David Morrell chose THE SHOOTIST (1976), a tale of the passing of the Old West that is also John Wayne’s final film for this session of Western Night.
Wayne plays J. B. Books, an aging gunfighter in 1901. Told he has a cancer and with only a few weeks to live, he takes a room in a Carson City, Nevada, boarding house run by Bond Rogers (Lauren Bacall). He plans to stay there quietly to die.
But word spreads quickly about the dying shootist and soon he’s an object of avarice for some, scorn for others, and a few with a score to settle. They include the undertaker Beckum (John Carradine) who promises a free funeral, coffin, headstone and at least two mourners, but Books tells him he knows he’ll lay him out and let the public come by to gawk at him for fifty cents a head. City Marshal Thibido (Harry Morgan), glad to know Books is dying, tells him he’s outlived his time and “What I’ll do on your grave won’t pass for flowers.” Then there’s Mike Sweeney (Richard Boone) who wants to take vengeance on Brooks for killing his brother years ago, and gambler Jack Pulford (Hugh O’Brian) who’s certain he could outdraw Books in a gunfight.
The screenplay by Miles Swarthout and Scott Hale was based on the novel by Glendon Swarthout (Miles’s father). Don Siegal (DIRTY HARRY) directed. The film is both melancholy and eloquent. There are some flaws. There are also moments that break your heart, such as when Books greets Bond Rogers for what they both know will be the last time.
It’s reported that Wayne had script approval. One story goes that at the climactic showdown inside the Metropole saloon, Wayne objected to shooting one of the men in the back, telling Siegal that in all his years working in movies he had never shot anyone in the back. The script was changed. (Wayne did shoot a bad guy named Futterman in the back twenty years earlier in THE SEARCHERS.)
With a running time of I hour and 39 minutes, THE SHOOTIST is available on Blu-ray, DVD, and for rent on Amazon Prime.
Along with David, award-winning author and New York Times best-selling author of FIRST BLOOD that introduced the character Rambo, our group includes Johnny D. Boggs, record nine-time Spur Award-winning author and Owen Wister Award winner whose work includes his latest BLOODY NEWTON, Kirk Ellis, Emmy-winning screenwriter and producer and also author of the book RIDE LONESOME about the production, themes and historical relevance of the classic Ranown Western films starring Randolph Scott and directed by Budd Boetticher, Kirk’s wife, Sheila, and Robert Nott, award-winning journalist and author of several books on Western films, including THE FILMS OF BUDD BOETTICHER.
