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DVD The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
"When the legend becomes fact, print the legend." That's more than the code of a newspaperman in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance; it's practically the operating credo of director John Ford, the most honored of American filmmakers. In this late film from a long career, Ford looks at the civilizing of an Old West town, Shinbone, through the sad memories of settlers looking back. In the town's wide-open youth, two-fisted Westerner John Wayne and tenderfoot newcomer James Stewart clash over a woman (Vera Miles) but ultimately unite against the notorious outlaw Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin). Ford's nostalgia for the past is tempered by his stark approach, unusual for the visual poet of Stagecoach and The Searchers. The two heavyweights, Wayne and Stewart, are good together, with Wayne the embodiment of rugged individualism and Stewart the idealistic prophet of the civilization that will eventually tame the Wild West. This may be the saddest Western ever made, closer to an elegy than an action movie, and as cleanly beautiful as its central symbol, the cactus rose. --Robert Horton
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.)
"When the legend becomes fact, print the legend"
John Ford's 1962 classic, THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE, brings together western stars James Stewart and John Wayne for the first time, and the result is one of the great films of the western genre.
James Stewart stars as Ransom Stoddard--U.S. senator--who returns to the small town of Shinbone to attend the funeral of his old friend Tom Doniphon. Stoddard is something of a celebrity in this town having gained his considerable reputation for being "the man who shot Liberty Valance," a reputation which had propelled him first to the state house and eventually to Washington. When the local fish wrap gets wind of his appearance in town, they insist on interviewing the senator about his past and want to know why he would return all the way to Shinbone for this particular, seemingly insignificant funeral. Stoddard eventually takes them aside and begins to tell them the true story of Liberty Valance.
Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin), of course, was the most notorious thug in the territory in the days before statehood. He welcomed the newcomer Stoddard into town by robbing him and delivering a sound beating and a thrashing from his signature whip. Stoddard was a newly-minted lawyer at that time who had arrived into town from back East. If Ransom Stoddard represented Eastern values, Tom Doniphon (John Wayne) represented the old West. Stoddard wants to deal with Valance through the law; Doniphon tells him, "Out here, a man settles his own problems," and urges Stoddard to buy a gun. In between these two men is Hallie (Vera Miles), the woman Doniphon plans to marry some day, but who increasingly grows protective of and attentive to Ransom Stoddard.
Ford clearly is extolling western values over eastern values in this film. Ultimately, Stoddard is portrayed as the far weaker man and Doniphon as his clear superior. Stoddard is humiliated in overt as well as in subtle ways throughout the film (you would never see Doniphon wearing an apron such as Ford has Stoddard wearing). Ironically, Stoddard's reputation is based upon a code of behavior that he himself never subscribed to. The values of the old west have faded in the new age, and Tom Doniphon's death symbolizes the passing of an era. Senator Stoddard, perhaps more than anyone, knows that Doniphon was the better man, though Stoddard was the one who reaped the rewards of celebrity, political power, and love while Doniphon faded away into obscurity.
THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE was John Ford's nostalgic tribute to the genre that established his reputation, and it is one of his finest films. The lead performances are solid throughout--John Wayne's, perhaps, being his most archetypical ("Whoa, take 'er easy there, Pilgrim"). There is a lot of great dialogue in this movie and the supporting cast, including Edmond O'Brien, Andy Devine, and Ken Murray are wonderful. John Carradine even pops in briefly with a delightful performance as a pompous windbag of an orator. THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE is one of the essential movies of its genre.
Jeremy W. Forstadt
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
John Ford's last great moment came with "Liberty Valance," a film largely panned on release, when the director's romanticized vision of the Old West seemed outmoded. The film's resurgent popularity comes from dynamic star performances and a seminal western story: the railroad's influence in transforming the rule of the gun (represented by Valance and Doniphon) to the rule of law (represented by Stoddard). A touching and insightful portrait of the passing of an age, and a tribute to the western genre itself. A clever suprise caps this film.
A favorite film of some of the world's greatest filmmakers, including Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg, John Ford's The Searchers has earned its place in the legacy of great American films for a variety of reasons. Perhaps most notably, it's the definitive role for John Wayne as an icon of the classic Western--the hero (or antihero) who must stand alone according to the unwritten code of the West. The story takes place in Texas in 1868; Wayne plays Ethan Edwards, a Confederate veteran who visits his brother and sister-in-law at their ranch and is horrified when they are killed by marauding Comanches. Ethan's search for a surviving niece (played by young Natalie Wood) becomes an all-consuming obsession. With the help of a family friend (Jeffrey Hunter) who is himself part... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): John Wayne - Jeffrey Hunter Director(s): John Ford DVD Release Date: Released the 18 May 1999 Usually ships in 24 hours
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One of the greatest Westerns ever made gets the deluxe treatment on this superior disc from Republic Home Video's Silver Screen Classics line of special-edition DVDs. Written by Carl Foreman (who was later blacklisted during the anticommunist hearings of the '50s) and superbly directed by Fred Zinnemann, this 1952 classic stars Gary Cooper as just-married lawman Will Kane, who is about to retire as a small-town sheriff and begin a new life with his bride (Grace Kelly) when he learns that gunslinger Frank Miller (Ian MacDonald) is due to arrive at high noon to settle an old score. Kane seeks assistance from deputies and townsfolk, but soon realizes he'll have to stand alone in his showdown with Miller and his henchmen. Innovative for its time, the suspenseful story unfolds in approximate... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Fred Zinnemann DVD Release Date: Released the 22 October 2002 Usually ships in 1 to 2 weeks
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Any short list of the all-time greatest Westerns is bound to include this 1948 Howard Hawks classic about an epic cattle drive. Red River features one of John Wayne's greatest performances. Like his Ethan Edwards in John Ford's 1956 masterpiece The Searchers, the Duke plays an isolated and unsympathetic man who is possessed by bitterness. Wayne is Texas rancher Tom Dunson, who adopts a young boy orphaned in an Indian massacre. That boy, Matthew Garth (played as an adult by Montgomery Clift in his screen debut), becomes Dunson's assistant and heir apparent--until Dunson's temper gets out of control during a long cattle drive and Matt intervenes to stop him. From that moment on, Dunson swears he will kill Matt. Red River has everything a great Western ought to have:... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): John Wayne - Montgomery Clift - Joanne Dru Director(s): Howard Hawks - Arthur Rosson DVD Release Date: Released the 15 May 2001 Usually ships in 24 hours
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The second installment of John Ford's famous cavalry trilogy (which also includes Fort Apache and Rio Grande), this meditative Western continues the director's fascination with history's obliteration of the past. It features one of John Wayne's more sensitive performances as Capt. Nathan Brittles, a stern yet sentimental war horse who has difficulty preparing for his impending military retirement. All things considered, he refuses to leave before fulfilling his obligation to the local Indian tribe. It's a film about honor and duty as well as loneliness and mortality. And Oscar-winner Winton C. Hoch beautifully photographs it in Remington-like Technicolor tones (you've never seen such stunning cloud-covered skies). The combination of melancholy and farce (Victor... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): John Wayne - Joanne Dru Director(s): John Ford DVD Release Date: Released the 04 June 2002 Usually ships in 24 hours
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The last film of John Wayne could not have been more fitting, full of details that can't help but make one reflect upon his legacy in the movies and his life as a star. Wayne plays a career gunfighter in the autumn of his life, trying to hang up his pistols after he discovers he's dying of cancer. Boarding in the house of an attractive widow (Lauren Bacall) and her son (Ron Howard), Wayne's character opts for peace in his final days but is dogged by his reputation when a handful of killers seeks him out for a final fight. Howard is fine as a fatherless boy who needs the strong mentor the hero represents, and James Stewart--who costarred with Wayne in the great Man Who Shot Liberty Valance--plays the doctor who gives the big man the bad news. Don Siegel (Invasion of the Body... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): John Wayne - Lauren Bacall Director(s): Don Siegel DVD Release Date: Released the 24 July 2001 Usually ships in 24 hours
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