Saturday, May 10, 2008
END OF AN ERA
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was the last John Wayne picture made.
As a kid, I saw every John Wayne movie that I could get to. The westerns and not.
This is the last and it is a eulogy at many levels.
The shootist of the title is dying but so is his world. He goes to the citified Carson City for a second opinion. He has "a cancer". From the symptoms, I can vouch for the fact that it is prostate cancer.
From there we have the story of his coming to grips and finding a way out that might not involve the agony of the disease's last stages.
There is an overlay here and that is the fact that Wayne had cancer and died from it three years after this film was made.
The story shows the shootists humanity arising out of the hard shell of a professional gunman. It is very well done.
Other older western stars fill out the bill. It is very nice to see them.
I liked this film a lot (once I got used to the hat) and will give it a 4 out of Netflix5.
I liked it and I wouldn't mind seeing it again.
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