\u201cThe Man Who Shot Liberty Valance\u201d is in a lot of ways the last great classic Western.\u00a0 Directed by John Ford, Jimmy Stewart and John Wayne star with a swarm of excellent supporting cast including Vera Miles, Edmond O’Brien, Andy Devine, John Carradine, Strother Martin and Lee Van Cleef.\u00a0 But heading up the supporting cast is Lee Marvin as the poisonously evil Liberty Valance.\u00a0 It is a tale of the closing of the old west when the cattle barons tried to hold onto the open range by standing in the way of statehood in some unnamed mountain western state; possibly Montana or Wyoming.\u00a0 Here the cowboys are the dead-enders holding off progress and the future is with the farmers and townspeople.<\/p>\n
(Spoiler Alert \u2013 Skip down to last paragraph to avoid spoilers and read recommendation)<\/strong><\/p>\n The plot involves the coming to the town of Shinbone of the state\u2019s senior United States Senator Ransom Stoddard (Jimmy Stewart).\u00a0 He\u2019s come with his wife Hallie to attend the funeral of their old friend Tom Doniphon.\u00a0 The local newspaper owner wants to know what would bring such an important personage as Stoddard to Shinbone for the funeral of a complete unknown such as Doniphon.\u00a0 And the whole movie is a flash back to Stoddard\u2019s arrival in Shinbone as a young man and how this changed his and everyone else\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n Ransom is headed into town on a stage coach that is held up by infamous criminal Liberty Valance and his gang.\u00a0 When Stoddard attempts to stop the thieves from stealing a piece of sentimental jewelry from a widow he is savagely beaten by Valance, ending with a lashing from a whip that Liberty always carries with him.<\/p>\n In the next scene Tom Doniphon brings the seriously injured Stoddard into town on his buckboard for medical attention. Now we meet Hallie who helps treat Stoddard\u2019s wounds.\u00a0 Meanwhile Stoddard insists that the town marshal Link Appleyard (played by Andy Devine) should arrest Valance for robbery and the assault.\u00a0 But we discover that Appleyard is too afraid of Valance to even consider arresting the outlaw.\u00a0 Doniphon explains to Stoddard that the only way to stop Valance is with a gun.\u00a0 But he also makes it clear that the only one Valance fears is Doniphon himself because of his superior gun hand.\u00a0 He advises Stoddard to leave town.\u00a0 We also find out that Hallie is Doniphon\u2019s girl.<\/p>\n The movie moves on to a town meeting to appoint delegates to the state election convention where the representative to the federal government will be selected.\u00a0 Valance attempts to intimidate the townspeople into selecting him as delegate.\u00a0 But with Doniphon\u2019s help Stoddard and the owner of the newspaper, Dutton Peabody (played by Edmond O’Brien) are selected.\u00a0 Valance explicitly tells Stoddard that he is going to come gunning for him that night and Hallie and Doniphon both warn him to leave town.<\/p>\n Valance returns that night and destroys Peabody\u2019s newspaper office and beats him savagely.\u00a0 Stoddard finds Peabody and calls for the town doctor then gets his gun and heads onto the main street to shoot it out with Valance.\u00a0 Valance toys with Stoddard.\u00a0 He fires a shot at a flower pot hanging near Stoddard\u2019s head from a long distance.\u00a0 Then he shoots Stoddard in his shooting arm, allowing him to recover his gun with his left hand.\u00a0 Finally, he says, \u201cThis one will be right between the eyes.\u201d\u00a0 Stoddard fires first and Valance is hit and eventually dies.<\/p>\n Now Hallie feels guilty that Stoddard risked his life because of her disapproval of his idea of leaving town.\u00a0 And it becomes clear that she has shifted her affections from Doniphon to Stoddard.\u00a0 Doniphon sees this emotional change and goes to his ranch and burns down the home he had been building for his married life with Hallie.<\/p>\n Despite their wounds Stoddard and Peabody attend the meeting at the territory capitol and Stoddard\u2019s name is advanced as a candidate.\u00a0 John Carradine plays an orator working for the ranchers who characterizes Stoddard as a murderer who does not deserve such a high office.\u00a0 Stoddard feels guilty for killing Valance and walks out of the meeting.\u00a0 Doniphon follows him out and confronts him about leaving.\u00a0 When Stoddard admits his feelings of guilt, Doniphon reveals the truth about the shooting of Valance.\u00a0 In a flashback scene we witness Doniphon shooting Valance from a side street with his rifle a split second before Stoddard\u2019s ineffective pistol shot was fired.\u00a0 Relieved to know he hadn\u2019t killed another human being, Stoddard returns to the meeting where he is selected representative.<\/p>\n The movie flashes back to Stoddard telling this story to the newspapermen.\u00a0 The editor thanks Stoddard but tells him he won\u2019t reveal the truth about who shot Liberty Valance.\u00a0 He says, \u201cWhen the legend becomes fact, print the legend.\u201d<\/p>\n Ransom and Hallie leave town after the funeral and it is clear that she still had very deep feelings for Tom.\u00a0 And they both decide to return from Washington and finish their lives in Shinbone.\u00a0 The parting shot occurs when a railroad official is complimented by Stoddard on the excellent service he had received on the train.\u00a0 The man replied, \u201cNothing is too good for \u201cthe man who shot Liberty Valance!\u201d<\/p>\n I will say that this movie was something of a throwback for the year it was made in 1962.\u00a0 Despite younger stars like Vera Miles, Strother Martin, Lee Van Cleef and Lee Marvin this looked and felt like Golden Age Hollywood western.\u00a0 The biggest difference was the post-cowboy theme with the ranchers as the bad guys.\u00a0 And of course, Stewart and Wayne were a little long in the tooth for the characters they were playing during the flashback scenes of the movie.\u00a0 But I will say this is a very enjoyable film.\u00a0 I\u2019d say the highlight is watching Lee Marvin getting his comeuppances on the streets of Shinbone.\u00a0 He does play a satisfying bad guy.\u00a0 I\u2019ll call this movie highly recommended for anyone who likes a classic western.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cThe Man Who Shot Liberty Valance\u201d is in a lot of ways the last great classic Western.\u00a0 Directed by John Ford, Jimmy Stewart and John<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[239,237],"tags":[3377,5137,1228,3378,5139,3218,1996,3383,43,38,1355,5138,97],"class_list":["post-36039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","category-reviews","tag-andy-devine","tag-edmond-obrien","tag-jimmy-stewart","tag-john-carradine","tag-john-ford","tag-john-wayne","tag-lee-marvin","tag-lee-van-cleef","tag-movie-review","tag-review","tag-reviews","tag-strother-martin","tag-westerns"],"yoast_head":"\n