by Julian Spivey

Very rarely has a Hollywood screen legend gone out on top. However, for John Wayne “The Shootist” would prove to be a great swan song.

The Shootist is based on a Glendon Swarthout novel about a lone gunfighter, JB Books (played by Wayne). Books is an aging gunfighter who rides back to his hometown of Carson City, Nevada and finds out from the town doctor, played by James Stewart in a rare cameo appearance, that he is dying of cancer.

The film, the last of Wayne’s illustrious career, was special to Wayne as he had already survived lung cancer. Unfortunately, just a short time after the film’s release Wayne succumbed to cancer again and died.

After being informed of the news Books decides that he would like to die peacefully in an inn run by Mrs. Bond Rogers, played by Lauren Bacall. However, word soon got around of the famous gunfighter’s appearance in town and his death soon became anything put peaceful.

Books a man of integrity lived by his own simple rule, “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.” Upon hearing the painful way of death that is facing him from the doctor, Books decides that if he is going to die he is going to do it his way. His plan sets the very poignant final John Wayne film scene into motion.

The Shootist, directed by Don Siegel and released in 1976, opens brilliantly featuring tinted clips of earlier Wayne films including “Red River” to show the earlier days of Books’ character. It then quickly transitions to the old gunfighter adding another notch to his belt after a younger thief holds him up for his wallet, before finally entering 1901 Carson City. It is clearly an era of change. Automobiles, electricity and trolleys have all found their way to this town through the recent technological changes. The Shootist not only signifies the end of John Wayne’s career, but in some ways also as an end of the West. 

The Shootist includes good supporting acting from Ron Howard, who plays the son of Mrs. Rogers, Harry Morgan as the town marshal and a small role by John Carradine, who first teamed up with Wayne almost forty years earlier in John Ford’s classic western “Stagecoach.”

The Shootist is an incredible end to a legend that made his name playing heroic figures throughout the west. Never has a movie role been so fitting to an actor’s career.