Dying in the Saddle

By JAY COCKS

THE SHOOTIST

Directed by DON SIEGEL

Screenplay by MILES HOOD SWARTHOUT and SCOTT HALE

John Wayne, moving slow and seeming winded, appears here as one John Bernard Books, last of a breed. Books is a fast-draw artist, a gunslinger or, as the movie's title phrases it, a shootist. He has dispatched some 30 men over the course of a long career that is coming to a painful close just as The Shootist begins. J.B. Books comes riding into Carson City, gets examined by his friend Dr. Hostetler (James Stewart), and hears what he feared: he has cancer, and a few days to live.

There is a little shooting in The Shootist, to be sure, including the sort of climactic saloon gundown that is not only predictable but practically required by law. The movie is stately, even funereal, as it details the last week of J.B.'s life. Director Don Siegel excels at turning out saw-toothed melodramas (Dirty Harry), and likes to play along the grim edge where sullen threat turns to quick, obliterating violence. Not even in The Beguiled--a harrowingly beautiful gothic tale--has Siegel gone so far away from what is familiar to him.

The Shootist is deliberately low-keyed and sometimes affecting. But it is hampered by a sentimental, overwrought script and, finally, by its own reserve. The movie keeps the rigid bearing of a kid trying to sit still at a wake.

Besides the welcome participation of Stewart, The Shootist features Lauren Bacall, Richard Boone, Scatman Crothers, John Carradine and Ron Howard, of American Graffiti, whose youthful presence must have helped ease the insurance premiums on the cast. Wayne, of course, is the honcho, and he performs well, although he must have been a little discomfited at having to play the lead in his own eulogy. Siegel starts The Shootist off with film clips to show Books in action over the years. The scenes, of course, are from previous Wayne vehicles. Some are of rather recent vintage, others antique, but they pertain much more directly to the star himself than to the character he is playing. Also, it is common knowledge that Wayne had his own bout with cancer -- his testament that "I licked the Big C with the love of God and a lot of guts" is as well known as any line from his movies -- and The Shootist trades on this fact. Besides, all the sober, rueful honor laid on here is premature. Let us hope it stays that way for a long time.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.