The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
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Movie Reviews of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
Movie Review: Classic
Summary: 5 Stars
A wonderful classic old western. You can't beat John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart and Lee Marvin all in the same movie.Movie Review: NOTHING IS TOO GOOD FOR THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE!,
Summary: 5 Stars
IN A NUTSHELL: A FILM SO GOOD IT TRANSCENDS GENRE
"NOTHING IS TO GOOD FOR THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE" are about the last words of the film and essentially sum up the paradox that defines the entire film.
WHAT ITS ALL ABOUT: JOHN FORD TELLS A GREAT TALE SET IN THE OLD WEST
The melancholy nocturnal atmosphere of the film says it all -- the glory days of the OLD WEST were over, but many of the participants in the game of life didn't know it yet. Like the dinosaurs, characters such as Liberty Valance and Tom Doniphon were living on borrowed time. Their whole way of life was about to be completely overrun while they and others like them were literally buried alive as the west became more civilized and user-friendly -- to the new users. Settlers from the back east with families brought with them an avalanche of new churches, retail merchants, the railroad, schools, roads and all of the trappings of turn-of-the-century civilized living. This rather rapidly cuased the need for infrastructure, "law and order" and ultimately statehood. On the subject of statehood, the old west took its stand in this film -- and lost!
In taking this stand we have a triangle. Not the love triange between Doniphon, Stoddard and Hallie, but rather the power struggle triangle between Doniphon, Valance and Stoddard. Stoddard [James Stewart] was alone in the fight, but represented the interests of the majority of the people. They were a silent frightened majority who had yet to overpower the small vocal minority that was characterized and embodied in the person of Liberty Valance, [Lee Marvin] and funded by the hidden power of "The Cattlemen".
Basically Doniphon had every personal reason to support the Cattlemen.
-----*- First, his rough and ready macho western lifestyle was just as doomed as their's if Statehood arrived. Like the cattlemen, Doniphon believed that men should fight their own battles, and the hand gun was his and their weapon of choice. If law and order arrived, the great equalizer that was found in the hired gun would be erased by lawman, judges, prisons and executions.
While Doniphon employed no hired guns, he and his top hand, Pompey, could easily stand up to a greater number of hired guns giving Doniphon the luxury of having a rich man's power with only a poor man's wallet.
-----*- Second, Stoddard was increasingly becoming a rival for Doniphon's "girl", Hallie. If Stoddard failed, he [Stoddard] would be dead or heading back east. But most of all away from Hallie, who apparently saw in Stoddard something Tom Doniphon didn't possess, and Doniphon certainly knew it.
WHY DONIPHON SHOULD SUPPORT STODDARD IS WHAT THIS FILM IS ALL ABOUT!
THE CAST - THE CREW - THE MAJOR AWARDS:
----- THE CAST -
John Wayne - Tom Doniphon
James Stewart - Ransom Stoddard
Vera Miles - Hallie Stoddard
Lee Marvin - Liberty Valance
Edmond O'Brien - Dutton Peabody
Andy Devine - Link Appleyard
Ken Murray - Doc Willoughby
John Carradine - Maj. Cassius Starbuckle
Jeanette Nolan - Nora Ericson
John Qualen - Peter Ericson
Woody Strode - Pompey
Denver Pyle - Amos Carruthers
Strother Martin - Floyd
Lee Van Cleef - Reese
O.Z. Whitehead - Ben Carruthers
----- THE KEY CREWMEMBERS -
John Ford - Director / Producer
Willis Goldbeck - Producer / Screenwriter
James Warner Bellah - Screenwriter
Dorothy M. Johnson - Short Story Author
----- THE MAJOR AWARDS - included because I can't believe this film was so completely overlooked!
Best Black and White Costume Design - NOMINATED - Edith Head 1962 Academy
ABOUT THE DVD:
Excellent transfer in widescreen format. Includes a 3 minute original theatrical trailer.
BOTTOM LINE: MOST HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Movie Review: NOTHING IS TOO GOOD FOR THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE!
Summary: 5 Stars
IN A NUTSHELL: A FILM SO GOOD IT TRANSCENDS GENRE
"NOTHING IS TO GOOD FOR THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE" are about the last words of the film and essentially sum up the paradox that defines the entire film.
WHAT ITS ALL ABOUT: JOHN FORD TELLS A GREAT TALE SET IN THE OLD WEST
The melancholy nocturnal atmosphere of the film says it all -- the glory days of the OLD WEST were over, but many of the participants in the game of life didn't know it yet. Like the dinosaurs, characters such as Liberty Valance and Tom Doniphon were living on borrowed time. Their whole way of life was about to be completely overrun while they and others like them were literally buried alive as the west became more civilized and user-friendly -- to the new users. Settlers from the back east with families brought with them an avalanche of new churches, retail merchants, the railroad, schools, roads and all of the trappings of turn-of-the-century civilized living. This rather rapidly cuased the need for infrastructure, "law and order" and ultimately statehood. On the subject of statehood, the old west took its stand in this film -- and lost!
In taking this stand we have a triangle. Not the love triange between Doniphon, Stoddard and Hallie, but rather the power struggle triangle between Doniphon, Valance and Stoddard. Stoddard [James Stewart] was alone in the fight, but represented the interests of the majority of the people. They were a silent frightened majority who had yet to overpower the small vocal minority that was characterized and embodied in the person of Liberty Valance, [Lee Marvin] and funded by the hidden power of "The Cattlemen".
Basically Doniphon had every personal reason to support the Cattlemen.
-----*- First, his rough and ready macho western lifestyle was just as doomed as their's if Statehood arrived. Like the cattlemen, Doniphon believed that men should fight their own battles, and the hand gun was his and their weapon of choice. If law and order arrived, the great equalizer that was found in the hired gun would be erased by lawman, judges, prisons and executions.
While Doniphon employed no hired guns, he and his top hand, Pompey, could easily stand up to a greater number of hired guns giving Doniphon the luxury of having a rich man's power with only a poor man's wallet.
-----*- Second, Stoddard was increasingly becoming a rival for Doniphon's "girl", Hallie. If Stoddard failed, he [Stoddard] would be dead or heading back east. But most of all away from Hallie, who apparently saw in Stoddard something Tom Doniphon didn't possess, and Doniphon certainly knew it.
WHY DONIPHON SHOULD SUPPORT STODDARD IS WHAT THIS FILM IS ALL ABOUT!
THE CAST - THE CREW - THE MAJOR AWARDS:
----- THE CAST -
John Wayne - Tom Doniphon
James Stewart - Ransom Stoddard
Vera Miles - Hallie Stoddard
Lee Marvin - Liberty Valance
Edmond O'Brien - Dutton Peabody
Andy Devine - Link Appleyard
Ken Murray - Doc Willoughby
John Carradine - Maj. Cassius Starbuckle
Jeanette Nolan - Nora Ericson
John Qualen - Peter Ericson
Woody Strode - Pompey
Denver Pyle - Amos Carruthers
Strother Martin - Floyd
Lee Van Cleef - Reese
O.Z. Whitehead - Ben Carruthers
----- THE KEY CREWMEMBERS -
John Ford - Director / Producer
Willis Goldbeck - Producer / Screenwriter
James Warner Bellah - Screenwriter
Dorothy M. Johnson - Short Story Author
----- THE MAJOR AWARDS - included because I can't believe this film was so completely overlooked!
Best Black and White Costume Design - NOMINATED - Edith Head 1962 Academy
ABOUT THE DVD:
Excellent transfer in widescreen format. Includes a 3 minute original theatrical trailer.
BOTTOM LINE: MOST HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Movie Review: A First Rate Western
Summary: 5 Stars
This one should be remembered as one of the finest westerns ever made. It pairs Jimmy Stewart and John Wayne as unlikely allies in a small western town. They are allies in that both are for the territory achieving statehood, against the interests of the cattle barons. They are unlikely in that Wayne plays a self reliant man who protects himself and his interests with a gun. Stewart plays an eastern lawyer who has moved west to seek his fortune. He tries to defend his interests with writs, warrants and flowery language. This is all well and good except when the bad guys don't care about such things and just shoot it out. Lee Marvin plays the bad guy, Liberty Valence, and makes this point rather dramatically as he goes around beating, shooting or whipping anyone who displeases him.
Stewart's character grows in the course of the film. While he does maintain his ideals, he learns that sometimes a man has to defend himself. Wayne's character also undergoes changes although they are more subtle. He becomes slightly more "civilized" by the end of the film. In the course of these changes, they both come to respect each other and even consider each other friends. The friendship, though, is strained since both are interested in the same girl.
John Ford directed this classic. It has a fine blend of story, action, characterization, drama and the occasional comic relief provided by Andy Devine.
Movie Review: Another great B&W John Ford western
Summary: 4 Stars
John Ford's magnificent portrait of the lawless old west, THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE (1962), stars James Stewart as lawyer Rance Stoddard, Vera Miles as his wife Hallie, John Wayne as rancher Tom Donophon, and Lee Marvin as Liberty Valance, the meanest and nastiest outlaw in the frontier town of Shinbone. Originally dismissed as just another John Wayne western, LIBERTY VALANCE is now considered a masterpiece of the genre.
The plot is simple: Stoddard and Donophon join forces to kill Valance and his men on the night streets of Shinbone outside of the saloon. But when and how? Rounding out the cast is Ford's superb repertory of character actors: Andy Devine as a marshall, Edmond O'Brien as a news editor, Ken Murray as a drunken doctor, John Qualen as a cook, and Woody Strode as a kitchen helper whose being black is never mentioned. Ford is very hard on fair treatment of women (though Vera Miles is outstanding here), but he at least treats African-Americans with respect.
LIBERTY VALANCE is set in a long ago frontier town, with flawless art direction that includes stagecoaches and horse-drawn carriages. One can smell the whiskey in the saloon and the sawdust on the wood-planked sidewalks. And the movie has gorgeous B&W photography by William Clothier, who photographed several other Ford movies. Most of the characters are complex, neither good nor bad. The exception, of course, is Lee Marvin. He makes Liberty Valance so vividly cruel and nasty that I needed reassurance that the actor is really dead in actual life! The character is that real! Stewart and Wayne are both in peak form. They both had a great year in 1962, with this and HOW THE WEST WAS WON.
THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE, a serious and thoughtful adult western, is on DVD in the cheap $11.00 range as part of a John Wayne Signature Collection from Paramount Home Video. I recommend you build your Wayne DVD collection with these studio print titles, also including THE SHOOTIST, THE COWBOYS, EL DORADO, HONDO, and the wide-screen debut of McLINTOCK! (REVIEWED ON WIDESCREEN DVD.)