loading...
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
1962
In John Ford's stark, melancholy swan song for the conventional frontier Western, aged Senator Ransom Stoddard (James Stewart) returns to the small town of Shinbone with his wife, Hallie (Vera Miles), for the funeral of his friend, Tom Doniphan (John Wayne), where he recounts for reporters his relationship with the man. His .. Read more
| Starring | James Stewart, John Wayne, Vera Miles, Lee Marvin |
|---|---|
| Director | John Ford |
| Genres | Action/Adventure |
loading...
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
In John Ford's stark, melancholy swan song for the conventional frontier Western, aged Senator Ransom Stoddard (James Stewart) returns to the small town of Shinbone with his wife, Hallie (Vera Miles), for the funeral of his friend, Tom Doniphan (John Wayne), where he recounts for reporters his relationship with the man. His arrival in the town years earlier as a newly minted lawyer had been welcomed with a vicious beating by Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin), a flamboyant thug hired by powerful business interests fearful of the lawyer's intentions to stump for statehood. Doniphan, a rancher and feared gunman, finds Stoddard unconscious, takes him into town, and continues to protect him, particularly after coming to realize that the woman he loves cares more for the lawyer. Despite Doniphan's warnings that the only law in the region comes at the end of a gun barrel, the stubborn lawyer insists on teaching the illiterate townspeople about the rule of law in a democratic society. When Stoddard is elected as the regional delegate to the territorial convention, Valance baits the politician, a notoriously inept gunman, into a showdown.
The film, which plays like a Western version of Freud's CIVILIZATION AND ITS DISCONTENTS, reflects the aging director's ambivalence about many of the beliefs that had animated his earlier work. Shot on two soundstages because of a limited budget and Ford's poor health, THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE blends a stripped-down look with an intentionally fractured, ambiguous narrative to stand as a haunting elegy for the fearless gunman, the endless wilderness, and the loss of freedom their vanishing signifies.
| Starring | James Stewart, John Wayne, Vera Miles, Lee Marvin, Edmund O'Brien, Andy Devine, Ken Murray, Lee Van Cleef, Strother Martin, Woody Strode |
|---|---|
| Director | John Ford |
| Studio | PARAMOUNT HOME ENTERTAINMENT |
| Run time | DVD: 1 hr 58 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Collections | 100 Wild Westerns |
| Genres | Action/Adventure |
| Language | DVD: English |
| Dubbed | French, German, Italian, Spanish |
| Hearing-impaired | English |
| Subtitles | DVD: Arabic, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovenian, Spanish |
| Released | DVD: 22 Apr 2002 Production year: 1962 |
| Format | DVD |
-
Critics' reviews (3)
View all -
A key late John Ford western, pairing two of Hollywood's greatest stars, with James Stewart top-billed over John Wayne, and a superb Lee Marvin in support as the ironically titled Valance. The film's most famous epigram “Print the legend” effectively sums up the plot, which, told in flashback, depends on a twist that only a spoilsport would reveal. On its release, the movie was taken for granted, dismissed for being in black-and-white in an era of colour, but with hindsight it can be reassessed as a major work. In Tom Doniphon and “Pilgrim” Ransom Stoddard, Wayne and Stewart created indelible western icons, and the film clearly shows the impact of the arrival of literacy upon an innocent, more primitive west, with a screenplay the more to be admired for making its complexity of themes appear so simple.
-
Ford's purest and most sustained expression of the familiar themes of the passing of the Old West, the conflict between... read more on Time Out
-
Most helpful member's review
View all -
7 out of 7 people found this review helpful
The Western that questions itself
Liberty Valance is an infamous name for the wrong kind of reason: he is a hired gun, a malicious and violent man who terrorises the town of Shinbone in the name of the cattle ranchers that employ him.
James Stewart is his ultimate opposite as the young lawyer Ransom. He has no truck for the law of the Old West, and hates gun violence: he firmly believes in the power of legislation and the progress of the railroads and the homesteaders.
Together with Tom Donophin (played by John Wayne) Ransom must face down the criminals who are halting the political emancipation of Shinbone and the men who keep it together.
Under John Ford's steady hand, his mission takes in many of the great themes of the Western. It asserts the need for romantic mythology, but at the same time it recognises that progress for the US lay in what came after the pioneers.
The newspaper editor's final command is to print the legend over the fact every time. "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" is a timeless exploration of everything such a statement entails. Brilliantly paced and effortlessly directed, it proves that Ford was a force to be reckoned with, even towards the final stages of his career. -
Most recent members' review
View all -
7 out of 7 people found this review helpful
The Western that questions itself
Liberty Valance is an infamous name for the wrong kind of reason: he is a hired gun, a malicious and violent man who terrorises the town of Shinbone in the name of the cattle ranchers that employ him.
James Stewart is his ultimate opposite as the young lawyer Ransom. He has no truck for the law of the Old West, and hates gun violence: he firmly believes in the power of legislation and the progress of the railroads and the homesteaders.
Together with Tom Donophin (played by John Wayne) Ransom must face down the criminals who are halting the political emancipation of Shinbone and the men who keep it together.
Under John Ford's steady hand, his mission takes in many of the great themes of the Western. It asserts the need for romantic mythology, but at the same time it recognises that progress for the US lay in what came after the pioneers.
The newspaper editor's final command is to print the legend over the fact every time. "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" is a timeless exploration of everything such a statement entails. Brilliantly paced and effortlessly directed, it proves that Ford was a force to be reckoned with, even towards the final stages of his career. -
More like this
View allShowing 1 to 4 of 20
Related user collection
Westerns... (11)
75% from 2 members
Buy from the LOVEFiLM shop
-
-
- The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
- DVD: £4.93
Free Delivery - RRP £12.79 (you save: 61%)
In John Ford's stark, melancholy swan song for the conventional frontier Western, aged Senator Ransom Stoddard (James Stewart) returns to the small town of Shinbone with his wife, Hallie (Vera Miles),... -