Corrected entry: In climax scene in the barn, John Wayne hides behind bales of hay. Hay balers weren't invented until 1936, well after the story takes place.
Corrected entry: In the scene where John Wayne throws James into the mud, you can see power lines behind him. Electricity wasn't used like this during the time period of the movie.
Correction: Those "power lines" were telegraph or telephone lines, which would be in a railroad station.
Corrected entry: When John Wayne is opening the note from his estranged wife delivered to him by a rider, the note is folded with the lettering on the outside, but in close up, Duke unfolds the note to reveal the lettering on the inside.
Correction: The note is inside an envelope, the envelope has the writing on the outside.
Corrected entry: When Big Jake falls in the mud early in the movie (I think he's fighting one of his sons), his clothes are clean and dry immediately afterwards.
Correction: I just saw the scene, when he gets up, he is covered in muddy water.
Correction: The scene in which Jake falls in the mud is when his horse is spooked by Michael's motorcycle. It's James who gets covered in mud during his fight with Jake.
Corrected entry: The grandson in Big Jake is Ethan Wayne - John Wayne's actual grandson.
Correction: Ethan Wayne is John Wayne son, not grandson.
Corrected entry: After the gunfight in the hotel room where the bad guys try to steal the strongbox, the Duke returns to the room and the box is now open, revealing the contents. Sam Sharpnose says, "Shotgun blast broke the lock, Jacob." But the bad guys didn't have shotguns, they had revolvers. Michael had a shotgun, but the lock was facing away from him.
Correction: In the scene where sam says a shotgun broke the lock it could be true because after just watching the movie again, if you look closely as the bad guys go up the stairs towards the room you will notice one is holding a shotgun, you can see it better when they split up the one bad guy heading towards the window is holding the shotgun in hand.
Corrected entry: Jacob McCandles rescues his grandson from the bad guys, and then they run and hide behind a bale of hay to shield them from handgun and shotgun fire. A lot of protection that would give!
Correction: In actuality, straw or hay bales would offer decent protection against pistol and shotgun projectiles, especially in the late 1800's. The propellant of the time was primarily black powder which did not have as high of a velocity/volume ratio as modern smokeless powders have. This caused a .45 colt cartridge pushing a 255 grain lead bullet to only have a muzzle velocity of 961 fps and muzzle energy of 523 foot pounds. This is less than a modern .45 ACP which uses less powder. In addition, bullets did not have highly refined jackets to control expansion as they do today. In addition to that information, I have personally fired my .45 ACP (with higher MV and ME) at varios objects such as a dirt embankment, quarter inch steel, small trees, water bottles, etc and based on the results I would not expect to hit a target behind a stack of hay bales with it.
Corrected entry: The Duke asks his estranged wife Martha for a piece of clothing the kidnapped grandson had worn recently (for his dog to get a scent of, presumably). However, the dog wasn't used at all for tracking. Sam Sharpnose tracked the gang.
Correction: The clothing let the dog identify the boy's scent. At the end of the film when the kidnappers bring out the boy with his hands tied behind him; the dog starts for him. Wayne commands the dog to stay; until the fight starts and Wayne tells the dog to get him. The dog knocks the boy off the horse out of the line of fire. In the context of the film giving the dog the clothing to smell wasn't a mistake; among other things it was insurance that he got the right boy back. He'd never seen him and didn't know for sure that his sons would go with him or live through it. The dog knew the boy's scent - right scent; right kid.
Corrected entry: The Duke's 8-year old grandson tells the Duke that he has never fired a gun before, but when the Duke gives him the derringer, the kid cocks and fires both barrels like an old pro.
Correction: Considering that the kid has lived on a farm his entire life, its likely hes seen people work guns before and could have learned by watching without ever firing the gun. This is especially likely because a doubled barrel shotgun is a very simple and very comon weapon.
But the kid was not firing a double-barreled shotgun; he was firing a two-shot Derringer.
Correction: Hay balers were invented in the late 1800's. In the 1930's they became portable so farmers could pull it with their tractor.
Bishop73