John Wayne month has finally reached its end, with Wayne's final movie in his entire movie career, and this was most certainly the sadist movie to rewatch. The Shootist when I slowly realized that this film is officially 50 years old now, I knew months ago that I would have to review this great classic as well as the last ride of John Wayne's film career. Though with this film, The Duke is not alone for this conclusion as he's joined alongside other great costars, including his best friend James Stewart, Lauren Bacall and even a young Ron Howard.
J.B. Books (John Wayne in his final film role) is an aging gunfighter diagnosed with cancer who comes to Nevada at the turn of the 20th Century. Renting a room with a widowed Bond Rodgers (Lauren Bacall) and her son Gillom (Ron Howard), Books is confronted by several people of questionable motives, including a man seeking to avenge his brother's death and a few who are looking to profit from Books notoriety. Not wanting to die quiet, painful death, Books devises a plan to go out with a bang.
Both the Shootist as well as Big Jake remind me a whole lot of both Red Dead Redemption games where it's the turn of the century and the legendary gunfighters are dying out, moreover the government is coming into clean house. The most notable similarity with The Shootist and the Red Dead games is that we also have a main protagonist whose dying and tries to go out in the best of fashion or trying to make amends with his past terrible deeds, for which now having watched the Shootist does give me the craving to play Read Dead Redemption on both PS4-PS5, and seriously if you haven't played those great video games I would highly recommend playing them. The Shootist was in fact Wayne's final movie role which expanded from the silent film genre in 1926 for which in all fairness he began acting 100 years ago if you think about it. During the seventies Wayne was in fact battling cancer, as I explained with films like the Sons of Katie Elder, though another source explained that while filming the Conqueror, in earlier years they were filming on a testing site for atomic bombs so there's another good source that would be possible. Although he was cancer free until early 1979, I would imagine that Wayne made it clear that The Shootist would be is final movie, so, according to a source unknown Wayne did in fact had some casting request for which would reunite with fellow costars like Richard Boone, John Carradine even Lauren Bacall who in fact made a movie with Wayne called Blood Alley and even his best friend James Stewart. Even Stewart at the time of the films production as retired from acting and decided to accept the role because he owed it to the Duke, though through series of takes it was like directing two old men who were both mumbling and needed to raise their voices, though let’s be honest these two titans who are now mortal need to be reminded that they need to speak up sometimes. Granted I remember watching this movie when I was a kid furthermore wasn't a huge fan of the movie considering that Wayne dies at the very end but now re-watching the film I understand why it's a great classic because it has all the morels of legends of the west suddenly realizing that their no longer mortal and spending their final days enjoying life a bit more as well as going out on his or hers own terms and that's basically what the Shootist is all about, is trying to die in peace and not allowing any annoying publicity or Marshalls interfere in terms of what a life he once had or trying to spin the story because when you’re a gunfighter it's not always the most pleasant life, it's always the kill or be killed life as well as the cycle of violence and Wayne's character tries in the best of his abilities tell Ron Howard's character not to follow his footsteps but almost learn how to use a gun in self-defense. And I truly believe with this movie, Wayne is showing that these legendary gunfighters are not great people to admire as well as nothing but killers, though granted I can be wrong and I don't claim to be right. As a fan of the Duke's great work as well his ability to still be tough even in death, this film was without a doubt the most heartbreaking movie to watch for good reasons is that this film marked the final leg of the Western genre and a year after the film’s release we would all be worshiping Star Wars as well as the Science Fiction genre and sure this film was supposed to be Wayne's last ride this was also closing a chapter in this iconic film actors life until his later death in 1979, and that's the most heartbreaking thing about the Shootist is that the gunfighter don't ride off into the sunset, they soon meet their end for which this film would be metaphorical to John Wayne's life as well three years after the film’s release. As much as I hate to end a John Wayne month with dying Wayne, but this is defiantly a underrated Wayne movie that I doubt people remember more than his iconic roles but more importantly it's the last hurrah to the legacy of the Duke almost the same way of Hugh Jackman's last hurrah in Logan though he later returns to the role of Wolverine in which he's still making money off of, though in all fairness Jackman is still in the best of shape so, he can do whatever he wants. Even though I'm closing the John Wayne month, I'm sure there are more of Wayne's movies to check out and now having relived some of these great classics I still feel the need to watch more of John Wayne's films that I've not seen besides the Western genre, though I'm going to take a long break because when it comes to watching many of the Duke's films, it gets a little bit old. So, in closing I'm going to leave you all with a great line that Wayne said to the late Barbara Walters in an unknown interview "Don't let those bastards get you down".
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