Protraph
Lack of good storyline.
Limerculer
A waste of 90 minutes of my life
Chirphymium
It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional
Wizard-8
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.
vincentlynch-moonoi
This film was Dean's followup to "Airport". It's not a great film, but it is a decent Western, and better than I remembered it being...perhaps because I sometimes confuse it with another of Dean's films from that era -- "Texas Across The River".Perhaps it's my age that has led to a great appreciation of this film. When it came out I was a 22 year old fan of Dean's. Now, seeing it again, I'm a 63 year old fan of Dean's. And Dean is...well, cool in this movie. But the appreciation comes with the story -- the realization as one gets older that if he never has done "something big" (fortunately I have), then there may be that desire to do "something big" before one dies. And Dean plays it pretty well here. He's the right age and has the right attitude. And, before I forget to mention it, does most of his own horse riding in it (Dean actually owned show horses and was quite good). That's not to say that Dean's character is totally likable -- after all, he is kidnapping a woman to trade her for a Gatling gun! Although, they keep it in bounds by Dean's realization that what he's doing is bothering his conscience.I've never been much of a fan of Brain Keith, but he does fine as the army colonel who wants to know what Dean is going to do that is "something big", only to find out that part of it is kidnapping his (Keith's) wife! Honor Blackman played her part as Brian Keith's wife quite well here...she gave it he gravitas needed. Ben Johnson was fun as the Army scout. Albert Salmi appropriately disgusting as a dirty character desperately in need of a woman. Joyce Van Patten good as a man-hungry woman. Denver Pyle is a totally meaningless role; why did he even take it? And Harry Carey Jr as a peg-legged cowboy was entertaining.Very watchable and a bit tongue in cheek.
bkoganbing
I think the only thing that prevents Something Big from being a classic comic western is the awful let down at the end when Dean Martin decides to really do that Something Big he came west from Pennsylvania to do. The shootout at the end if anything is an anti-climax to the wild goings-on that preceded it throughout the movie.Dean Martin after coming west to seek fame and fortune or at least enough to marry Carol White and support her is the leader of a group of outlaws with Carol's brother Don Knight as his number two. He wants to really make a score, do Something Big before returning to the east and another outlaw Albert Salmi has an interesting proposition for him.Salmi's been without a woman for way too long now and his sidekick Robert Donner is not one to bring out the love that dare not speak its name. There just ain't too many folks of the female persuasion out in the territory. So if Martin will get him a woman, Salmi can lay his hands on a Gatling Gun to be used in whatever that Something Big scheme will be.So what does Dino do? He holds up a few stagecoaches and then gets what he considers a proper woman, Honor Blackman famous as Pussy Galore of James Bond fame. The problem there is Dino didn't check her hand for a wedding ring, she's the wife of Brian Keith the commander of the local army post.Ironically enough this silliness actually works as Brian Keith and chief scout Ben Johnson go searching the territory for Martin and Blackman. The various misadventures of the players goes for most of the film and when Martin does put his big scheme into operation in the last 20 minutes or so of the film, it is so anti-climatic, it's actually a let down.Something Big is a very funny film for some reason not often shown. All the players do well, but my absolute favorites are Joyce Van Patten, and Judi Meredith the Standish sisters. A pair of frontier widows who really know how to be hospitable to a passing stranger, especially if the stranger is in pants.Hopefully TCM will get this film and run it and soon.
thinman2001
While stationed in Thailand in 1972 during the Vietnam War, I had an opportunity to get a part-time job operating a movie projector at the base theater for the midnight show. One of the films I was fortunate to show was "Somthing Big", a rowdy, unpretentious western with a fun and talented cast headed by Dean Martin, Brian Keith, Albert Salmi and Honor Blackman. The film's strongest point is that it didn't take itself too seriously, yet still presented a fine array of subplots and character studies that nicely wove themselves together to a rousing finale. What has stuck out most in my mind for over the past 30+ years, however, was the movie's theme song. Like the film itself, the title song was a joyous and melodic tribute to the desire in everyone to reach for that star in the heavens, or that impossible dream. It is disappointing that the film never made it to VHS or DVD. If it ever shows up on cable TV, don't miss an opportunity to see this lost guilty pleasure.
