Review of The Shootist (1976) by Shawn M — 23 Jul 2008

John Wayne's final film, and what a swan song. This is one of my absolute favourite Wayne films and this is mostly due to the pathos that resonates throughout.

Perhaps Wayne's deepest film, and one of his most interesting characters, The Shootist moves with a tenderness that can only come from a story about reconciliation with the self. And it truly is about the self. When it is suggested to Wayne's character, a famous aging gunfighter who killed 30 men throughout his life and who is now dying of cancer, that he should accept a visit by the reverend, the character politely rejects, later saying "A man's death is the most personal thing he can know. It's not yours, it's not the reverend's, it's mine, and only mine." When these musings provoke Wayne's co-star (Lauren Bacall) to angrily and rhetorically suggest that Wayne foolishly believes that he's some kind of "all powerful, all knowing being", Wayne sharply says, "I'm an old man who's afraid of the dark.".

While filming, Wayne himself was dying. He spoke and breathed labourously, had been at that point living and working 12 years with only one lung, was nearly 70 years old, and was fatigued from work, having at that point made over 250 films in 50 years. The Shootist was indeed a fitting final role.

Ignore the synopsis here on Flixter, it's mostly wrong (as I find they usually are).