Production
In the frontier of the southern New Mexico Territory, Joe Baker (Dean Martin) is an aging restless bandit determined to do "something big" before his fiancée Dover McBride (Carol White)] arrives from the East. Tommy McBride (Don Knight), Dover's brother, is a partner in Baker's banditry.
To achieve his "something big," Baker must deal with the vulgar but lonely bandit Johnny Cobb (Albert Salmi) and his ruthless sidekick Angel Moon (Robert Donner).
Opposing Baker and his plan is the cantankerous Colonel Morgan, played by Brian Keith, who is on the cusp of retirement from the Army command in the territory. In a situation parallel to Baker's, Morgan's wife Mary Ann (Honor Blackman) is arriving from the East to accompany him home on his retirement. Former football star Merlin Olsen appears in his second on-screen role as Sergeant Fitzsimmons.
Produced at the end of the 1960s and at the height of the Vietnam War, the movie is a revisionist western, with a subtext involving the "civilizing" influence of women on the American frontier. The lighthearted title song, which sets the picaresque tone for the movie, was written by Burt Bacharach (music) and Hal David (lyric) and sung by Mark Lindsay.
The film's portrayal of Native Americans is rather negative, depicting them to be drunk and cowardly in a critical battle scene. This itself is a revision of the noble savage stereotype of earlier Hollywood westerns.
The horses in this film were used by a farmer in Durango, Mexico, named Francisco Berumen.
Read more about this topic: Something Big
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