The Shootist

John Wayne was an actor who knew his limitations.  He rarely ventured outside the western or war genres and when he did – like in John Ford’s The Quiet Man – it was with the safety net of a director accustomed to his skill set.  But despite a career bereft of any particular standout performance, Wayne could deliver a line of dialogue as good as anyone in the business.  His final film, The Shootist (1976), serves them up on a silver platter, providing a “farewell tour” of tired gunslinger clichés that the old pro knocks out of the park one after the other.

Looking for nothing more a quiet place to die after receiving a cancer diagnosis, infamous gunfighter J.B. Brooks (Wayne) takes a room in the boarding house of Bond Rogers (Lauren Bacall) and her starstruck son, Gillom (Ron Howard).  But a legend like Brooks attracts the wrong sort of attention, specifically young pistoleros out to make a name for themselves or old enemies with even older grudges.  Brooks decides to go down fighting rather than wait for a less notable – and more painful – demise.  So the stage is set for a showdown that will carve a date on his tombstone once and for all.

 

Director Don Siegel (Dirty Harry) defers his usual style to accommodate a more elegiac approach to the story, one which mirrored Wayne’s own life in a number of ways.  Things kick off with a montage of the Duke’s performances from earlier films (including classics like Red River and El Dorado) blurring the line between fact and fiction, character and actor, even more.  There’s no escaping the fact that The Shootist intends to encapsulate Wayne’s career with the same “print the legend” approach used in the similarly themed Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.  The only question is, can he pull it off?

 

In fact, Wayne turns in one of his finest performances, using the same swaggering body language and tough-talking style, but tempered with a world-weariness that shows up mostly in his tired eyes.  The arrogance that so defined his role as the hero of America’s greatest generation is more humbled and human.  And his scenes with fellow icons like Bacall and Jimmy Stewart (who came out of retirement as a favor to Wayne) take on more cinematic significance.

 

That doesn’t mean the film itself is any sort of classic.  It’s simply too familiar and risk-adverse to stand up against the better work from any of those involved.  But that sense of integrity and good intentions carries The Shootist much further than it should…and elevates it to essential viewing for anyone interested in the western genre, one that Wayne almost single-handedly defined.

 

Arrow’s limited-edition Blu-ray features a new 2K remaster from the original negative and a number of worthwhile extras, including two new visual essays, an interview with Western author C. Courtney Joyner, new commentary track from Howard S. Berger, archival featurette, trailer, stills, fold-out poster, lobby cards and illustrated collector’s booklet.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tormented

Image
The west coast always struggled to create a creepy atmosphere on screen.  All that southern California sunshine just doesn’t lend itself to ghostly apparitions or gothic castles.  But  Tormented  (1960) gives it a good try, staging its opening scene in an abandoned lighthouse where blackmail turns into murder - and one cover up leads to another.  Director Bert I. Gordon, better known for his giant-sized - but low-budget - monster movies, works well at this level, turning in a film that delivers small scares but perhaps his most  professional finished product. Tom Stewart (played by genre regular Richard Carlson) is a fairly successful jazz pianist whose impending marriage to Meg Hubbard (Susan Gordon) will put him in an entirely new tax bracket.  Trouble is his old flame, Vi (Juli Reding), isn’t taking this lying down.  After  allowing  her to fall to her death in the opening scene, Tom is haunted by disembo...
Read more

All Ladies Do It / Frivolous Lola

Image
Every semi-professional review of erotica probably starts off with the same question:  what’s the difference between porn and art?  The internet age has essentially done away with foreplay; sex is merely the act of completion itself, minus the threat of any malware or suspicious browser activity.  But the work of Italian director Tinto Brass, for all its leering upskirt shots of derrieres and pubic hair, still communicates something that websites like Pornhub never will:  the art of seduction.  All Ladies Do It  (1992), a breezy sexual adventure, follows Diana (Claudia Koll) whose marriage is threatened by her fantasies of dalliances with other men, stories her husband believes are nothing more than exciting role play.  But her loose definition of adultery inspires plenty of promiscuous hook-ups, taking advantage of any (ahem)  loophole  that provides a quick thrill.   Flirting with some hardcore sequences (there...
Read more

The Cat and the Canary

Image
My favorite directors have always been showoffs:  Hitchcock, DePalma, Spielberg (when he’s feeling frisky) and gonzo auteurs like Sam Raimi.  There’s just something about their cinematic ambition, constantly reminding the audience that, yes, there actually  is  someone behind the camera calling the shots.  And that directorial discontent shines through even in the early days of the medium, such as Paul Leni’s 1927 adaptation of  The Cat and the Canary .  While the rest of the industry was still learning the basics of visual language, Leni fills his frame with tracking shots, POVs and dramatic lighting that set the standard for every spook show to come!  Gathered for the reading of the last will and testament of eccentric recluse Cyrus West,  the potential heirs meet up in his decrepit mansion to discover who will inherit the estate and family jewels.  Predictably there is some petty jealousy when young Annab...
Read more