Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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?bi ^ wy 11 f * (I ? irVh A SI JL JLXv/ PL/i medio* Editor's Note: This review published in the summer Ga nulled from general release summer because of the televi Olympics. Because of the r? ^ Shootist" is being rerun for By CHUCK CROMER Entertainment Editor During the past 30 years, i have become synonymous. More than any other actor, the traditional western hen Wayne portrays westemei passionate, dedicated, masc invincible. NEARLY ALL of Wayne dimensional character that ** Wayne's own self. He becarm his first critically acclaime 1939, to his present movie, 4 With "The Shootist", th cultivated to the extreme. Th days in the life of a legendai the gunfighter, .John Bernarc month to live because of a 1 Old and worn out, Books < * 'The Deep tsy iii'iiMiiy unrir^ t Gamecock Staff Writer At first glance, "The appears to be author Pet* chley's attempt to cash in success of "Jaws" and k< ~ money rolling in. ? Perhaps. The common denominf "The Deep", hov/ever, is great white shark but a shipment of morphine that the ocean's bottom after t carrying the morphine wre? the coast of Bermuda during War II. m ~rttahg?ttm;turwv x r:::;:: c^ms ?uj| In fiJEk ' v ufWH Ft:... - m JHB^^BLaSfe^ >*s H?*?^^ * I l~* ?v^r Afl^^^rC^HL bootist' i ere wesie of "The Shootist" was first quiet] mecock. "The Shootist" was wido\ after a two week run this Hows ioIam AAirAVQrfa t\f IKa cnmmAi* l?rf i^ivii vwi/X 05V vi iiiv ouiifiiaivi jl t v release, our review of "Hie bean the students' entertainment. theki 9 bla symfc Til the western and John Wayne both Fii Wayne epitomizes the myth of west j. In his innumerable roles, "Sta *s as honest, loyal, com- film :uline and above all, nearly The his 1 t's westerns show this one- crea most of us have taken to be Ur i film's American dream from we 1 ;d western, "Stagecoach" in man 'The Shootist." philc le Wayne image has been diak le film recounts the final eight ry gunfighter. Wayne stars as wi 1 Books, who at 58 has only one suite cancer. just iecides to spend his last days the . >' is a shallow HEREIN LIES the plot: and Gail Sanders, an An couple spending their hone Deep i" nenuuua, uiscuver me \ jr Ben- morphine when they are ex] on the the wreck of the World } 3ep the vessel?the Goliath?on a expedition. They take one of the v Homer Treece, a diver wh< ?tor in authority on the wrecks ol not a muda's coast and who id< i large the substance they found sank to morphine. he ship The Sanders are then kidi :ked off by a West Indian gangster, g World Cloche, who is interest recovering the morphine ir ik 2 m fl >- . j^H Jv^^nir Hftak-. s another f ;rn ( y living in a Carson City boarding house run v (Lauren Bacall) and her violent teenage son ird). >m the beginning, it is clear that Books' last day ytning out peaceiui Decause socieiy seens 10 uisp iller before his time is up. Books decides to end it ize of gunfire in a showdown with three men olize the scum of the old and the new West. (ERE AKE two ways to view "The Shootist", i ways the film is a failure. "st. "The Shootist" is the definitive John \ ern; the culmination of an image that dates b? gecoach". In the opening credits, we witness a se clips from some of Wayne's most famous wes clips establish Books as a gunfighter in the twili life while honoring the western legend Wayn ted in the past 50 years. ifortunately, the typical John Wayne sermonizin lave come to expect in his films is painfully ized in "The Shootist." His off-screen pe tnrvrvU? /ao r\ Iwviif mUnf 14 So Kn n 4 4 r?/? ol" mart i ?u|JlllC3 ai^uui wiku n is m uu d iuii iiictn v_vmn )gue and make the speakers look ridiculous. [TH SUCH catchy lines as "I won't be wrongc ;d, or laid a hand upon," or "There's some things can't run away from," the script becomes stranj John Wayne motto. writing effort David to convert it into heroin and sell it Lerican in the United States. Cloche orders ymoon the Sanders to recover the sunken rials of morphine for him. ploring The Sanders and Treece recover ^ar II the ampules but not before they try diving to destroy it. Their attempts to recover the ials to morphine, as well as a sunken 3 is an Spanish treasure that they have ff Ber- found nearby, take up most of the intifies book. to be SO MUCH for the plot. There are a few obstacles lapped however, in reading "The Deep". Henri One is Benchley's seafaring :ed in language. The reader should know 1 order See DEKP, Page 10 II i ''.ir #*> ?^?^^^^^BBBSss^BHB Paramount Pictures The Gam PnfArtfl! by a A second way to view (Ron attempt to produce a tra style of the 1940's. It is har > will formats, however. We vii >se of interest, but we surely cai all in such films produced in th who Overall, these films ar grown accustomed to west nd in desperation of the wester Furthermore, "The Sho fayne the classic western, 4,1 nlr f/v rv rt m n 1 1 n 1Pimilor f A civ iu ^aiaucid cu c 011111101 t\j ies of fastest gun alive who, li :erns. seeking the tranquility of *ht of his environment because I 3 has THE SHOOTIST" suff I that Among them is Don Siegel sum- often boring. He fails to sonal disaster. Siegel's use of til ol the eight days into separate climax. Often we sense that Wa? d, in- best at directing the acti t man "Coogan's Bluff." "The S ed by movement. . V "The Deep" recognized as novel (autl Vine citvirklv rol BICAO OAJIlI?#Ajr A VI adventure story The Shootist John Wayne plays a worn out gunfighter in Don Siegel's "The Shootist". The film portrays the last eight days in the life of a washed up gunfighter, dvincf of cancpr. Instead of ?^ 0 ? ? - ~ ?letting the cancer consume him, Wayne decides to die in one last blaze of gunfire. ecock nmenf i The Shootist" is to view it as an ditional western in the popular d for our society to believe these ew these films with a nostalgic n not believe the romanticism of le 1970's. e not realistic. Americans have erns that depict the savagery and n lifestyle. otist" is almost a carbon copy of Tho fliinfirthfor " MQRA1 Thft JL Ilv VIUllll^IllV^l , \ li/t/V/ . AIIV/ Gregory Peck starring as the ike Books, is exhausted and is death. Peck too is out of place in his West no longer exists. ers from many other drawbacks. I's direction, which is tedious and set the mood for the impending Jes to divide each of Books' final sequences destroys much of the /no is directing, because Siegel is ion films like "Dirty Harry" or Ihootist" has very little action or See SHOOTIST, Page 10 should be M a vm anAMKM ior) Benchley eased a new '