The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)

CLASSIC REVIEW

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
Director: John Ford Certificate: U

Nothing's too good for the man who shot Liberty Valance

LIBERTY VALANCE (Lee Marvin) was a real nasty piece of work.  This brutal thug and bully and his gang terrorised the people of the little Western town of Shinbone in the interests of big cattlemen. If you crossed him you were dead. The local marshall was a useless buffoon. The only man not afraid of Valance was tough local rancher Tom Doniphon (John Wayne).  Doniphon was soon to find an ally in an ambitious young lawyer, Ransom Stoddard (James Stewart), who arrived in town in order to establish the rule of law and full statehood for the Western territory.
  Stoddard first encounters Valance and his gang when his stagecoach is robbed and he is roughed  up and left for dead but nursed back to health by local woman Hallie (Vera Miles).  He is picked up and brought to Shinbone where he finds a job washing dishes in a local steakhouse.  Doniphon is sceptical of Stoddard's approach but gradually begins to respect the earnest young lawyer.  He is less enamoured with Stoddard's obvious interest in the only woman he can probably ever love.
  Two of my favourite all-time actors – Stewart and Wayne – appeared for the first time together in this landmark John Ford film.  Wayne brings his hard-bittten seen-it-all-before character to the peak of perfection in this movie.  He's the Old West passing out of existence to make way for the New West as epitomised by Stewart's   lawyer's emphasis on the rule of law and democracy. Valance seems to recognise this and does all in his power to undermine and destroy this uppity lawyer.
  Doniphon is a noble character. He makes the sacrifices. He does what he believes to be right and allows Stoddard to get the girl and the credit for ending the threat posed by Liberty Valance and his gang. Stoddard is single-minded and determined to bring Valance to justice and establish the rule of law.
  Twenty years after the events in the main part of the film, the respected veteran Senator Stoddard and his wife Hallie, return to Shinbone by train to pay his respects to an old friend – Doniphon.  The local newspapermen have never heard of Doniphon and are curious about why such a respected politician should come back to attend the funeral of such an obscure man.  They learn the truth of how Liberty Valance's reign of terror came to an end.
    I like the clash of old and new values in this superb classic Western. It's still widely available on DVD so I hope that no-one in Hollywood is considering a remake.  You can't improve on perfection!