Rating: 
Summary: Just great for his last movie!
Review: In this movie, John Wayne portrays J.B. Books, a man with cancer who heads to Carson City and settles down. This was very hard when he had to move a lot, because he needed to have oxygen, but he made it through. As the story goes along, it eventually shows how and when it will end, and at the end I just get a special feeling of wanting to watch another movie where he is somewhat less older. Even though I get that feeling, I still must say that this touching movie is one that you will treasure forever.
Rating: 
Summary: The Worstist.
Review: Somber, depressing, and ultimately stupid. The movie that never should have been made. It's painful to see a geriatric John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart dodder around in a genre they helped to define. Combined with Ron Howard's less than stellar reprisal of Opie Taylor make for a very forgettable film..."Oh Mawwww, I just love that old man." See, told you it was stupid. And I'm sorry people, but as a 70Something gunfighter, the Duke may have been more believable playing the role of an NFL quarterback. If this hadn't been John Wayne's last movie it would have been forgotten long ago. A monument to the whimpey sentimentality of today's socially engineered masses. I love John Wayne, but this movie is one of his worst. 2 spurs.
Rating:
Summary: Duke's goodbye
Review: I don't care how much of a man you think or say you are, but when Wayne is saying goodbye to Lauren Becall, you will have some tears coming down. I did. For an actor like John Wayne, this movie is the only way he could have said goodbye to his fans. A wonderful story of a dying gunfighter, going out on his own rules. A wonderful lasting goodbye for an American Icon.
Rating:
Summary: I'm a lost child scared of the dark.
Review: Hearing John Wayne speaking these words is something else. The man who defines courage and grace under pressure. This is what makes this movie so memorable. I had to watch it twice to really enjoy it. Wayne stars as a man prepariing to die of cancer. Wayne at this time had lost a lung to cancer and was weak during the production. I enjoyed the first scene right off the bat. It shows a black and white montage of his previous movies. While you're watching this, you hear him say, "I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted, and I won't be laid a hand on. I don't do these things to other people and I expect the same from them." Wayne at his best.
The chemistry between Mr. Brooks and Bond, a crusty landlady is terrific. It was appropriate the Jimmy Stewart (Man who Shot Liberty Valence) appear in Wayne's last film as a doctor. He delivers the line, "You have a cancer." Later, after describing the agony of cancer, he tells Brooks, "You're a brave man. If I was a brave man, I wouldn't die like that."
Thus giving the Wayne the idea. Like Davy Crockett at the Alamo, he prepares to die fighting the good fight. Removing three evils from the community. On the final day, it is touching to hear Brooks and Bond saying good bye for the last time. Likewise, he tells one pretty lady (Meldoy Thomas) that he hopes that she finds the right man soon. Likewise he gives his pillow to the driver.
Scenes of his kindess are spread throughout the film. Especially when Miss Bond helps him after he slips in the bathroom. This is a foil to the newspaper men, the marshall, the undertaker, and an old lady friend whose greed and exploitation irratate him.
Like "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence", it also deals with the changing west. That final day is a "false-spring". Very touching and appropriate for John Wayne.
Rating:
Summary: Very Good
Review: This is a very good movie, with a top-notch cast. As a woman, westerns are not my favorite genre, but there are two westerns I truly love to watch: "The Shootist," and "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid." John Wayne plays an aging gunfighter who rents a room from a widow woman (Lauren Bacall) and her young, impressionable son played by Ron Howard. James Stewart, as the doctor, informs Wayne that he is dying of cancer. Wayne, then, sets out to get his affairs in order. "The Shootist" is movie-making at its finest.
Rating:
Summary: John Wayne's Greatest Role
Review: Red River was a great western; The Searchers was a great western; The Shootist surpasses them. On my personal list of all time greatest movies only The Unforgiven is a better film. Wayne is splendid as a dying man, an anachronism, which is a fair description of his personal life as well as the life of the character he plays, J.B. Books. In the film, as one suspects Wayne is telling us about his life, the hero is unapolgetic; proud and still capable, soaring above the petty concerns of his inferiors who do not understand him or his times. Harry Morgan has a memorable part as a sheriff of the new age dawning at the beginning of the 20th century. Morgan's characterization makes one long for more romantic times when humans were revered not for their conformity, but rather for their ability to ascend beyond mere humanity and into legend. RIP JB Books and John Wayne and thanks for the standards by which we can judge our modern world.
Rating:
Summary: One of His Best
Review: One of the finest western films and one of the best of Waynes performances
Rating:
Summary: Probably the best western
Review: Even if you don't like westerns, you might like this. It is not so much the story of a gunslinger, but the story of dying with dignity. John Wayne's character, J.B.Books has a rich history hinted at in the film. Although we barely see his horse, we know that they have been through much together, that it's a fine horse, and that the horse may just be his closest friend. Our knowledge of westerns tells us so much of the back story and fills in so much of the character detail without our having to be told, that the film has time to concentrate on its main story, the developing relationship between Books and his landlady (probably the most elegant old lady in cinema, Lauren Bacall), and her son, played by a young Ron Howard. The film is pleasantly short, and well-paced throughout its 90 minute length. The story is split up into a number of days, each of which is clearly announced on the screen, a good example to the many films where the passage of time is not clear. As Wayne's last performance it's an allegory of his own life, going out with a bang, rather than fading away, and a fitting testimony for this most popular screen cowboy.
Rating: 
Summary: In a way, almost a biography. . .
Review: Along with his performances in SHE WORE A YELLOW RIBBON and THE SEARCHERS, John Wayne isn't just playing a character, he IS the character. Considering that J. B. Books is dying of cancer, is called "Methusalah" by one man, and that another says that his kind is dying out, one has to wonder what was going through Wayne's mind as he made this film. He and director Don Siegel had strong disagreements throughout the making of it, but there is something so perfect and so (for want of a better term) "zen" about the Duke's performance that the arguments must have made this the great film it is. There is not a false note in the film, and some performances besides Wayne's (Bacall, John Carradine and especially Richard Boone-damn, what a great character actor and what a face [just observe Boone when he strides into the Metropole Saloon towards the end and his reaction to the others there-perfect]) are just astounding. But it is Wayne's film, and it is a shame that it did not do better at the box office when it was released, but that could have been due to indifference from younger viewers, the same from the studio, or possibly a sadness from Wayne's loyal fan base that just did not want to see him playing his older, dying self onscreen. Nonetheless, no other actor, movie star or just plain American icon had as fine a farewell to us as Marion Morrison had with THE SHOOTIST. My only complaint with the DVD release is this: why no commentary with Bacall, Howard, or O'Brien? This is your typical Paramount DVD with little or no extras for an older film, and [the price]? C'mon, guys! If you aren't going to spring for a commentary track, how about knocking [money] off the list price? This was my main complaint with THE UNTOUCHABLES and the main reason I didn't buy that disc. At least MGM/UA with its paucity of extras has the decency to lower the price (even if THE ALAMO is the short version), so what gives here?
Rating:
Summary: Sad but Exemplary Movie
Review: As has probably been echoed in many other reviews, this movie was a pretty painful depiction of the real life struggle John was having with his own ill health at time of production. The storyline is somewhat simple - a dying infamous gunfighter is finally facing fear, but not at the hands of another gunman, rather at a painful and debilitating illness. James Stewart adds grace to the aging town doctor who tells Wayne "I would not die a death like I described, if I were brave like you", lending to a story of one final showdown. Some interesting cameos add to the plot, and an early performance from Ron Howard as an impressionable teenager blend well. I think what sets this apart from many Wayne movies, is his versatility - often rebuked for writing his own character over other roles, here he is both believable and accomplished. Amazing as it is that he only ever won a single academy award (True Grit), he genuinely deserved one for this movie. Stirring and realistic, a very very good movie.
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