Something Big (1971)
Joe Baker has a dream. He wants to do 'something big.' When he needs a Gatling gun to accomplish this, he seeks out a black marketeer. The price he wants for the gun? A woman! So Baker kidnaps a woman off of the stagecoach, only to find that she is the wife of the commandant of the local Cavalry detachment. Things get further complicated when a girl named Dover McBride shows up. She has come to force Baker to marry her and return east, as he promised to do four years earlier
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Simply Perfect
Don't listen to the negative reviews
This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.
This is a reasonable movie for the gendre - a 'comedy' western. Just the thing for a casual evening viewing.
This particular western must have somewhat bewildered the few people who initially saw it in theaters when it was released in 1971. While the previous few years had had the western genre shook up by the spaghetti westerns from Italy and violent American westerns like "The Wild Bunch", this particular western seems to come from a earlier time. It's an old fashioned kind of western. Nothing really wrong with that, as long as the execution is done well. But sadly, the movie is a big letdown. The main reason why it fails is that most of the movie is really boring. The little story there is moves at a snail's pace, with abundant padding throughout. Things could have still been saved with an extra ingredient like action or comedy, but the movie is a letdown in those areas as well. There is very little action up to the violent climax, and the violence in the climax is not worth the wait. As for the comedy, it is pretty lame, with the only laugh being an unintentional one (a character has the name "Emilio Estevez".) Small wonder that headline star Dean Martin seems alternately bored or somewhat bewildered with what is going on around him. By the way, he's also offscreen for long periods of time, which he was probably thankful for.
I waited forever to see this movie again after seeing it for the first time at a drive-in in 1971. I Caught it on cable a few times over the years and it was still a lot of fun. The soundtrack alone (Theme Song--Something Big) has stuck in my head for all of these years. It represents all of our hopes and dreams at a young adult age. If your expecting a complicated plot or deep meanings, this isn't the film for you. Sometimes you have to watch a film for the fun and relaxation of it and turn your brain off and enjoy the ride. Good Acting, Good casting and a fun script by some of the legends. Oh, and did I mention the soundtrack? Fabulous. For all of us that hope and dream of doing "Something Big", This film is for you. And by the way, it is now available on DVD. I sure bought it. Enjoy.
Sure the story's great and the dog's adorable, but I think the subplot's the best part. All Jonny Cobb wanted out of life these days was a woman, but women were hard to find in such an arid place. Ol' Baker's a resourceful guy, though, so let him find Cobb a woman. Give him a little incentive and there's no end to what he could accomplish. So that's what Jonny did. He promised to get him a gatlin gun if Baker would get him a woman. The way this subplot ends makes me laugh out loud. The perfect solution!