THE SHOOTIST (1976) *** "I was just readin' about Queen Vic!" John Wayne rides off into his last sunset (actually gets his ass shot off in a bar just like he'd planned) with extraordinary style and, dare I say it?, yes. Elegance. Typecast as always he's now terminally ill and an all-star revue of friends and admirers say their piece along the way. Jimmy Stewart is particularly moving, and as the doctor gives The Duke a bottle of Laudenum to tool around with and nip at. After that saloon whiskey probably had a sobering effect. Ronnie Howard isn't entirely convincing as a borderline juvenile delinquent, at least until he turns good at the end, but his youthful good soul and peachfuzz looks are great counterpoint to the baddest good cowboy of them all. Lauren Bacall as the platonic love interest, Harry Morgan as the wiseacre local sheriff not sad to see John Wayne go...fortunately he's not a great actor so his love clearly shows through despite the venomous lines...if only everyone could go out on top of their game like this. John Wayne was never better, never even better looking. Why couldn't the American conservative movement have picked up on his rugged individualist spiritual depth and wit, instead of foreign policy?
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