Who would image that I'd come across a movie that emphasizes two of my favorite topics.
- End of life issues
- Living like a true Christian when the going gets tough.
Yesterday I watched it again. And I loved it. Again.
The time and place: It's set in 1906 in Carson City, Nevada. This is not the dusty, one street town we're used to seeing in westerns, This Carson City has electricity, running water, telephones, lovely homes and a trolley. Think of a western version of "Meet Me in St. Louis."
The Premise: A former sheriff and famous gunslinger discovers he's riddled with cancer and dying. He chooses to do it in Carson City.
John Wayne: This was Wayne's last movie. He died from cancer three years after it was finished. A life long heavy smoker, Wayne had already had a lung removed in 1964. Knowing this was his last certainly made the movie much more poignant. Playing a man like J. B. Books is the way we'd expect Wayne to go, with guns blazing.
However, there is very little violence in this film. It's a controlled and intelligent performance.
Lauren Bacall: She plays, Bond Rogers, a widow who rents rooms in her lovely home. She rents a room to Books. Throughout the movie she treats Books with kindness and respect. Unlike her other renters who move because they can't be seen living in the same house with a famous gunslinger, thereby making it difficult for her to to keep afloat. She continues to treat him with loving kindness. She's a Christian woman, but she's not pious. She's a servant, like we should be when we're around suffering people. She doesn't judge him.
(And they'll know we are Christian by our love, by our love. Yeah, they'll know we are Christian by our love.)
The time she helps Books out of the bathtub is an example. Believe me, when you've been strong and in charge your entire life, it's hard when we must make ourselves this vulnerable and accept this help.
Ron Howard: He plays Bond's teenaged son, Gillum. He's a drinking, swearing (but good) kid. At the end of the movie we have to accept that Opie (Oops, I mean Gillum) will most likely be a gunslinger like Books. Or maybe not.
Jimmy Stewart: He has a small role as a doctor. In the beginning Books travels to Carson City to have the doctor, an old friend, confirm the diagnosis he'd previously been given. The doctor tells Books just how excruciating the next few weeks will be.
This is a western, but with much deeper themes. Books is vulnerable. It's a controlled and intelligent performance. A fitting tribute to John Wayne. And I'm impressed he would choose this as his final film.
I saw it on YouTube for free.
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