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The Shootist Customer Reviews (1 - 3 of 18 Reviews)
Wayne's Nudge to Ron Howard
I always think of this movie as a last hurrah not only for John Wayne but for Jimmy Stewart too.
The way Wayne tries his best to dissuade young Ron Howard from becoming a gunfighter, it's almost as though there were a subtext to this storyline, I feel that it is John Wayne trying subtly to dissuade Ron Howard away from being an actor and to nudge him gently into a directing career. After all, this is one of Howard's final pictures as an actor and soon afterwards he picked up the directing reins where he's been sitting pretty ever since. Wayne's own debut as a director was THE ALAMO and if you remember it was re-made not too long ago, not by Ron Howard but he was going to do it only the studio wouldn't back him up as to the huge budget the project required--exactly the same battles the Duke had fought way back in 1960. Now, Ron Howard has been very clear about the debt he has owed the Duke, and it all stems from working together on this one Don Siegel project. His recent flop Western film THE MISSING wioth Cate Blanchett is very much a tribute to Wayne's classic 1956 movie THE SEARCHERS. Howard's career has been more expansive than Wayne's, but really it's a case of the apple landing not too far from the tree. This lends their scenes together in THE SHOOTIST that extra edge of poignancy, it's like a glimpse into the heroic past of John Wayne, and into the directing future of Ron Howard. The clips that you see at the beginning of THE SHOOTIST were chosen with care, and provide a brief panoply of the greatness that was John Wayne. Though THE SHOOTIST isn't the best Wayne movie, not by a long shot, it was miles better than most films of the Bicentennial year 1976, and it seems to look better every year that goes by.
It's great to see Ricky Nelson, Christopher George and Johnny Crawford in bit parts on the DVD version, where you can stop the action and say, "Wow, that is who I thought it is!"
Very special
I'm not rating this 5 stars because I'm a John Wayne fanatic, because I'm not. I'm not rating this 5 stars because I have a special fondness for Westerns, because I don't. I'm rating it 5 stars because it's one of the most poignant films ever made, absolutely appropriate that the Duke's final film would be about a dying gunslinger's last act to save a young wannabe from following in his sad, lonely, misunderstood footsteps.
The plot of the film, its phenomenal cast, etc., can be easily found in other reviews on this page, so I won't go over that again. Let me just say that this bit of historical knowledge---John Wayne dying of cancer portraying J.B. Books dying of cancer---elevates "The Shootist" from a bittersweet Western character study to a very, very special piece of movie history. In one of his finest performances, the Duke subtly displays the pathos of a man forced to be a loner who now is forced to rely on the kindness of people who owe him no kindness; he can now only repay them by effectively ending one young man's quest to imitate his gunfighter hero. Wayne's performance is perfect; as an actor would say, the best acting is when it doesn't feel like acting. Knowing what he was going through makes the story all the more real.
The film is not up to the level of "High Noon" or "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly," IMO the two greatest Western films ever made. But by quietly telling the story of the end of a legend who lived a decidedly unquiet life, "The Shootist" earns, and is not simply given, a unique slot in movie history.
John Wayne jumps on the revisionist bandwagon
He ends his career with a film about the dying fantasy of the invincible western hero by dying. Don't let that spoiler fool you, it's not really a spoiler. It's revealed early in the film that he's going to die of cancer soon. What's interesting is the context in which he dies which everyone should see. This is a film that really challenges the romanticism of the western gunman and what that really does to his life. Obviously, it makes him a constant target and so he's in constant danger not because of dangerous characters around him, but because people want to kill him for the fame. Interesting performances by Lauren Bacall, Ron Howard, and Jimmy Stewart makes this an interesting dramatic piece. It works even if you don't know that Wayne was dying of cancer in real life at the time the movie was made.
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