The Shootist News

In my mind, perhaps THE most undeserving Best Actor Oscar EVER present was in 1970 when John Wayne received the honor for his "performance" in "True Grit." It was a lifetime achievement award to be exact; that movie wasn't The Duke's 20th best performance .

Lauren Bacall made one of the greatest debuts in film history. In 1944's " To Have and Have Not, " she told Humphrey Bogart's character, "You know how to whistle, don't you, Steve? You just put your lips together and ... blow." Wow.

The Coen Brothers may have found their John Wayne replacement for their remake of True Grit, oh excuse me it's not a remake, it's a reboot.

August's free movies on Mount Pony wrap up this weekend with a John Wayne western, an R-rated drama with big, small-town characters and a 76-year-old musical comedy starring tough guy James Cagney.

Take a trip down under in the LOC Packard Campus Theater with the Friday Night Foreign, "Walkabout" , screening tonight at 7:30. In English with Australian accents, the movie tells the story of two children stranded in the Outback and their cultural meeting with an Aborigine on walkabout, that is, a periodic return to nomadic life, or something.

In my film library reside more than 60 John Wayne DVDs. Certainly not the majority of his 250 films; but, the best, in my opinion.

Exactly three decades have passed since he died, but John Wayne continues to figure prominently in surveys that rank film actors.

August is going to be wild on Mount Pony as the Library of Congress Packard Campus Theater launches a new film series: "John Wayne - AND the West." The Duke stars in three movies in the coming month including "Rio Bravo" Saturday night, "Rio Grande" on August 7 and "The Shootist" August 27.

If American Movie Classics is going to show John Wayne movies, I wish they would leave 'Rio Bravo' off the list.

John Wayne , who died in 1979, may set the record for a posthumous performances if a sci-fi western he supposedly made an appearance in decades ago turns up as promised on DVD.

Instapundit leads me to a post on "The Top 10 Manly Movie Deaths of All Time," a great idea which pretty much sucks in execution because the person who wrote the post must be about 22 10 - Leon in The Professional 9 - Optimus Prime in Transformers: The Movie 8 - Tony Montana in Scarface 7 - The Terminator in Terminator 2: Judgment Day 6 - Bill in ...

Any fan of old westerns would probably say that the 1976 movie, 'The Shootist,' was John Wayne's last film.

"I won't be wronged," says John Wayne's dying gunfighter in The Shootist . "I won't be insulted.

Things are forgotten. Other things get manufactured. Memory is an unreliable narrator.

Shooting star: will 'Gran Torino' be Clint Eastwood's final film performance? Gran Torino 15, Warners, 19.56 Clint Eastwood has said that the role of Walt Kowalski, the cantankerous, racist, beer-swilling suburban vigilante in Gran Torino, may be his last.

A woman who was once married to accused killer James von Brunn said Thursday she believes he went to the Holocaust Museum in Washington hoping to die there.

The second ex-wife of James von Brunn, the man who shot and killed a security guard at the Holocaust Museum yesterday, spoke publicly Thursday for the first time.

JOHN Wayne, Pele and Ronnie Barker in the film guide where everybody knows your name.

The first time I saw him, he was striding toward me out of the burning Georgia sun, as helicopters landed behind him.

Though Paul Newman died last year an old man in his 80s, ravaged by cancer, most remember him as youthful Butch Cassidy, mischievous and beautiful, those sparkling blue eyes the envy of anyone who stared into them.