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.