The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

I imagine that many will say that this movie is dated. Since it is filmed in black and white, that will add to it being viewed as an old movie.

However, I believe the characters and acting lead to a most powerful movie. While we often see heroes and heroines portrayed as perfect people, the heroes and heroines in this movie seem much more true to life. They are wonderful, but never perfect. As such the movie hits closer to home and is more heart warming than most movies.

It did take a few minutes before I saw the greatness of this movie. At the start it almost seems a normal western. But as the characters unfold, coupled with excellent acting, the movie simply becomes much more. While John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart have been in many good movies, it is this movie that I likely will remember them the best.

»The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance« (1962) wins a top spot among my favourite classic westerns. The first shots of the film take us to Shinbone, a border town in an unnamed Western state, and the arrival of Senator Rans Stoddard and his wife Hallie. The funeral of local small rancher Tom Doniphon brings them, after many years, back to the town where the senator began his career, becoming known as "the man" from the title line. In an interview with a young reporter and editor-in-chief of a local newspaper covering this occasion, hence in the accompanying retrospective, he tells a never-before-told story: the real truth about the early trigger of his sudden local popularity and the consequent lightning-fast rise on the political ladder... Avoiding the main spoiler, let it be only known that subsequent to hearing that far unknown, history changing facts, the editor-in-chief, to Ranse's surprise, theatrically tore up his reporter's notes, giving the following explanation, "when the legend becomes fact, print the legend." Thus uncompromising, legend goes on and, in the last scene on the train, thankful for the railroad's courtesies Ranse continues to be honoured with the answer that will force him to swallow lumps in his throat for the rest of his days and beyond, "Nothing's too good for the man who shot Liberty Valance!"

What is most interesting is that it was exactly Ford who has, in his rich oeuvre, often (but by no means exclusively) directed Westerns (or as he liked to introduce himself: "My name is John Ford and I make Westerns .") and built many of these myths and legends, but here, towards the end of his directorial career, he relativizes them.

Unfortunately, in the present world filled with overdependence on technology (that makes us conformists), intolerance to the hardships and inconveniences of nature, reduction of warm feelings and empathy as well as increased insensitivity among people... especially newer generations are becoming less exposed to the good stuff of the past, including John Ford's movies. Ford knew how to choose a perfect scenario or bring a less perfect one to perfection, and, although himself somewhat withdrawn and distanced, infused such a scenario with emotions and sentiment. Often he filled them with humour and the joy of life, but also wisdom and humanism, making them deeply woven into what a man actually is and thus engraved in the minds of generations of movie goers. Nowadays, somehow we have all forgotten the importance of such films that go beyond their simple purpose of being just a forgettable pastime, and the film "The Man Who Killed Liberty Valance" is exactly such a film that, seasoned with Ford's beautiful aesthetics, has an added value in itself and then for the culture and civilization which produced it.

Not even a decade after the golden age of Hollywood films, Ford warns of the danger that politics destroys the beauty in people, it erases the legend, while, in fact, the legend and the storytelling are more important to people than a purely political narrative. Here, and especially here, for the umpteenth time we experience the phenomenon of the western, the miracle of that once most popular genre, which does not reflect our lives in any obvious way (neither in the manner or content, nor in the location or scenography), and yet, though hard to believe, it appears as if in itself it keeps some kind of a core to each one of them (our lives). Furthermore, the action in the film is so universal that despite the fact that it is a complete fabrication, not based on a real place and events, it seems as if we are watching a documentary presentation of historical events. And whenever a film portrays a historically important time, whether real or imaginable, it is very interesting to experience that cinematic meta-moment prophetically dedicated to events that will only happen, once or repeatedly, thus reversing sentimentality for the past, a nostalgia, and advancing it to the predictable future. Included here are depictions of a free press, town meetings, territorial conventions and statehood debates, subjecting politics to interest lobbies and corruption, violence in elections... foreseeing their future recurrences and anticipating nostalgia for them.

The acting contributions are very worth mentioning. Despite his shorter screen time, thanks to his usual commanding presence John Wayne skilfully brings about the pivotal role of Tom Doniphon, while both main opponents show versatility of their onscreen persona at times of temptation: Lee Marvin as infamous outlaw, tough and mean Liberty Valance, shows weakness when, subsequent to his failed attempt to get nominated for the regional delegate to the upcoming statehood convention at the territorial capital, he resorts to excessive vandalism and then drowns his frustration in alcohol, while James Stewart as Ransom "Ranse" Stoddard, at first, after Valance bullies him in the restaurant, begins practicing with an old gun, and then responds to Valance's gunfight challenge when his attempts to bring Valance to justice through the law fail. Outstanding in supporting roles are Vera Miles (who, sadly, missed an earlier opportunity to join Jimmy Stewart in another magnum opus, Alfred Hitchcock's "Vertigo," due to her real-life pregnancy at the time) as the not-meant-to-be Tom's, eventually Ranse's wife Hallie Stoddard, Edmond O'Brien as Dutton Peabody, founder, owner, editor of the local free press (the Shinbone Star), uncompromising "old servant of the public weal", waiting for his "shining hour" ... yet to come," who, also, "sweeps out the place", Woody Strode as Pompey, Tom Doniphon's hired hand, John Carradine as Maj. Cassius Starbuckle, speaker on behalf of the cattle barons at the territorial convention, Strother Martin and Lee Van Cleef as Floyd and Reese, Valance's myrmidons, Andy Devine as the fearful Sheriff Link Appleyard, looking only for the ways not to have beef with the criminals but rather a free beef on his plate, and some more, all benefiting from Ford's unique way of handling actors, bringing out the best in them, as many acknowledged subsequently.

Based on a short story by Dorothy M. Johnson, THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE tells the story of Ransom Stoddard, an eastern attorney who has the misfortune to be victimized by notorious outlaw Liberty Valance during a stagecoach robbery. Left for dead, Stoddard is rescued by rancher Tom Doniphon and brought to the small town of Shinbone. Disgusted by the lawlessness of the area, he determines to use not a gun but the law itself to end Valance's reign of terror.

Released in 1962, VALANCE was among the last films directed by John Ford, who was more closely associated with the Western than any other Hollywood director--and in one sense it certainly has the classic "good guy vs. bad guy" plot one expects from from a western classic. But Ford was not a superficial artist, and VALANCE is a remarkably multi-layered film that plays much deeper than you might expect.

Tom Doniphon is all that is right about the west; Liberty Valance is all that is wrong. But both are part and parcel of the same code, a society in which law and order are merely words on the lips of a cowardly marshal, a world where a man either dominates through fear or is dominated by it. It is a world that is coming to an end--and Rance Stoddard is in the vanguard of the new civilization. Both Doniphon and Liberty must fall before Stoddard if the worst of the west is to be tamed.

The cast is superior. James Stewart (Stoddard) and John Wayne (Doniphon) have unexpected chemistry on screen, and Lee Marvin (Valance) is easily one of the most unpleasant black-hats you could ever want to see in a western, vicious to the point of being psychotic. Supporting players Vera Miles, Andy Devine, Edmund O'Brien, and Woody Strode are equally fine. Although the script is occasionally a shade overwrought, it is laced with a very fine irony and sense of loss, and John Ford brings all the various pieces together without beating the viewer to death in the process.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

Other reviewers, aside from seeing this as the end of the classic western, saw the plot as myth granting to one man that which was rightfully another's. I disagree. I see TMWSLV as a tale of a man stepping aside for the sake of a better man and a better world, at great personal cost.

I view Tom as someone who has lived a cynical life--kill it before it kills you. With the advent of Ransom he recognizes that there is a better way, and that Ransom, by defying evil from a position of weakness, is far braver than Tom, who has merely defied evil from a position of strength. Additionally, Ransom brings about an answer to the question "must the sword rule forever?" with a resounding "no," a denial that at first seems foolish to Tom, but who then realizes that things really should be Ransom's way.

And so Tom, knowing that one of them is the better man, allows that better man to receive the fame attendant to heroism; and in fact Ransom, for daring what Tom never did dare, is the true hero of the tale. Like all honest men must, Tom steps aside for the better man, knowing what it will cost him to do what is right.

An earlier reviewer said that the depiction of the politics was a parody; in fact, the politics of the early portion of the republics was even more lively (read: pugnacious) than is depicted in the film.

Every time I watch a movie from decades ago I realize that even without all the special effects, 4K cameras and all things Hollywood, they manage to tell stories in a masterful way.

Here we follow Ransom (A lawyer) who after a robbery is rescued by Tom (A farmer) and arrives in the violent city of Shinbone that is dominated by the dangerous Liberty Valance, an unscrupulous bandit. At that moment we are introduced to the other main characters Hallie a waitress who likes Tom very much but is never proposed to her. Mr Peabody is the editor-in-chief of the local Shinbone Star newspaper in charge of covering the region's news. Link Appleyard the most cowardly sheriff who ever lived.

Tormented by Liberty Valance, Shinbone, is just another place that hasn't developed due to lack of education in the city because apparently many people can't read and in a way this contributes to everything in the city being resolved through bullets being therefore a land no law.

At that moment our character Stoddard seeks to apply a system of laws in that region and make the city a recognized state and not just a territory and somehow bring progress to that region, beforehand Ransom seeks to teach the people of the region to read and write , which includes Hallie, who at one point was enchanted by Tom's bravery and now begins to fall in love with Ransom's calmness and passivity. This approach obviously makes Doniphon jealous and from there we have the beginning of a somewhat confused friendship between a man who only believes in the power of the law and another in the power of bullets.

Given this introduction, what intrigued me the most about this film is that both Ransom and Tom are heroes and anti-heroes in the same film, being practically impossible to say which is the good and the bad of the story, I preferred Tom, in a way he had more honor. A great movie, I recommend it to everyone.