In the movie, John Wayne is looking to settle down and relax for the rest of his life when Jimmy Stewart, playing a doctor, informs him of his cancer that will end his life soon. Also starring in the movie is Ron Howard, an impressoinable youngster who wants to be a gunslinging hero like Wayne.

Good acting abounds all around, and this movie is especially memorable because of all the old details and Wayne movies that come to play. The final act features a grand shootout with Wayne and a bunch of former enemies in a bar, a scene that is emotional and exciting. The ending is magnificent, with the impressionable Ron Howard left hurt but better off.

Perhaps Wayne's best western.

This final film of the Duke could not have been more fitting. Wayne plays an old gunfighter who's dying of cancer. He knows he's dying, and tries to live out his final days in peace. The real tragedy of the story is that no one will let him--he is constantly harassed by would-be heroes, newspapermen, and people seeking to play a part in the death of a legend. The role is a different one for the Duke--he doesn't play the tough-as-nails cowboy this time--and yet he seems to fit it perfectly.

This is perhaps the most fitting farewell of a Hollywood legend conceivable. No matter what people think of him, few can deny the everlasting impact that John Wayne has had on American society. This film is the last hurrah, the blaze of glory. Wayne's character, and Wayne himself, senses the end of his era, and goes out with style.

The Shootist has the cast from Hell: John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, Lauren Bacall, Ron Howard, Harry Morgan, John Carradine, Hugh O'Brian, Richard Boone, Scatman Crothers, all in the same movie. Made on a shoestring budget of eight million (not a lot of money for a major Hollywood production even in mid-Seventies dollars) the only way The Shootist could afford such a cast was that everyone involved realized this would probably be Wayne's last picture, and wanted to be involved. Hugh O'Brian volunteered to play his part for free.

The only "extras" on the DVD are the original trailer which is mediocre and a "Making Of" feature that's absolutely excellent. In the latter it's revealed the filmmakers changed the ending of the movie from the book on which it was based. In the novel, J.B. Books is killed at the end by young Gillom Rogers (Ron Howard) after surviving the final gun battle. But the powers that were felt it would be awfully hard to have audiences like the Howard character after that. In hindsight they realize their decision weakened the movie. And they're right. That would have been the perfect ending to The Shootist, the ultimate act of love from Gillom to Books, to be the one who ended his pain when no one else could. The way the movie does end is great - The Shootist is fully deserving of its five stars - but it could have been even better.

While it would be difficult to make a case against either Once Upon a Time In the West, Red River, or The Outlaw Josey Wales being the best Western ever made, The Shootist is one of the very few movies even worthy to be mentioned in their class. It adds an immense amount of poignancy to Wayne's portrayal of J.B. Books, a strong man in the final stages of terminal cancer, to know the actor was in exactly the same situation at the time. This is arguably Wayne's finest acting job, understated and powerful. While some actors are great for a time, then degenerate into crap roles to finish out their careers (Basil Rathbone's last movie was Hillbillys from Outer Space, if you can believe it), John Wayne was a class act til the very end. The Shootist was the perfect way to cap his career: one last superb Western from the greatest Western star of all.