THE SHOOTIST (1978)
Label: Umbrella Entertainment
Region Code: Region-FREE
Rating: PG
Duration: 98 Minutes
Audio: English Dolby Digital
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen (1.77:1)
Director: Don Seigel
Cast: John Wayne, Lauren Bacall, Ron Howard, James Stewart, Richard Boone, Hugh O'Brian, Harry Morgan, John Carradine, Sheree North, Scatman Crothers
As a kid my father's love of John Wayne movies didn't rub off on me, I found his American Western films rather boring in my youth, truth be told. I wasn't even a fan of any westerns until I was turned on by the violent spaghetti westerns of Sergio Leone, and even to this day I prefer the Italian films to the American ones with very few exceptions. However, with that said, a Western coming from director Don Siegel (Charley Varrick, Invasion of the Body Snatchers) starring John Wayne in his last film before he shuffled off this mortal coil definitely caught my attention. Here we have Wayne playing a legendary gunslinger named J.B. Books riding into Carson City to see Dr. Hostetler (James Stewart, Vertigo), who informs him he only has a short time to live, diagnosed with a terminal illness, cancer.
With the prognosis fatal Books takes up a room at the local boarding house run by a widow named Bond Rogers (Lauren Bacall, The Big Sleep) and her teenage son Gillom (Ron Howard, American Graffiti) under an assumed name, so as not to draw attention to himself. His presence in town however does draw a lot of unwanted attention, from newspapermen and gunslingers all looking to make a name for themselves by either writing about or killing the legendary gunslinger. Terminal cancer or not the old man still has some lead left in his pistol, and his final stay in Carson City only serves to uphold his legendary status.
Wayne seems to be forgoing the "Duke" persona I typically know him for, here lending some real gravitas and charm to his final role, sipping on a bottle pain killing laudanum prescribed by the doc and trying to form a friendship with the disapproving widow, played wonderfully by Bacall. Ron Howard plays her son who is absolutely starstruck by the legendary gunslinger, who takes the kid under his wing, mentoring him in the way of the gun and of being a man. I sometimes forget how good Howard was in the days before he was a director, or maybe that's just my nostalgia for Happy Days seeping into this review, but I did quite like him as the kid.
The film has a stellar cast of side character that includes Scatman Crothers (The Shining) as a blacksmith, John Carradine (Evils of the Night) as an undertaker, Harry Morgan (M*A*S*H) as a good humored sheriff, and Sheree North (Charley Varrick) as an over-ripe older flame that comes along when she finds out the gunslingers on the way out, plus James Stewart who came out of retirement at the request of Wayne for the small-ish role of the doc.
This isn't a western that offers much new by any means, we've seen lots of these end-of-the-line westerns before, but I found the stately performance from Wayne to be quite touching. This is a well-crafted Western from Siegel with a cast that will keep you smiling when they pop up, a very solid film, and one that almost makes me want to explore more of Wayne's films, but I'm not quite there yet. The film is also surprisingly bloody at times with lots of the red stuff pouring out of bullet holes, it's not gore-strewn or anything but the amount of blood caught me off guard.
Audio/Video: The Shootist (1978) arrives on anamorphic DVD from Umbrella Entertainment as part of their Six Shooter Classics line-up. The film in 1.77:1 widescreen, it looks like an older master with dirt and speckling throughout, colors can look faded from time to time and the grain can be chunky, but overall this is a solid enough presentation, though I would to see it cleaned-up and restored for a proper Blu-ray release.
Audio comes by way of an English Dolby Digital mono mix, it's fairly unremarkable but clean, the score from Elmer Bernstein (The Magnificent Seven) sound good. There are no extras on the disc, not even a start-up menu.
I rather enjoyed The Shootist (1978), it's not my favorite Western by any means but it is my favorite film starring John Wayne, a touching end-of-the-trail tale for one aging gunslinger, and a fitting swan song for Wayne.
