The Shootist

At the start of the 20th Century, aging gunfighter John Bernard Books (John Wayne) arrives in Kansas City to find out that he has inoperable cancer and will soon die. At first, he attempts to keep his identity and condition secret, staying in the boarding house of widowed Bond Rogers (Lauren Bacall), but soon news spreads and Brooks finds himself the center of unwanted attention of all kinds, both fawning and fatal. When the widow's son Gillom (Ron Howard) becomes especially enamored of Brooks and his gunslinger lifestyle, Brooks decides to teach the boy one final lesson about the truth behind the Old West.