Country: United States
Genre: Western
Director: Don Siegel
Year: 1976
Rating: 
TRASH CINEMA RECOMMENDED MOVIE
I suppose The Shootist is a Western, but it’s really about two things: the corrosive nature of fame and facing death with dignity.
John Bernard Books (John Wayne), famous for having killed over 30 men with his pistols, has just received a death sentence of his own from Doc Hostetler (James Stewart) — Books is dying of cancer. Books decides to wait out the end at the boardinghouse of Bond Rogers (Lauren Bacall), who doesn’t approve of his gunslinging ways.
But once the local newspaper gets wind of the celebrity in their midst, there’s little chance for Books to remain anonymous, and that means every gunslinger who wants an extra notch on his belt will be gunning for him.
Miles Hood Swarthout, adapting a novel by Glendon Swarthout, fleshes out the themes of death and fame while never abandoning the tropes of the western genre. The press, authors, other gunslingers, even the town Marshall circle like vultures around the dying Books, in a sendup of modern celebrity culture. The themes have special resonance because John Wayne himself was dying of cancer while The Shootist was being filmed.
John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, and Lauren Bacall do their part by contributing soulful star performances. A number of great character actors, like Harry Morgan, Richard Boone, John Carradine, and Bill McKinney represent the less attractive consequences of fame.
The Shootist may be measured — it’s not a thrill a minute picture by any means — but there aren’t really any dead spots. Director Don Siegel knows he’s creating an elegy for John Wayne, but there’s nothing funereal about his pacing. The overall tone of The Shootist is melancholic, but the shootouts are still logical and exciting.
The Shootist succeeds as a bread and butter Western, a valentine to John Wayne, a meditation on meeting death with dignity, and a drily amusing satire on the price of fame. That’s more than enough for me.
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