later work, including Chisum and the 1974 cop thriller McQ.

While Christopher Mitchum obviously wasn’t a member of the Wayne clan, he was very close to the family and previously appeared alongside Wayne in Chisum and Rio Lobo. Big Jake proved to be John Wayne and Christopher Mitchum’s final time working together, with the pair reportedly falling out over politics shortly after the film’s release.

Big Jake Was The Last Film John And Patrick Wayne Worked On

Patrick Wayne was very nearly Superman

Playing father and son meant Big Jake was a fitting final collaboration between John and Patrick Wayne, with the latter deciding it was time to forge a career on his own terms. In the years after the film, he starred in movies like Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger and The People That Time Forgot. Patrick was also famously cast in the тιтle role in Superman: The Movie, but dropped out after his father fell ill in the late 1970s. Patrick mainly moved into television during the 1980s, appearing in everything from Charlie’s Angels to Murder, She Wrote.

One of his most notable movie projects during this time was playing Pat Garrett in 1988’s Young Guns, but he was later recast with William Petersen (CSI) for the sequel. Despite holding his own in Big Jake, there was little hope that Patrick could have forged a career as iconic as his father’s, but he still created a healthy filmography for himself. His nephew Brendan Wayne is also keeping the family’s Western tradition alive, acting as the main suit performer for Din Djarin in The Mandalorian.