Big Bad John

• Director: Burt Kennedy
• AMG Rating:
• Genre: Crime
• Movie Type: Disaster Film
• Themes: Daring Rescues, Unlikely Heroes
• Release Year: 1990
• Country: US
• Run Time: 91 minutes

Plot

Nearly three decades after climbing the top-ten charts with his ballad "Big Bad John", Jimmy Dean stars in a film version of the song. Dean doesn't play the title character, though; that honor goes to ex-footballer Doug English. After killing a man who needed killing, Big Bad John loses himself by going to work in a treacherous Colorado coal mine. A whole slew of plot complications later, the film finally gets around to the gist of the song, with Big Bad John saving the lives of his fellow miners at the price of his own. For the record, Dean plays a sheriff who reluctantly pursues the fugitive John all over the country. Also in the cast is Ned Beatty, playing an abusive father to end all abusive fathers, and Jack Elam and Bob Hopkins, doing their usual. Big Bad John was directed by Burt Kennedy, an old hand at backwoods melodramas. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Cast

Ned Beatty; Jack Elam; Doug English; John Dennis Johnston; Anne Lockhart; Jeff Osterhage; Jerry Potter; Amzie Strickland; Buck Taylor; Ned Vaughn; Romy Windsor - Marie Mitchelle; Hank Worden; Red Steagall; Jimmy Dean; Bo Hopkins

Credit

Burt Kennedy - Director, John W. Wheeler - Editor, Ken Sutherland - Composer (Music Score), Ken Lamkin - Cinematographer, Red Steagall - Producer, Joseph Berry - Screenwriter, Norval D. Crutcher III - Special Effects Editor, C.B. Wismar - Short Story Author