10 Most Ambitious Westerns Movies Ever Made

John Wayne's final picture is an elegy for the Old West and for old western pictures, telling a story of exceptional poignancy.

The Shootist tells the tale of ageing gunfighter J.B. Books arriving in Carson City, Nevada, in 1901, and the run up to the end of his life after he is diagnosed with terminal cancer. The legends of the West tend to live fast and die young, so first and foremost there is something to be said for showcasing the same gunfighter character John Wayne had epitomised in youth in their twilight years. The result in a film whose tone is at turns sombre and defiant; age and disease may be draining him, but Books is determined to live and die by his own rules.

The Shootist was John Wayne's final role and the film is constructed around that, even though the story that Wayne was in fact suffering from the illness which was ultimately take his life at the time of shooting is false (he had been diagnosed with and had beaten lung cancer prior to The Shootist). Understanding how the story of Books could be a vehicle for one of the genre's undisputed idols final farewell was an ambitious move, all the more impressive in that they managed to pull it off.