The Shootist

 The Shootist 1976

• Director: Don Siegel
• Seen by these directors: The Book of Eli, From Hell
• Based on the book by Glendon Swarthout
• Cast: John Wayne, Lauren Bacall, Ron Howard, James Stewart, Harry Morgan, Sheree North, Scatman Crothers
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• John Wayne – The Longest Day, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, probably others but I tried to avoid his films
• Lauren Bacall – Manderlay, Dogville, Misery
• Ron Howard – American Graffiti, The Music Man, TV series
• James Stewart – Bobby, Six Feet Under
• Harry Morgan – The Shootist, Third Rock from the Sun, M*A*S*H
• Sheree North – TV series
• Scatman Crothers – TV series
• Why? It’s in the James Stewart box
• Seen: 1 June 2022      

       If this hadn’t been in the collection, I would never have watched it. John Wayne is one of my least favourite actors of all time. We’ll see. Stewart is only a ‘guest star’ but Lauren Bacall and a teen-aged Ron Howard are in it so maybe.

       John Books (Wayne) is an aging shootist, read: killer. A silver-haired and kindly doctor (Stewart) tells him that he’s dying of cancer. Books decides to stay and rents a room from a stately widow Mrs Rogers (Bacall) and her son (Howard).

       Books is as arrogant and obnoxious as Wayne always is and a few moments of manly vulnerability don’t make him likeable. If he and Mrs Rogers fall in love this film gets 0*.

       But it sure got a lot of 10* of 10 on IMDb. People worship John Wayne and go all gooey-eyed because this was his last film and it’s about a macho tough guy who wants to die with dignity. So why does that dignity entail more killing?

       Sorry, I’m not impressed. Why, oh why wasn’t Bell, Book and Candle included in the collection instead of this pile of clichés?

       But for Stewart’s tiny role and because Bacall and Howard do a decent job with the thankless roles they are given, and because the basic idea has a small amount of merit 

2 * of 5.