The Shootist
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Movie Reviews of The Shootist
Movie Review: EXTRA - SHOOTIST J.B. BOOKS DIES IN METROPOLE GUNFIGHT
Summary: 5 Stars
Carson City - John Bernard Books, the shootist who was staying at the Rogers' boarding house, died in a blaze of gunfire today, January 29, 1901, at the Metropole. Before his own demise, being shot numerous times and twice in the back, Books apparently gunned down four others, Mike Sweeney, Jack Pulford, Jay Cobb and Murray, the Metropole's bartender. Dr. E.W. Hostetler was on hand to examine all of the victims. Local police are confused as to how one of Books' ivory-handled revolvers was found near the entrance of the saloon while his body lay dead just a few feet from the end of the bar...One of John Wayne's greatest roles, THE SHOOTIST tells the story of a chronically ill and fading gunfighter who, after getting a final prognosis from Doc E.W. Hostetler (played by James Stewart in one of his final roles as well), determines that the painful death awaiting him at the hands of cancer is too much to swallow. Accordingly he stages a last stand gunfight against three town toughs. A fitting way for John Wayne to end his career in a blaze of glory in this his last film.
Wonderfully directed by the great Don Siegel, the film begins with a flashback that includes clips from many of John Wayne's greatest films.
THE SHOOTIST is not only a John Wayne masterpiece, it also includes great performances by such notables as James Stewart, Lauren Bacall, Ron Howard, Richard Boone, Hugh O'Brian, John Carradine, Scatman Crothers and Harry Morgan.
Douglas McAllister
Movie Review: every great star should have as fine a last film as this one
Summary: 5 Stars
i love john wayne and i have as many of his movies as i can get. this is a great but sad send-off to the greatest western hero and one of the best actors in the world. and the story is just so close to home. wayne playes j.b. books who in an intro that uses old wayne gunfights as a way of giving books a legend is going to see a friend dr.hostetler played by old friend jimmy stewart, to see if the doctors in other towns are right and they are he's dying of cancer and has little time left. the scenes between stewart and wayne are full of the kind of respect and love that you can't get from anything but the love these two9 had and the respect the two men had for each other and they knew this was the last time wayne would ever be in front of the camera and the scene is so great that it should be viewed for years to come as a point of how to pack a scene without talking it to death. wayne goes to widow becallshouse takes a room and is ready to die. but the legend he has left behind will not let him rest. the widow's son ron howard sees him as a hero and wayne must set him stright and as gunmen start to show up in town hoping to get in on his legend wayne sees a way to go out in style and take a few more bad guys with him. this is as fine a job as wayne ever did in front of the camerca. i'll show this one and the "cowboys to my sons when they get older so they can see just what a fine actor john wayne was.
Movie Review: THE DUKE RIDES OFF INTO THE SUNSET AT FULL GALLOP
Summary: 5 Stars
As a lifelong admirer of John Wayne's film work I have seen (and own) most of his movies, and I love them. But I am forced to admit that his 1940's and '50's films are better for the most part than his 1960's and '70's work, with a few exceptions. I saw this film for the first time during it's theatrical release in 1976 (I think). Having previously seen El Dorado, Sons of Katie Elder, Big Jake, Cahill: US Marshal, Chisum and others of that ilk, my expectations were not high for The Shootist. The above-mentioned works are enjoyable and entertaining, but don't really measure up to She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, Red River, The Searchers, Rio Bravo, and other true classics. True Grit really stood out from his other later works, but mostly it seemed that his best work was behind him. Well, Mr. Wayne really knocked my socks off with The Shootist. An outstanding ensemble cast, superior performances, a compelling story- this film has it all. To learn after the fact that The Duke was dying of cancer at the time the film was made (and knew it) adds a dimension of realism- agonizing in it's intensity- to an already superior work. The opening sequence of clips from Wayne's body of work neatly summarized his whole career in film, in a way the printed word could never do. I give my highest recommendation to this film. If you haven't seen it, drop what you're doing and watch it right now!Movie Review: A Fitting Epitaph for John Wayne and His Westerns
Summary: 5 Stars
The setting for this western is Carson City, Nevada, in 1901. Ageing gunman J. B. Brooks (John Wayne) no longer fits his society. The flimsy wooden shanties of the Old West have given way to sturdier construction. The streets are paved, and running water is freely available. Soon, electricity will be universal. The first primitive automobiles (then called horseless carriages) have replaced some of the horses. Dry cleaning is now available. What's more, the people no longer have a frontier mindset. In fact, some of them candidly tell Brooks that he is part of a bygone era. The recent death of Queen Victoria also bespeaks of a bygone era.
Brooks learns that his pain is terminal cancer. The only treatment is palliative--a morphine drink that deadens the pain. In time, there will be no relief from the increasingly-agonizing pain, and the patient will have neither the strength nor the inclination to get out of bed.
All kinds of people try to capitalize on his condition. An old lover returns, wanting to marry him so that she can bear his name. Some gunmen with old grudges want to even the score, and to get famous for having killed him. The undertaker wants to make a nice profit from his death.
What will Brooks do? Will he just sit around and wait to be destroyed by the cancer? Or does he have other plans?
Movie Review: Art imitating life
Summary: 5 Stars
While giving Wayne credit as an enormously popular personality, I have never thought of him as much of an actor. He is always swaggering, wise-cracking John Wayne. Ironically, this film, in which duplicates his real life role of a dying cancer patient, Wayne shows his full depth as an actor.
The Old West, along with its most colorful characters, is irreversibly changing. In the same way that Wayne, riddled by cancer in real life, is changing. Wayne isn't the only one. Richard Boone, Hugh O'brien and others know the sun is going down on a way of life that lasted no more than twenty-five years. There will be no room for wanderers and gunslingers. What better way to end it than in an act of mutual suicide?
Yes, I know that's NOT what the film is supposed to be about but that's what it is about. Boone and O'brien, in an effort to right old wrongs and to inherit the ailing gunfighter Wayne's glory, decide to shoot it out. Everyone is prepared to die and, not remarkably, everyone does.
Like Kirk Douglas' "Lonely are the Brave", this is a 'small' film about the end of the old West. It's a great movie.
Ron Braithwaite author of novels--"Skull Rack" and "Hummingbird God"--on the Spanish Conquest of Mexico