Together for the first time
Questions arise when Senator Stoddard attends the funeral of a local man named Tom Doniphon in a small Western town. Flashing back, we learn Doniphon saved Stoddard, then a lawyer, when he was roughed up by a crew of outlaws terrorizing the town, led by Liberty Valance. As the territory's safety hung in the balance, Doniphon and Stoddard, two of the only people standing up to him, proved to be very important, but different, foes to Valance.
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Character
Grave, contemplative, nostalgic and meticulous.
- gravecomic
- contemplativerelentless
- contemporarynostalgic
- rawmeticulous
- character-ledplot-driven
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“Is Ransom Stoddard the real protagonist?”
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“Is The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance better than The Searchers?”
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“Does it romanticize the West?”
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Reviews on TMDB
Written by TMDB members; each links to the original. Not part of Tastebuds's numbers.
- badelfon TMDB · May 20269/10
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) Directed by John Ford Well, it is an old Western, so it's all about bullies, and how they invariably lose to a more powerful bully. Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin) terrorizes the town with violence; he's replaced by lawyers, politicians, and the machinery of government. Same power dynamics, more sophisticated weapons. The famous line "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend" isn't inspiring, it's cynical. The film is about how America built its mythology on lies, how the people who write history aren't necessarily the heroes they claim to be. This is probably the best screenplay of the John Ford Westerns. It's quite different in that it depends totally on the narrative and not action alone. Ford stripped away the vibrant landscapes, the Monument Valley vistas, the horseback chases, and gave us a claustrophobic black-and-white melodrama built on words, memory, and moral compromise. For that reason, James Stewart with his trademark self-effacing style was absolutely the perfect actor for this film. He plays Ransom Stoddard as a man who has benefited from a lie his entire life and can't quite reconcile what that cost him, or what it cost Tom
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Cast
- John WayneTom Doniphon
- James StewartRansom Stoddard
- Vera MilesHallie Stoddard
- Lee MarvinLiberty Valance
- Edmond O'BrienDutton Peabody
- Andy DevineLink Appleyard
- Ken MurrayDoc Willoughby
- John CarradineCassius Starbuckle
- Jeanette NolanNora Ericson
- John QualenPeter Ericson
Crew
- John FordDirector
- James Warner BellahScreenplay
- Willis GoldbeckScreenplay
- William H. ClothierDirector of Photography
- Cyril J. MockridgeOriginal Music Composer
- Otho LoveringEditor
- Willis GoldbeckProducer
- John FordProducer
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Pairings
Companions we picked from the closest works, and how to take them.
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Mad Men 200775% alikeTelevision · Both grave, contemplative, meticulous.
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