The Shootist

Throughout his life, sheriff-turned-gunfighter John Bernard "J.B." Books has committed thirty-plus killings.

Now an older man, Books arrives in Carson City, Nevada, in late January 1901. Soon, he is confronted by an armed robber, who he quickly disarms by wounding him. He later has another confrontation with dairyman Jay Cobb. However, Cobb's assistant, Gillom Rogers, verbally defuses the situation. Books then visits Dr. E.W. "Doc" Hostetler, a physician who treated his gunshot wounds fifteen years before. Books is looking for a second opinion concerning his failing health. Hostetler confirms that Books has terminal cancer and has only a few months to live. Books is prescribed laudanum to ease his pain but learns that his condition will eventually become unbearable. Hostetler remarks that if he had Books's courage, a painful death from cancer is not the one he would choose.

Needing a place to live, Books finds lodgings at a quiet boarding house owned by Bond Rogers, Gillom's widowed mother. Wanting to be left alone, Books gives her a fake name. However, Gillom finds Books' name on his horse's saddle at the local stable and quickly deduces his true identity. Gillom soon runs home and tells his mother that Books is actually a famous gunfighter. Upset that Books has lied to her about who he is, she summons Marshal Walter Thibido. Books defuses the situation by explaining his circumstances and swearing he will likely die soon. Now more sympathetic to his plight, Bond asks Books to accompany her to church to obtain solace and comfort. However, Books maintains he has no need of repentance, stating that he has never harmed anyone who did not deserve it.

Word spreads that Books is in town, causing him trouble from those seeking to profit off his name, or to kill him. After asking for an interview, local journalist Dan Dobkins is chased off by Books. Serepta, an old flame of Books's, shows up asking to marry him. However, Books turns her down after she admits that Dobkins approached her about writing a "biography" of Books' life filled with exaggerated stories of his gunfights. Books 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 criminals seeking notoriety try to ambush Books as he sleeps, but he kills them. Gillom is impressed, while his mother is both angry at and frightened for Books. She also grows concerned that the fatherless Gillom will try to follow in his footsteps as the two grow closer. Books teaches Gillom how to shoot and shares his personal credo, "I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted, and I won't be laid a hand on. I don't do these things to other people, and I require the same from them."

Books asks Gillom to visit three men with violent reputations: Mike Sweeney, an aging outlaw and the brother of a man Books once killed in self-defense; deadly crack shot Jack Pulford, the Faro dealer at the local Metropole Saloon; and Cobb, Gillom's boss. Gillom is to tell each of the three men that Books will be at the Metropole at 11:00 am on January 29, his birthday. On that date, the headstone arrives, which only mentions Books' death as occurring in "1901". Books gives Gillom his beloved horse, Ole Dollar, bids farewell to Bond, and then boards a trolley for the Metropole Saloon.

At the saloon, Books finds the three men waiting for him at different tables. He orders the saloon's finest whiskey, toasting his birthday and his three "guests". Cobb opens fire first, causing Books to dive over the bar. Books throws a bottle of whiskey to distract Cobb, and guns him down. Sweeney wounds Books in the arm, using his table as a shield. Books shoots through the table, killing Sweeney. Pulford then shoots one of Books' guns out of his hand. Pulford then tries to sneak up on Books, who lays on the floor. Seeing his reflection in a whiskey glass, Books shoots Pulford in the head. A crowd fills the street outside the Metropole after hearing the gunshots, including Gillom, who enters the bar. His shouted warning is too late, and the Metropole's bartender fires his shotgun into Books' back, mortally wounding him. Gillom rushes over, takes up Books' gun, and kills the bartender. When Gillom realizes what he has done, he throws the gun away. Books smiles and nods in approval before dying. Gillom covers Books' body with his coat and walks outside to his waiting mother. He walks past her, his head hung low, and she turns and follows him.

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 televised 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 date assigned to the first John Wayne clip at the opening of the film corresponds to its actual filming in relation to The Shootist. The Shootist was shot in 1976 while Red River was shot in 1946 (albeit released in 1948), putting the two movies thirty years apart. The onscreen dates were also thirty years apart, 1871 for the Red River clip and 1901 for the time frame of The Shootist itself. The other films used for clips were Hondo dated 1880, Rio Bravo dated 1885, and two clips from El Dorado dated 1889 and 1895.

The film's 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, Books kills his last opponent by shooting him in the back, is fatally wounded by a bartender with a shotgun, and is finally 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 both worked in two previous films, also Westerns, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and How the West Was Won, both released in 1962, although they shared no scenes together in the latter film.

While filming the sequence 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 he and Wayne 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]

• 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]

• John Wayne filmography

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