Movies set in the old west haven’t been the cinematic fashion lately. There was a time when they were moneymakers. Mixing the genre with an Academy Award winning director John Ford and stars John Wayne and James Stewart brings us the film The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962).
The film opens with Senator Ransom Stoddard, as portrayed by James Stewart, coming back small town Shinbone in an unnamed western state with his wife Hallie Stoddard, as portrayed by Vera Miles. We know the couple has come back to Shinbone to attend a funeral for a man we learn is Tom Doniphon, who is portrayed by John Wayne.
The story introduces the couple coming back to Shinbone, flashing back 25 years to the origin story of Shinbone and, ultimately, what proves to be a fuller and deeper truth about who the Stoddards are in the present day of the film. The flashback opens with Ransom Stoddard being beaten and robbed by Liberty Valance and his gang upon entering the unnamed territory. The nearby town of Shinbone takes ownership for tending to Ransom’s injuries, which sets in motion a series events where the fates of Tom Doniphon, Hallie Stoddard, Ransom Stoddard and the future of the Shinbone and the larger territory are all mixed together and up for grabs. The one thing we know is that Liberty Valance, as portrayed by Lee Marvin, will be shot.
Besides the main storyline of telling the backstory of the intrigue amongst Liberty, Ransom and Tom along with the romantic triangle of Hallie, Tom and Ransom, there was the story of newspaperman Dutton Peabody, as portrayed by Edmond O’Brien. It was Peabody and Ransom who are put forward as delegates for the territory seeking statehood. The lawlessness of the west in part were tied to the question of cattlemen controlling territorial rights or the people controlling their own collective destinies in acquiring statehood. When and how that was to occur became a significant story of the movie, accompanied as it were by Andy Devine as Marshall Link Appleyard and Ken Murray as Doc Willoughby.
The film The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance told an interesting story filled with some movie tropes about the wild west and sidekicks that are less pronounced in today’s popular culture. Clearly articulated characters of morally ambiguous decision making having the moral compass to act decisively for a sense of right and wrong, on the other hand, was present in this film yet remains strong. The way that The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance went about addressing the latter question, and how the central and compelling questions of the story turned out, still offers something for a modern audience. I rate The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance at 3.75-stars on a scale of one-to-five.
Matt – Wednesday, September 23, 2020
Matt Lynn Digital 