The Shootist

The Shootist
Theatrical release poster by Richard Amsel
Directed by	Don Siegel
Screenplay by	Miles Hood Swarthout Scott Hale
Based on	The Shootist by Glendon Swarthout
Produced by	M.J. Frankovich William Self
Starring	John Wayne Lauren Bacall Ron Howard James Stewart Richard Boone John Carradine Scatman Crothers Richard Lenz Harry Morgan Sheree North Hugh O'Brian
Cinematography	Bruce Surtees
Edited by	Douglas Stewart
Music by	Elmer Bernstein
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures (USA/UK) Dino De Laurentiis Company (International)
Release date	August 20, 1976 (1976-08-20)
Running time	100 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$13,406,138[1]

The Shootist is a 1976 American Western film directed by Don Siegel and based on Glendon Swarthout's 1975 novel of the same name.^[2] It is notable as John Wayne's final film role. The screenplay was written by Miles Hood Swarthout (the son of the author) and Scott Hale. The supporting cast includes Lauren Bacall, Ron Howard, James Stewart, Richard Boone, Hugh O'Brian, Harry Morgan, John Carradine, Sheree North, Scatman Crothers, and Rick Lenz.

In 1977, The Shootist received an Oscar nomination for Best Art Direction (Robert F. Boyle, Arthur Jeph Parker), a BAFTA Film Award nomination for Best Actress (Lauren Bacall), and a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor (Ron Howard), as well as the National Board of Review Award as one of the Top Ten Films of 1976. The film received widespread critical acclaim, garnering an 87% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Plot[]

The opening scenes are a narrated flashback of the thirty plus killings by sheriff-turned-gunfighter John Bernard "J.B." Books (actual scenes of John Wayne's past films). Now an older man, Books arrives in Carson City, Nevada, in late January 1901. Almost immediately he gets into a potentially dangerous confrontation with local dairy creamer Jay Cobb, but his teenaged assistant Gillom Rogers defuses the situation by scoffing that Books looks worn out. Books goes to Dr. E. W. "Doc" Hostetler, a country physician who knows Books from treating his gunshot wounds 15 years before. Books came to seek out Hostetler for a second opinion. Hostetler confirms that Books has terminal cancer and has only weeks to live. Books is prescribed laudanum, but told that eventually the pain will become unbearable. Hostetler obliquely suggests that Books consider suicide.

He finds lodgings at a quiet boarding house owned by Bond Rogers, a widow who lives with her son Gillom. Books attempts to remain anonymous during his stay there, and intends to quietly die there. However, Gillom finds Books' initials and last name on his horse's saddle, and reveals to his mother that he is a famed gunfighter. Bond is upset that Books has lied to her about his real identity and summons Marshal Thibido to order Books to leave town, but he explains his illness is too advanced for traveling. Sympathetic to his plight, Bond tries to interest Books in church to obtain solace and comfort. However, Books maintains he has no need of repentance and has lived a moral life.

Word spreads that Books is in town, causing him trouble from those seeking to profit off his name or to kill him. Among those attempting to exploit him is reporter Dan Dobkins. Serepta, an old flame of Books', shows up; she eventually admits that Dobkins approached her about writing a biography of Books' life, one filled with fabricated, exaggerated details of his gunfights. Books later orders a headstone, but rejects the undertaker's offer of a free funeral, suspecting he would charge the public admission to view his remains. Two strangers seeking notoriety try to ambush Books as he sleeps, but he kills them. Gillom is impressed, but his mother is losing boarders over the incident, and is angry, and also frightened for Books, though she will not admit it. She also grows concerned that the fatherless Gillom will try to follow in his footsteps. Books and Gillom have a dispute over Gillom procuring a buyer, the Carson City blacksmith, Moses, for Books' horse without his permission, but they resolve their differences. Gillom begins spending more time with Books, and Books teaches Gillom to shoot. Gillom shows that he has a natural talent for it.

Books asks Gillom to go see three townsmen with violent reputations: Mike Sweeney, the brother of a man Books once killed in self-defense; Jack Pulford, the Faro dealer at the local Metropole Saloon, known to be a deadly crack shot; and Gillom's boss Jay Cobb. He is to tell each of them that Books will be at the Metropole at 11 am on January 29, Books' birthday. On the morning of January 29, the headstone arrives, which includes Books' death year as "1901", but with no day. Books gives Gillom his horse, bids farewell to Bond and then boards a trolley for the saloon.

Books enters the saloon to find only the bartender and Cobb, Sweeney and Pulford, sitting at different parts of the room. Books orders a drink and toasts his birthday and his three "guests". First Cobb, then Sweeney, and finally Pulford, fire at Books, but the wounded Books manages to kill all three. A crowd fills the street outside the Metropole after hearing the gunshots, including Gillom, who eventually enters the bar. His shouted warning is too late, and the bartender fires both barrels of a shotgun into Books' back, mortally wounding him. Gillom rushes over, picks up Books' revolver and kills the bartender. When Gillom realizes what he has done and throws the gun away, Books smiles in approval and then dies. As Gillom takes off his coat and covers Books with it, Doc Hostetler walks in. Gillom walks out of the Metropole to his waiting mother. He walks past her, and she turns and follows him.

Cast[]

Production[]

After producer Mike Frankovich announced that he had purchased the movie rights to Glendon Swarthout's novel The Shootist, Wayne expressed a strong desire to play the title role, reportedly because of similarities to the character Jimmy Ringo in The Gunfighter, a role he had turned down 25 years previously.^[3][4] He was not initially considered due to the health and stamina issues he had experienced during filming of his penultimate film, Rooster Cogburn.^[5] Paul Newman passed on the role, as did George C. Scott, Charles Bronson, Gene Hackman, and Clint Eastwood, before it was finally offered to Wayne. Although his compromised lung capacity made breathing and mobility difficult at Carson City's 4,600 ft (1,400 m) altitude, and production had to be shut down for a week while he recovered from influenza, Wayne completed the filming without further significant medical issues.^[6]

The Shootist was Wayne's final cinematic role, concluding a 50-year career that began during the silent film era in 1926. Wayne was not, as sometimes reported, terminally ill when the film was made in 1976. A heavy cigarette smoker for most of his life, he had been diagnosed with lung cancer in 1964, and underwent surgical removal of his left lung and several ribs. He remained clinically cancer-free until early 1979, when metastases were discovered in his stomach, intestines, and spine; he died in June of that year.^[7] Nonetheless, following the release of The Shootist, Wayne appeared in a television public service announcement for the American Cancer Society that began with the scene in which Wayne's character is informed of his cancer. Wayne then added that he had enacted the same scene in real life 12 years earlier.^[8]

The film's expansive outdoor scenes were filmed on location in Carson City. Bond Rogers' boarding house is the 1914 Krebs-Peterson House, located in Carson City's historic residential district. The buggy ride was shot at Washoe Lake State Park, in the Washoe Valley, between Reno and Carson City. Though it was a Paramount production, the street scenes and most interior shots were filmed at the Warner Bros. backlot and sound stages in Burbank, California.^[9] The horse-drawn trolley was an authentic one, once used as a shuttle between El Paso and Juarez, Mexico.^[10]

Wayne's contract gave him script approval, and he made a number of major and minor changes, including the location (from El Paso to Carson City),^[11] and the ending. In the book and original screenplay, Jack Pulford was shot in the back by Books, and a fatally wounded Books, in turn, was put out of his misery by Gillom; Wayne maintained that over his entire film career, he had never shot an adversary in the back and would not do so now. He also objected to his character being killed by Gillom and suggested that the bartender do it, because "no one could ever take John Wayne in a fair fight".^[12]

Wayne was also responsible for many casting decisions. Several friends and past co-stars, including Bacall, Stewart, Boone, and Carradine, were cast at his request. James Stewart had not worked in films for a number of years, due in part to a severe hearing impairment, but he accepted the role as a favor to Wayne. Stewart and Wayne had worked together in just two previous films, also Westerns, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and How the West Was Won, both released in 1962.

While filming the scene in the doctor's office, both Stewart and Wayne repeatedly muffed their lines over a long series of takes, until director Don Siegel finally pleaded with them to try harder. "If you want the scene done better," joked Wayne, "you'd better get yourself a couple of better actors." Later, Wayne commented in private that Stewart knew his lines, but apparently could not hear his cues.^[13]

Another casting stipulation was the horse owned and given away by Wayne's character, a favorite sorrel gelding named Dollor that Wayne had ridden in Big Jake, The Cowboys, True Grit, Rooster Cogburn, Chisum, and The Train Robbers. Wayne had negotiated exclusive movie rights to Dollor with the horse's owner, Dick Webb Movie Productions, and requested script changes enabling him to mention Dollor's name several times.^[14]

By one account, Wayne's numerous directorial suggestions and script alterations caused considerable friction between director and star,^[11] but Siegel said that Wayne and he got along well. "He had plenty of his own ideas ... some I liked, which gave me inspirations, and some I didn't like. But we didn't fight over any of it. We liked each other and respected each other."^[15]

Reception[]

Box office[]

Upon its theatrical release, The Shootist was a minor success, grossing $13,406,138 domestically,^[1] About $6 million were earned as US theatrical rentals.^[16]

Critical[]

It was named one of the Ten Best Films of 1976 by the National Board of Review, along with Rocky, All the President's Men, and Network. Film critic Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times ranked The Shootist number 10 on his list of the 10 best films of 1976.^[17] The film was nominated for an Oscar, a Golden Globe, a BAFTA film award, and a Writers Guild of America award. The film currently has an 86% "Fresh" rating on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 22 reviews.^[18] The film was nominated by the American Film Institute as one of the best Western films in 2008.^[19]

Quentin Tarantino later wrote, "There’s nothing in The Shootist you haven’t seen done many times before and done better...but what you haven’t seen before is a dying John Wayne give his last performance. And its Wayne’s performance, and the performances of some of the surrounding characters (Howard, Richard Boone, Harry Morgan, and Sheree North) that make The Shootist, not the classic it wants to be, but memorable nonetheless."^[20]

Awards nominations[]

• Novel
  • Western Writers of America, Spur Award winner - "Best Western Novel" - 1975 (as: "one of the best western novels ever written." and as: "one of the 10 greatest Western novels written in the 20th century.")

Also in 2008, the American Film Institute nominated this film for its Top 10 Western Films list.^[22]

See also[]

• John Wayne filmography

References[]

External links[]

• The Shootist at IMDb
• The Shootist at the TCM Movie Database
• The Shootist at AllMovie
• The Shootist at Rotten Tomatoes
• Glendon Swarthout website