The Shootist | 
| Director: Don Siegel
Actors: John Wayne, Lauren Bacall, Peter Frankovich, Hugh O'brian, William Self
Studio: Paramount
Category: DVD
List Price: $9.98
Buy New: $4.24
You Save: $5.74 (58%)
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Rating:  84 reviews
Sales Rank: 3246
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dvd, Subtitled, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), French (Original Language), English (Subtitled)
Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 98 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5 x 0.6
MPN: PARD089044D
ISBN: 0792172647
UPC: 097360890440
EAN: 9780792172642
ASIN: B00005JSGL
Theatrical Release Date: August 20, 1976
Release Date: July 24, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
John Wayne, in his last film appearance, stars as famed gunfighter J.J. Brooks. After learning from Dr. Hostetler (James Stewart) that he's dying of stomach cancer and has no more than two months to live, he moves into a boarding house in Carson City run by Bond Rogers (Lauren Bacall) and her son, Gillom (Ron Howard), to die quietly. But when word gets around that the old gunslinger is in town, curiosity seekers come out of the woodwork to get a look, and the ridiculous local marshal (Henry Morgan) contemplates a showdown with the legend. Annoyed by the attention and realizing that if he waits long enough, he'll die in great pain, Brooks decides to seek out his enemies and go down with guns blazing. Yet he works to persuade the hero-worshiping Gillom to foreswear the life of violence he's led. Director Don Siegel fashions a poignant, gracious farewell to the great star, who, like his character, was dying of cancer as the film was being shot. A stellar cast, which includes Western stalwarts such as Richard Boone, Hugh O'Brian, John Carradine, and Johnny Crawford, adds much to the film's resonance. As much a meditation on the burden of celebrity as an elegy for the Old West, it's most revealing in its star's final renunciation of violence.
Amazon.com essential video
The last film of John Wayne could not have been more fitting, full of details that can't help but make one reflect upon his legacy in the movies and his life as a star. Wayne plays a career gunfighter in the autumn of his life, trying to hang up his pistols after he discovers he's dying of cancer. Boarding in the house of an attractive widow (Lauren Bacall) and her son (Ron Howard), Wayne's character opts for peace in his final days but is dogged by his reputation when a handful of killers seeks him out for a final fight. Howard is fine as a fatherless boy who needs the strong mentor the hero represents, and James Stewart--who costarred with Wayne in the great Man Who Shot Liberty Valance--plays the doctor who gives the big man the bad news. Don Siegel (Invasion of the Body Snatchers) thoughtfully directs a very special and sensitive production. --Tom Keogh
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| Customer Reviews: Read 79 more reviews...
John Wayne and the Shootist June 9, 2009
Carol Gray (Social Circle GA United States)
The Shootist One of the finest films this movie legend made and sadly his last. Incredible cast, Lauren Bacall, Jimmy Stewart, Ron Howard, and a very Wayne unwestern western. A wonderful film and well worth more than one watch. I highly recommend.
DVD Purchase March 6, 2009
patt b (west bend wi)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
The Shootist
I was skeptical about ordering a DVD on line. This was for a gift.
I was surprised at how quickly I received my purchase..within 2 days.
It is top quality. I would purchase this way again.
John Wayne Last Movie! February 23, 2009
Keith N. Moseley
This is a great classic movie from John Wayne. I am still a fan
of his other movies. So Buy this film because you will love it!
Amazed October 21, 2008
DazzleDoll67 (Ontario Canada)
I know many have seen this picture before, but it added so much more seeing it at home and being able to cry freely, knowing what I know now. I was in "The Duke's" final days with him and it just made it that more special. I bought it for someone special, who could not believe that I would be ever able to find it again since it had been so long. It made him smile, yes cry, and even laughed a few times. The price was right, the search was easy, and it is a movie that will be treasured forever.
Great swan song September 25, 2008
magellan (Santa Clara, CA)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Based on the novel by Glendon Swarthout, this movie tells the tale of a famous gunslinger who is heading for his last shootout. The movie follows the book pretty accurately except for a few changes: in the novel, the character of Gillum, the son of the widow played by Lauren Bacall, is a little different from how he was portrayed in the movie, and also the sheriff, played by Henry Morgan, has a much greater role. Swarthout also goes into much more detail about the pain J.B. Books experienced as the cancer progressed, which was glossed over in the move, perhaps for expedience sake or perhaps that wouldn't have played as well on the silver screen.
For both movie lovers and John Wayne fans this movie is truly an elegiac swan song. Wayne plays the infamous, tough, smart old gunslinger of John Bernard Books, who has killed 30 men in gunfights, with the most nuanced performance in his long career. But now he is one of the last icons of a dying age, who, diagnosed with a terminal cancer, realizes that the way of life he famously symbolizes is dying just as quickly.
Ironically, Wayne the actor was himself at the end of his career, The Shootist being his own cinematic swan song. In a Pascalian moment of art imitating life, he himself was dying of cancer.
The movie is rich with this end-of-an-age, fin-de-siecle atmosphere and symbolism: most of the town sees Wayne as a perhaps heroic but nevertheless dangerous and lawless relic of a by-gone age. Others simply want to cash in on his fame by telling a romanticized version of his life story. Just before the final shootout, Wayne rides the new streetcar to the saloon, having sold his horse, with a pretty girl. They engage in small talk, as if this is just another ordinary day. But the contrast between the two couldn't be more stark; she is just starting her life, and Wayne is about to end his in a final blaze of glory.
But although Wayne has a few admirers, most of the townspeople seem to feel the world will be a safer, although admittedly less interesting, place without men like him. And the town marshall, played by Henry Morgan of Dragnet and Mash fame, is openly gleeful at the prospect of Wayne's impending demise, which Morgan hopes will occur before some of the volatile circumstances surrounding Wayne have the opportunity to blow up in his face.
Wayne truly went out in style with this film. In contrast to his other more macho, action-oriented movies, this is a more thoughtful, reflective, introspective film that shows what Wayne could do when he was presented with psychologically more subtle, richer material. Except for the last climactic scene, when we are finally treated to a good, old fashioned shoot-'em-up, this movie is a far more cerebral and emotionally deeper film, and Wayne carries it off flawlessly with a performance that strikes a perfect balance, combining the toughness of the old gunslinger with the vulnerability of the dying cowboy whose way of life is dying with him.
For example, in the case of Gillum, the teenager who worships Books as a hero, Books briefly becomes Gillum's surrogate father when he realizes that he must teach the boy in the short time he has left that there is a lot more to being a man than being quick with a gun. When all the boarders in Lauren Bacall's boarding house hastily move out after three gunslingers unsuccessfully try to murder Wayne in his sleep, he sells his horse for $300 and gives the money to Bacall so she won't lose her house.
The movie sports numerous smaller roles and cameos by other famous Hollywood stars, and one of the pleasures of the movie is seeing so many other well-known actors and actresses from Lauren Bacall to John Carradine, Richard Boone, Scatman Crothers, a young Ron Howard, and others, who appear throughout the movie. It's as if they're all getting together for one final send-off, paying their respects to Wayne in his last screen appearance.
The Shootist may never be as famous as Wayne's other, more dramatic films, but it might be the best performance he ever gave in a long, distinguished career.
The IMDB website has some wonderful trivia about the film. Check it out if you're interested.
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