The Shootist [1976]

"The Shootist" is a film of remarkable restraint, that achieves a wonderful eloquence. Wayne and Bacall have some nice scenes together as the widow becomes fond of the dying gunman. But it is the dynamic between Wayne and Howard that drives the film, as the gunman tries to explain to the hero worshipping boy that killing men is not a heroic enterprise. Ultimately, it is left to the boy to learn that lesson for himself and finally get the stamp of approval from his hero. It is impossible to watch "The Shootist" and not think of Wayne's last appearance at the Academy Awards, shortly before his death, when the cancer that would claim his life had reduced his body to a gaunt figure. Life does not always imitate art. But no other major star in the history of film did a better job of going out on their own terms.


The Duke says godbye   May 21, 2004
websurfer (Portugal)
13 out of 13 found this review helpful

The simple fact that this is the last film of the long and amazing carrer of America's most beloved actor, John Wayne, would make this an historic film. However "The Shootist" is more than that, it is in fact a very good western. Director Don Siegel author of such classics like "Dirty Harry" and "Escape from Alcatraz" gives Wayne a chance to once more prove how mutch of an actor he was. Portraing a dyng gunfigther who his a living legend in a West that as already changed (the film is set in 1901)Wayne's caracther represents the pain of a man that has outlived his time and has no place in the future, and so in his last film Wayne represents all the things that has changed in America by 1976, including the western genre itself.


Classic   January 7, 2004
12 out of 12 found this review helpful

If you have a Western heart see this movie. It is a timeless classic featuring 3 of the greatest actors. Not a classic shoot-out but a well crafted film. You will not be disappointed.


The Duke died with his boots on.   October 1, 2002
MarmiteMan (Norwich, England)
11 out of 11 found this review helpful

John Wayne's last film? ... Yes. John Wayne's best film? ... YES! This is not my 'token' tip-of-the-hat to John Wayne - I really do hold this to be his best film.

The sepia-toned opening sequence is a brief collage of scenes from several of the Duke's past films ... for by 1976 John Wayne - the American Western incarnate - was dying of cancer: he had to be hoisted onto/off his horse, and most of his wincing was that of genuine pain. But did he ever complain? "The hell, you say ...!" Staunch right-winger he may have been (he was President of the American Legion), but he also lived his life as many a character of his many films: decent, upright and honest - one of America's greatest cultural exports. And this credo is summed-up during the film:

"I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted, and I won't be laid a hand on. I don't do these things to other people, and I require the same from them."

Wayne is, of course, the star of the film, but he is magnificently accompanied by grande dame Lauren Bacall (in my view still the most elegant lady in Hollywood - bar none), along with such stalwarts of the Hollywood Western as James Stewart, Richard Boone, John Carradine, Scatman Crothers, Henry Morgan, and Clintwood regular Bill McKinney. The younger generation is represented by Ritchie Cunningh ... sorry, Ron Howard.

Legendary part-time lawman and full-time gunman John Bernard Books rides into Carson City on the day of Queen Victoria's death in January 1901, and both Books and the viewer are immediately assaulted by the city's outward display of the New Century and Modern Times: the tram, 'horseless carriages,' telephones and electricity. Books already knows what Doc Hostetler (Stewart) tells him: that Books is both out of place in the changing world ... and dying of cancer. Books befriends widow Mrs. Bond Rogers (Bacall) and her son Gillom (Howard), who hero-worships Books throughout the last eight days of the latter's colourful and eventful life. Determined not to die the lingering cancerous death Doc Hostetler tells him will be unavoidable, J.B. Books goes down in the Metropole saloon with guns blazing, ridding the town of its least-savoury elements.

Gillom had listened dewy-eyed to Books' pearls of wisdom on Life and the truisms of the ugliness of surviving gunfights, but did not really take any of it in ... until he avenges Books' death at the hands of a low-down back-shootin' bartender: that taking a life also takes a part of one's soul. The look of regret in Gillom's eyes as he laid his coat over the dead J.B. Books, encapsulated every Western-lover's thoughts at the time: Farewell Duke ... [I'll be honest: I shed a tear or two at the passing of this American legend every time I watch The Shootist - and I'm not ashamed of it.]

An entertaining and thoughtful film - a fitting final tribute to larger-than-life John Wayne. He died with his boots on.


A great closing chapter in Wayne's western career   August 15, 2003
Georginetto
9 out of 9 found this review helpful

This movie is captivating from the beginning. Not the usual Wayne as we know him eg. Rooster Cockburn bu ta dying man. The supporting actors Howard and Bacall are superb and this movie is touching with a superb acting by Wayne and immaculate directing. Oh yes there is a shooting climax at the end and this is truly a great western after all. Dont miss it