 |
Cancer Major 
|
|
|
TITLE |
Shootist, The (1976) |
|
NOTES |
Wayne,
gunfighter, is dying of cancer. Watch Wayne act. |
|
Wayne's last
film, I think, since he himself was dying of |
|
cancer. Also
marks the end of the western era since it's set |
|
Wayne learns
from James Stewart that he has advanced |
|
cancer and
it's terminal. He wants to know what the last |
|
stages will
be like. Stewart hints at suicide. |
|
Typical
Wayne: "I admire get up and go" and in a put-down to |
|
Bacall "I's
sure there's starch in your corset" and of himself |
|
"too proud
to take help from anyone". Though he doesn't |
|
hesitate to
boss people about. Typical for the period he has a good black
friend. "I can't abide a skulker" he says so it's a |
|
good thing
he wasn't knocking at Andy McDowell's door in 4 |
|
The young
men of the town act like fans of a football player |
|
except
Wayne's character is credited with killing 30 people. |
|
For the pain
he takes laudenum, a mixture of alcohol and |
|
opium. No
tablespoonful for Wayne, he takes great gulps |
|
There's a
scene where men out to get him shoot at a hump in |
|
the bed
while the hero hides behind a curtain. Then a |
|
shooting
lesson for the young son of the landlady. |
|
And you know
in this new world of the west there will be that |
|
new
invention, the car. There's also a horse driven tram |
|
going up and
down the street. |
|
In the end
Wayne commits what today we'd compare to |
|
suicide by
police. He sets up three people who hate him to |
|
meet him in
the local bar, shoots them all and then is fatally |
|
Notes
|
|
