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. The Old West is ending, and Books sees cars and city life. He gets into a confrontation with dairyman Jay Cobb, but Cobb's assistant, Gillom Rogers, defuses the situation. Books visits Dr. E. W. "Doc" Hostetler, a country physician who treated Books' gunshot wounds fifteen years before. Hostetler confirms that Books has terminal cancer and has only weeks to live. Hostetler prescribes laudanum for the pain but advises that his condition will eventually become unbearable, remarking that if he had Books's courage, the death he has just described is not one he would choose.
Books lodges at a quiet boarding house owned by Gillom's widowed mother Bond. Wanting to be left alone, he gives her a fake name. Finding Books' initials on his horse's saddle, Gillom deduces his true identity and tells his mother that Books is actually a famous gunfighter. Upset that Books has lied to her, Bond summons Marshal Walter Thibido; Books explains his circumstances to the marshal and assures him he'll be dead soon. Sympathetic to his plight, Bond asks Books to accompany her to church. Books claims he has no need of repentance, saying he never harmed anyone who did not deserve it.
Word spreads that Books is in town. Local journalist Dan Dobkins is chased off when he asks Books for an interview. Books's old flame Serepta shows up; she eventually leaves after admitting that Dobkins approached her to write a "biography" of Books 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 admission to view his remains. Two criminals seeking notoriety try to ambush Books as he sleeps, but he kills them. Gillom is impressed, but his mother is both angry at and frightened for Books, though she will not admit it. She grows concerned that the fatherless Gillom will try to follow in his footsteps as the two grow closer, with Books teaching Gillom how to shoot.
Books asks Gillom to visit three men with violent reputations: Mike Sweeney, the aging outlaw brother of a man Books killed in self-defense; Jack Pulford, the Faro dealer at the Metropole saloon, a deadly crack shot; and Cobb, Gillom's boss. He is to tell each that Books will be at the Metropole at 11:00 am on January 29, his birthday. On the morning of January 29, the headstone arrives, which includes Books' death year as 1901, but with no day. Books gives Gillom his beloved horse, bids farewell to Bond, and then boards a trolley for the saloon.
Books enters the saloon to find the three men at different tables. Books orders a drink, toasting his birthday and his three guests. Cobb, Sweeney, and Pulford each try to kill Books, but despite being shot in the arm, he kills them. A crowd gathers in the street having heard the gunshots. Gillom eventually enters the bar. His shouted warning is too late as the Metropole's bartender shoots Books in the back, mortally wounding him. Gillom takes up Books' gun and kills the bartender. Realizing what he has done, Gillom throws the gun away. Books smiles before dying, approving of Gillom not following his ways. Gillom covers the body with his coat and walks outside to his waiting mother. He walks past her, and she turns and follows him.
Producer Mike Frankovich announced that he had purchased the movie rights to Glendon Swarthout's novel The Shootist, and Wayne expressed a strong desire to play the title role, reportedly because of similarities to the character Jimmy Ringo in The Gunfighter, a role that he had turned down 25 years earlier.[3][4] He was not initially considered due to the health and stamina issues that he had experienced during filming of 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. 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, but 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 terminally ill when the film was made in 1976. He had been a heavy cigarette smoker for most of his life, and he was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1964. He 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, Wayne appeared in a televised public service announcement for the American Cancer Society that began with the scene in which his character is informed of his cancer. Wayne then added that he had enacted the same scene in real life 12 years earlier.[8]
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. It was a Paramount production, yet 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 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 moving 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 were cast at his request, including Bacall, Stewart, Boone, and Carradine. 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 worked together in two previous Westerns: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and How the West Was Won, both released in 1962.
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 he 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]
Reception
Box office
Upon its theatrical release, The Shootist was a modest success, grossing $13,406,138 domestically,[1] About $6 million were earned in US theatrical rentals.[16]
There’s nothing in The Shootist you haven’t seen done many times before and done better … but what you haven’t seen before is a dying John Wayne give his last performance. And it’s Wayne’s performance, and the performances of some of the surrounding characters (Howard, Richard Boone, Harry Morgan, and Sheree North) that make The Shootist not the classic it wants to be, but memorable nonetheless.[20]
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.")
^"AFI's 10 Top 10 Nominees"(PDF). Archived from the original on July 16, 2011. Retrieved August 19, 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
^Tarantino, Quentin (December 24, 2019). "The Shootist". New Beverly Cinema. Archived from the original on January 24, 2020. Retrieved March 23, 2020.
^"AFI's 10 Top 10 Nominees"(PDF). Archived from the original on July 16, 2011. Retrieved August 20, 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
