While rarely considered among the great directors of his era, most likely for his old-school studio methods of making films, Don Siegel made a number of wildly impressive films throughout his career. Behind the camera, he played a key role in helping Clint Eastwood make the difficult transition from a likeable actor to a major American star and director, not only directing Eastwood in The Beguiled, Two Mules for Sister Sara and – most famously – Dirty Harry but also mentoring Eastwood in his early days as a director during the early 1970s. Siegel, though rarely given credit for doing so, influenced a vast number of great directors who followed him and his work.

The Shootist is not a film that is brought up too often even when Siegel is mentioned. But the reasons for this great film being so widely forgotten are dumbfounding given its quality and fascinating surrounding context. This 1976 western drama was one of the last films Siegel directed, and it also features the final on-screen performance of the legendary (cinematically, that is, the less known about his off-screen life the better in most cases) John Wayne before his death in 1979.

The story of The Shootist aligns with the shifts in American filmmaking towards the Hollywood New Wave and away from the westerns and period epics which had reliably filled cinemas for decades in its melancholic reflections on Wayne's character, J.B. Books, an aging gunslinger who must face a terminal cancer diagnosis. But it also reflects Wayne's own death from cancer three years after the film's release.

Early on in the film, J.B. visits his doctor (played by James Stewart, reuniting the two main players in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, another late western masterpiece) who must give him the painful diagnosis. Suddenly all too aware of his impending death, J.B. spends the rest of the film trying to humanise himself. A famous outlaw and ‘shootist', J.B. has spent an entire lifetime taking the lives of others. Faced with the fame and fear that so many have for him, he is aware that he is a myth, a man seen as immortal in the eyes of others. But, as The Shootist so brilliantly makes clear, even myths die. Even the towering heroes of the screen have their time. Even the era of the Wild West can so easily be trampled out by modernity and early technologies. And, even worse, when the time comes for these eras and heroes to die, people will line up to profit from that very death.

Delivering this message that the majority of his audience likely didn't want to hear, Siegel directs with poise and empathy. The cinematography of Siegel and Eastwood regular Bruce Surtees is gentle and quietly inviting, Siegel's blocking stage-like and mostly quite simple. But the forceful sadness of the film, evoked by a surprisingly moving performance from Wayne supported by sturdy turns from Stewart, Lauren Bacall and a young Ron Howard, makes the film startlingly upsetting.

Siegel's film is tactful and tragic, a deeply moving reflection on the inevitable death of all, particularly in a world ruled by violence and corruption. The quiet heroism of J.B.'s final days only make the ugliness of the world around him more palpable, more devastating. It's difficult to imagine a more suitable conclusion to Wayne's time occupying the screen than The Shootist, a phenomenal and subversive western drama.

Limited Edition Blu-ray Contents

2K remaster by Arrow Films from the original 35mm camera negative
High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
Original lossless mono audio
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
Audio commentary by filmmaker and critic Howard S. Berger
The Last Day, a visual essay by film critic David Cairns
A Man-Making Moment, an interview with Western author C. Courtney Joyner
Laments of the West, an appreciation of Elmer Bernstein's score by film historian and composer Neil Brand
Contemplating John Wayne: The Death of a Cowboy, a visual essay by filmmaker and critic Scout Tafoya
The Shootist: The Legend Lives On, archival featurette
Theatrical trailer
Image gallery
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Juan Esteban Rodríguez
Illustrated collector's booklet featuring writing by film critic Philip Kemp