This John Wayne Western perfected his late-stage career change and would have been a perfect last film for him

John Wayne had a great farewell in his final film, The shooterbut a different western at the end of his career – 1972 The cowboys — would have been an even better swan song for the Hollywood icon. There are many legendary actors who have left their mark on the Western genre, from Clint Eastwood to James Stewart, but no actor is more intrinsically linked to the Western than Wayne. Wayne starred in classic westerns such as Red River, Rio Bravoand The Comancheros. Wayne initially made a name for himself playing sharp heroes who spring into action and defeat the bad guys without a moment’s hesitation.

But as his career progressed, Wayne increasingly stepped out of his comfort zone and took on darker, more dramatically challenging roles in films such as True courage and The researchers. As he grew older, he began to reckon with his legacy and appeared in films that would act as a fitting farewell to the genre that made him a star. His last real film was from 1976 The shooterwhich provided a bittersweet ending to his decades-long film career, but a different 1972 Western would have worked just as well as Wayne’s final film.

John Wayne took on more father figure roles later in his career

As he grew older, Wayne’s characters became more paternalistic

After taking on the role of Ringo Kid in the John Ford film Diligence In 1939, Wayne became one of Hollywood’s first action heroes. He went on to play young, virile crusaders like Sheriff John T. Chance in Rio Bravo and Tom Doniphon in The man who shot Liberty Valance. But As he grew older, Wayne began to take on roles that saw him protecting and mentoring the next generation. In the later stages of his career, he began taking on many more roles, where he played a father figure to his younger co-stars.

The most famous example is from 1969 True courage. Wayne plays failed U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn, who reluctantly returns to action when 14-year-old orphan Mattie Ross recruits him to help her find her father’s killer. He took on a similar role in 1971 Big Jake. When John Fain’s gang kidnaps Jacob McCandles’ grandson for ransom, Big Jake decides to save the boy. That was a great use of Wayne’s star power later in life. He continued playing heroic roles that were more appropriate to his age, and they added some extra emotion to the stories.

The Cowboys Could Have Been a Perfect Final Film for John Wayne Because of This

The Cowboys see Wayne passing the torch to the next generation

The peak of the father figure stories Wayne told later in his career was in 1972. The cowboys. Based on the 1971 novel of the same name by William Dale Jennings, The cowboys stars Wayne as an elderly rancher named Wil Andersen, who is forced to hire a bunch of inexperienced kids as cowboys.. He needs to get his cattle to market on time, and as if the race against the clock wasn’t bad enough, they are harassed by a gang of thieves along the way.

Since The cowboys It’s a great coming-of-age Western and a prime example of what Wayne was doing in the latter stages of his careerseems like a fitting note to end on. The storyline of Wayne’s character passing the torch to the next generation works as a meta-commentary on Wayne the movie star passing the torch to a new generation of movie stars. With Wayne’s character teaching these children and then dying, but ensuring that his legacy will survive until the end, it works perfectly as a poignant and fitting farewell for the Duke himself.

John Wayne still had a great final role in the western

Wayne had a fantastic performance in Shootist

The cowboys It would have been a perfect send-off for Wayne, but his final film was also a great send-off. The shooterThe thematic exploration of Wayne’s mortality has a poignant double meaning, as it would be Wayne’s last film before his death. in 1979. He plays an old sheriff-turned-gunslinger named JB Books, who has over 30 murders to his name and is famous across the border. When a doctor tells him he has terminal cancer and only weeks to live, Books begins searching for a noble way to die.

It’s moving to watch a dying Western movie star play a dying gunslinger, looking for a dignified end to his life. There is nothing particularly innovative about The shooter – it plays with tropes and conventions that countless other westerns have played with before it – but the meta-element of Wayne reckoning with his mortality in the last film before his death makes it The shooter a unique classic. The cowboys would have been a fitting farewell to John Waynehis stay on the big screen, but there were much worse final films than The shooter.