The Shootist's reputation as John Wayne's final film is a decent enough final film for this legendary performer. It's now well known that Wayne who was suffering from cancer and in poor health had quite a few challenges getting through the filming. Probably because he wasn't feeling well Wayne apparently had a lot of conflict with the director Don Siegel who was a fairly feisty guy as well.
This story is extremely downbeat. Wayne plays an aging gunfighter dying of cancer who has decided to spend his remaining days living in a boarding house run by Lauren Becall. However Wayne's reputation has made him a magnet for a lot of people looking to exploit him for a buck. This all inevitably draws Wayne into one last gunfight.
This is a real old timer's film loaded with lots veteran actors. Besides Becall, there's Harry Morgan, Scatman Crothers, Hugh O' Brian, Richard Boone, John Carradine, and Sheree North. There's also a somewhat miscast Ron Howard as the young kid Wayne befriends. Howard does a decent job with his role but at this point in his career he was so identified with his "Richie Cunningham" role from Happy Days it was difficult to see him in anything else. James Stewart is also in the film and he gives a very good performance in a relatively small part.
John Wayne brought all of his skill and authority as an actor to his final film but The Shootist is an extremely depressing film and some what of a downer to watch. Don Siegel another old timer Hollywood guy was known as a director of action films but he did a good job on The Shootist which is primarily a character study.
The film was written by Miles Hood Swarthout and Scott Hale, the running time is 100 minutes.
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