I Won't Be Forgotten

J.B. Books, Wayne's last role

When talking about his life John Wayne said, “I've played the kind of man I'd like to have been” (Munn). But in the last film he ever stared in the line between John Wayne the actor and John Wayne the character would become nearly indistinguishable. The final film that this blog will examine is the final film that Wayne stared in before his death in 1979. “The Shootist”, a Don Siegel film released in 1976, chronicles the final days of the aging gunfighter John Bernard Books. Books, a national icon from his days in the wild west, finds himself an outcast to the 20^th century society which either sees him as more of a legend than a person or sees his views as archaic and barbaric. The plot of the film centers around the fact that Books was perhaps too good in his time and, rather than having died heroically as a gunfighter, is now dying of “a cancer”. With his time on the Earth running out Books seeks one last chance to die with honor rather than waste away. The parallels to Wayne’s life are stronger in this film than perhaps any other. Wayne, like Books, was plagued with cancer during the time of the movie and knew it would likely be his last film. Just as Books seeks one last chance to die heroically Wayne sought one last chance to be a star. Both men feared fading away and being forgotten and call upon their inner cowboy to uphold righteousness and justice one more time. Wayne and Books uphold their cowboy code even in the changing world, Wayne even forced a scene from the final shootout to be redone as in his absence Siegel had filmed Books acting against Wayne’s code. Wayne reportedly claimed, “Whatever the cause, I would never shoot anyone in the back. It’s unthinkable for my image” (Horne). In this film Wayne truly reflects the character he plays, J.B. Books is the representation of John Wayne being the cowboy one last time, in a world where he is either regarded as more a myth than a man or disrespected for his views and actions. He's not the played straight Ringo Kid, or the deconstructed Ethan Edwards, or even the over-the-top Rooster Cogburn, in this film Wayne truly seems to play himself after a lifetime of acting. It is perhaps the most honest performance Wayne gives his entire life, and it shows in the way he beautifully plays J.B. Books.  



Horne, Philip. "John Wayne: One Last Shot before the Final Farewell." The Telegraph. Telegraph
     Media Group, 20 Sept. 2010. Web. 12 Dec. 2015.

Munn, Michael. John Wayne: The Man Behind the Myth. New York: New American Library, 2004.
      Google Books. Google, 1 Mar. 2005. Web. 5 Dec. 2015.