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Big Jake [Blu-ray]
(George Sherman, 1971)
Review by Gary Tooze
Production: Theatrical: Batjac Productions Video: Warner Home Video
Disc: Region: FREE! (as verified by the Momitsu region FREE Blu-ray player) Runtime: 1:49:45.366 Disc Size: 36,463,539,764 bytes Feature Size: 34,951,440,384 bytes Video Bitrate: 29.43 Mbps Chapters: 12 Case: Standard Blu-ray case Release date: May 31st, 2011
Video: Aspect ratio: 2.35:1 Resolution: 1080p / 23.976 fps Video codec: VC-1 Video
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio English 2743 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 2743 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit) DTS-HD Master Audio English 1578 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1578 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit) DTS-HD Master Audio French 1071 kbps 1.0 / 48 kHz / 1071 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 1.0 / 48 kHz / 768 kbps / 24-bit) DTS-HD Master Audio German 1065 kbps 1.0 / 48 kHz / 1065 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 1.0 / 48 kHz / 768 kbps / 24-bit) DTS-HD Master Audio Portuguese 1073 kbps 1.0 / 48 kHz / 1073 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 1.0 / 48 kHz / 768 kbps / 24-bit) DTS-HD Master Audio Spanish 1085 kbps 1.0 / 48 kHz / 1085 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 1.0 / 48 kHz / 768 kbps / 24-bit) DTS-HD Master Audio Spanish 1030 kbps 1.0 / 48 kHz / 1030 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 1.0 / 48 kHz / 768 kbps / 24-bit)
Subtitles: English (SDH), Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, none
Extras: • None
Bitrate:
Description: Everyone seems to think that Jacob McCandles is six-feet under ("I thought you was dead" is a running line throughout), so some bad men kidnap his grandson. They want a piece of the family fortune and will kill to get it. Patrick Wayne, the Duke's own son, plays one of Big Jake's kids, and together they start out after the boy's abductors. Richard Boone makes a worthy adversary to Jake's larger than life figure, and the final confrontation between the two contains some great gritted-teeth dialogue. Maureen O'Hara is barely in the feature, sharing the same fate as Bobby Vinton as the boy's father. He seems to be onscreen just to get shot. - Keith Simanton at Amazon
The Film:
"Big Jake"? One guess. Big John Wayne, that's who, and the new
picture would amount to familiar, Wayne-Western trivia except for the
climax, a murderous pip. It happens lengthily and just in time.
Big Jake, released in 1971, is one of many westerns that ride the
trail blazed by
The Searchers, the 1956 classic by John Ford that some critics
consider the genre's all-time-greatest film. Again the hero is played by
John Wayne, and again he's a tumbling tumbleweed of a man who
rediscovers family values when deadly marauders snatch an innocent child
away from his kinfolk. There are major differences, though. This time
the victim is a boy instead of a girl, the journey to find him lasts for
days instead of years, and the villains are kidnappers demanding a huge
ransom - the picture's working title was The Million Dollar
Kidnapping - rather than Comanche warriors who induct the stolen
youngster into their tribe. Image : NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc. Big Jake looks very strong on Blu-ray from Warner. Batjac produced 19-20 films, 8 of which starred Wayne with titles like "The High and the Mighty" and "Hondo" and other notable westerns include "Seven Men From Now" with Randolph Scott - as examples that have made it to DVD. After joining The Green Berets (January 2010) - I believe Big Jake - along with Rio Lobo - coming out at the same time - are numbers 2 and 3 to surface in 1080P. The image is a little glossy but still looks very strong with impressive detail. Colors are solid. This may be another title released because of the strength of its appearance (healthy source). Contrast, a factor of the sharpness, adds a lot to the image quality. Grain is even and doesn't texturize the visuals a lot. This Blu-ray has clean, crisp feel to it and supplies a rewarding scope presentation.
CLICK EACH BLU-RAY CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION
Audio :Big Jake offers two lossless original language tracks - a DTS-HD Master 5.1 (bump) at 2743 kbps and a strong stereo tracks at 1578 kbps. These push some depth and marginal separations from the Surround . Elmer Bernstein had some brilliant westerns scores - most notably The Magnificent Seven, but also The Comancheros. In Big Jake we hear some of his most aggressive and sweeping orchestral work and it comes through with notable intent via uncompressed. Wow. There are foreign language DUBs and optional subtitles and my Momitsu has identified it as being a region FREE disc playable on Blu-ray machines worldwide.
Extras : Nothing included - not even a trailer. It's a shame this is a great tale - but the price reflects the lack of extras.
BOTTOM LINE: Gary Tooze May 25th, 2011
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About the Reviewer: Hello, fellow Beavers! I have been interested in film since I viewed a Chaplin festival on PBS when I was around 9 years old. I credit DVD with expanding my horizons to fill an almost ravenous desire to seek out new film experiences. I currently own approximately 9500 DVDs and have reviewed over 3500 myself. I appreciate my discussion Listserv for furthering my film education and inspiring me to continue running DVDBeaver. Plus a healthy thanks to those who donate and use our Amazon links.
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find HD is swiftly pushing me in that direction. 60-Inch Class (59.58” Diagonal) 1080p Pioneer KURO Plasma Flat Panel HDTV PDP6020-FD
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