The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

USA (2007)
John Ford, dir.
John Wayne, James Stewart, Lee Marvin

by Christopher Collier (6/18/07)

I had only seen a couple of John Wayne films before embarking on this mission to understand his allure. With his 100th Birthday passing this past month and Wayne still towering as one of the most important figures in American film, getting to the bottom of his mystique seemed it would require watching a slew of Westerns and War films, two genres that I have never really taken a liking to. With all of it's false, rough and tumble, the Western has always struck me as one of the most contrived of the Hollywood genre. The original blockbuster, action film, most Westerns, while using fantastic footage of American icons like Monument Valley in Utah, have the distinct feel of a back-lot, with all of the false trappings they provide. Instantly, the Western is not about reality, but a heightened sense of realism in which we know the world is false, but enjoy watching the lawless frontier be re-created as a tribute to the splendors of past America. It is therefore extremely shocking, that the most enjoyable and riveting Western I have seen was filmed entirely on a back-lot and seems more real and gratifying because of it.

On of John Ford's last films, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is a powerful film about law entering the Wild West. After leaving the East with a law degree and taking the words "Go West Young Man" literally, Ransom Stoddard (Steward) finds himself the victim of a stagecoach robbery and beaten within an inch of his life. The violent and reckless Liberty Valance holds a notorious choke-hold over the town of Shinbone and Ransom attempts to break it by not using the gun, but the book. Drawing together an impressive cast including Andy Devine as the bumbling and cowardly marshal, Edmond O'Brian as Dutton Peabody, the drunk and outspoken editor of the Shinbone Star, and John Wayne as the local rancher and hero Tom Doniphan, John Ford uses his back-lot to incredible effect allowing for subtle character developments and intimate shadings through the use of black and white. Wayne towers as a heroic figure stuck with a decision that ultimately breaks him, and unlike many of his other roles, in which his machismo out-weighs his other qualities, his characterization in Liberty Valance shows truly why he is the vision of America that we want him to be: Strong, Noble, and Selfless.