Awesome / Big Jake

• When Jake stops the hanging of a sheep farmer, the lynch mob leader implies that if Jake tries to cut the farmer down they'll kill him. Jake chuckles, then whips a open pocketknife just inches from the leader's face into the tree. When another mob member reaches for his gun, Jake sics Dog on him.
• Jake schooling his obnoxious son (played by John Wayne's Real Life son, Patrick):
  "Well son—since you haven't learned to respect your elders, it's time you learned to respect your betters!"
  • A moment later, Jake lays out his Berserk Button:
  Jake McCandles: You can call me Father, you can call me Jacob, you can call me Jake. You can call me a dirty son-of-a-bitch, but if you EVER call me Daddy again, I'll finish this fight.
• The McCandles rescue Little Jake and carry out a Roaring Rampage of Revenge. The leader of the enemy gang manages to get one last question out before he dies of his wounds:
  John Fain: Who are you?
  Jacob: Jacob McCandles.
  John Fain: *disbelieving look* ...I thought you was dead.
  Jacob: Not hardly.
  • There is also a Heartwarming Moment at the same moment when Little Jake says: "Are you my grandpa?"
• Here's a really cool moment.
  Jake McCandles: And now you understand. Anything goes wrong, anything at all... your fault, my fault, nobody's fault... it won't matter — I'm gonna blow your head off. No matter what else happens, no matter who gets killed, I'm gonna blow your head off.
• During the original McCandles raid, Jeff is shot, falls down a staircase, but then gets up again, and steps outside to shoot one of the gang before being shot again and surviving that.
  • Also during the raid, Stubby the broncobuster, after being shot in the leg, still crawls to the bunkhouse to retrieve a gun to try and fight back, and the two cooks also go racing to get guns. All three are shot down without getting a shot off (at least two of them fatally), but at least they tried.
• Michael's introduction on a motorcycle is kind of stylish.

---