IMDb > The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
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The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) More at IMDbPro »

Videos (see all 3)
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) -- Clip: You didn't kill Liberty Valance
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) -- Clip: Hit that can
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) -- Clip: You pick it up

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Overview

User Rating:
8.1/10   20,910 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?

Up 13% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.

Director:

John Ford

Writers:

James Warner Bellah (screenplay) and
Willis Goldbeck (screenplay) ...
more

Contact:

View company contact information for The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance on IMDbPro.

Release Date:

22 April 1962 (USA) more

Genre:

Drama | Romance | Western more

Tagline:

Together For The First Time - James Stewart - John Wayne - in the masterpiece of four-time Academy Award winner John Ford

Plot:

A senator, who became famous for killing a notorious outlaw, returns for the funeral of an old friend and tells the truth about his deed. full summary | full synopsis

Plot Keywords:

more

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 3 wins & 2 nominations more

NewsDesk:
(14 articles)

Directors We Love: John Ford
 (From Cinematical. 16 September 2009, 8:15 PM, PDT)

DVD: Review: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
 (From The AV Club. 2 June 2009, 10:00 PM, PDT)

User Comments:

Ford's chamber Western more (151 total)


Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Additional Details

Runtime:

123 min | Brazil:124 min | West Germany:113 min (cut version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1 more

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Filming Locations:

California, USA more


Fun Stuff

Trivia:

This was John Ford's last film in black and white. more

Goofs:

Continuity: When Tom enters the kitchen as Hallie is tending to Rance's wound and when he starts getting drunk his shirt is dark (probably Wayne's favorite blue, if the movie were in color). When he arrives at his ranch, the shirt is now much lighter (possibly red if in color.) more

Quotes:

[first lines]
Ransom Stoddard: [descending from railway carriage and consulting pocket watch] Thanks, Jason. On time.
more

Movie Connections:

Featured in Coming Attractions: The History of the Movie Trailer (2006) more

Soundtrack:

Main Theme more


FAQ

A Note Regarding Spoilers
Is this movie based on a novel?
Is this movie a musical?
more
24 out of 27 people found the following comment useful.
Ford's chamber Western, 22 August 2003
Author: John Simpson (post@jandesimpson.wanadoo.co.uk) from Hastings, England

Some films are slow to give up their secrets first time round and need some time to elapse before they are revalued. An opportunity to see "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" after a gap of several years turned out to be an unexpectedly rewarding experience. It had never been one of my favourite Ford films; indeed I was always puzzled why many rate it so highly in the canon. Its rather plain black-and-white visuals smack of low production values and it has little of the grand operatic sweep of many of his other Westerns. I can now see that I was rather missing the point: "Liberty Valance" is that rare thing, a chamber Western, a quiet and elegiac reappraisal of the legends of the West made almost at the end of Ford's creative career with "Cheyenne Autumn" the only Western still to come. A U.S. senator played by James Stewart returns with his wife (Vera Miles at her most attractive) to the small Western town, where, as a young man, he tied to set up a law business, to attend the funeral of the man (John Wayne) who saved his life when he tried to rid the community of its villain, Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin). Ford's Westerns had always been the stuff of legend. Now, towards the end of his career, he began to take the legend apart. The hero is not the one who goes on to become one of the town's most illustrious sons but the quiet man who fades into the background. It needs more than idealism to overcome evil, the film seems to be saying, Brute force has to be countered by brute force; moreover, true worth is not always rewarded or recognised by society. It is a bleak message that Ford is giving us. By homing in on character and plot to a far greater extent than usual, he gives us an experience that is often more akin to filmed theatre than cinema. There are unusually long sequences in studio built interiors, the diner, the bar and a theatre where an election adoption meeting is taking place. Outdoor sequences are few and far between. Instead of a large collective enemy such as marauding Indian tribes there is just the one baddy and his pair of sycophants. The pivotal action scene where Liberty Valance receives his just deserts takes place in a dark street and has none of the climactic sense of drama to be found in such shootouts as "My Darling Clementine" of Zinnemann's "High Noon". I can at last see that those very limitations that for so so long prevented me from appreciating "Liberty Valance" give it a sense of concentration and strength that the Western rarely achieves.

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Message Boards

Discuss this movie with other users on IMDb message board for The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
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Song mwjpwj
The look on Hallie's face at the end dshivers
Did anyone notice something about Pompey? santol321
Stutterer HighClassHaddock
Why Black + White jimbo700
At what point do you think Ranse told Hallie the truth? nomen_est_omen_4
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