Of these "Liberty Valance" was the most pensive and thoughtful. Analysis Of 'The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance' - Bartleby.com Now Stoddard accepts Valances challenge (ignoring Doniphons advice to leave town) to shoot it out with him. Seeing how his act of heroism has won Hattie for Stoddard, he becomes disgusted with himself, burning his home, the symbol of his hopes for the future as well as his isolation from the community, to the ground. Does this make sense? All that said, its a bit of an odd film for Wayne, who got top billing but has one of the least interesting characters. When he died in 1961, Corriere della Sera wrote: "Perhaps with him there has ended a certain America: that of the frontier and of innocence" Photograph: SNAP/Rex Features John Wayne His first. Perhaps, the existence of Valance gave Doniphan a status of importance and made him an indispensable man in a lawless community. When someone tried to comfort him that Doniphon was full of ambiguity and his mindset may help his performance, Wayne snapped back, Screw ambiguity I dont like ambiguity. The main conflict in the film, then, is not that between the gunslinger Tom Doniphon and the outlaw Liberty Valance; the real conflict is that between "the Old West" (Doniphon and Valance) and the forces of "progress" (Stoddard). But he hasnt. He and two sidekicks (played by Lee Van Cleef and Strother Martin) wreck the newspaper office and badly beat Peabody. The newspaper editor prints the truth about Valance, and for his pains has his office trashed and is whipped nearly dead. Doniphan offers Stoddard a wagon out of town, and he considers it. (LogOut/ Design a site like this with WordPress.com, Follow MANK'S MOVIE MUSINGS on WordPress.com. Much safer to hide behind sarcasm and mockery. Three men stand at the center of the story: Stoddard, Doniphon, and Valance. The first time we see it, James Stewart is bullied and wounded but miraculously shoots Valance, who seems to have woefully underestimated him. His films appeared very simple and, at times, very simplistic, but they dealt with huge themes: the expansion of American military might, the conflict between the European settlers and native American civilizations, the establishment of law & order in the wilderness, and the coming of religion, trade and commerce; all these themes are reflected in one way or the other in all his westerns. Though the audience tends to identify with Doniphon's individualism and to feel instinctively a desire to preserve the simplicity of the old West, the social change brought about by the railroad and the need for staehood slowly make the Doniphons and Valances obsolete. Farmers want statehood. Without Ransom Stoddards courage and convictions, there is no movie. The body of Tom Doniphon is at rest in a plain, wooden casket. Years ago Shinbone was held in a grip of terror by the sadistic Liberty Valance (played by Lee Marvin in a performance evoking savage cruelty). Tom Doniphon is the archetypal Ford hero, the John Wayne of all Ford's westerns. Is it that the Randian half of him is ashamed of his altruistic impulses? Post-Liberty Valance, John Wayne would continued to be the most dependable American movie star of his times. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) - Trivia - IMDb Both Ford and Wayne were extremely depressed by this, seeing the American values that they held so dear, and which they propagated so passionately through their movies, slipping away. While many people have imagined Stoddard as naively unaware that the law wouldnt be sufficient to deal with Liberty Valance, Stoddard was no fool. To Ford, Stoddard represents blind progress. At the end of the film, we learn that Tom Doniphan (John Wayne) really had shot Liberty Valance while the public had given credit to Ransom Stoddard (Jimmy Stewart) who went on to have a successful political career. Ford bitterly laments the intrusion of reality on his legend. Stoddard, on the other hand, is of another breed; the movement West, triggered by Greeley, came after the settlers in the wagon trains, and brought with it well-established Eastern customs. However, when Stoddard decides to face Valance, she sends Doniphans servant Pompey to let him know because she scared of what will happen to Stoddard. Stoddard has none of this embarrassment. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) - Movie Review - John Wayne Valance and his two henchmenterrorize Shinbone, while the bumbling Marshal Link Appleyard (Andy Devine ) lacks the courage and gun fighting skills to challenge him. He also got along well with John Ford; Marvin was in the Navy in WWII, like Ford and they bonded over that. But, it was in direct opposition to the Western code. The film was a direct influence on Leones own end of the west westernOnce upon a time in the West. You helped to make it," we cannot help feeling a deep regret that it had to happen that way. After this film, his career would see a meteoric rise and, by the mid 1960s, he would become one of the top stars in the industry. TakeFort Apache (1948) for instance, which is a strong polemic on American military intervention against the Native Americans. [Spoilers] My thoughts on the ending of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. He dies a drunkard, having lost everything in his life, unacknowledged and unknown. Shinbone is the only Western town I've seen in a movie with no prostitutes. Pompey had thrown Tom a rifle and at the exact moment of Valance's fourth and potentially-fatal shot, Doniphon killed Valance from a side angle, without anyone knowing at the moment of the blast. Liberty Valance: Three against one, Doniphon. However, Doniphon died a drunken, dislocated man. The territory is granted statehood and, being the man who shot Liberty Valance, Stoddard became its first governor. Change), You are commenting using your Facebook account. [Doniphon kicks Floyd in the face as he bends down to retrieve the tray] [Doniphon has just faced down Valance in the diner] I said you, Valance; you pick it up. So, when Stoddard and Valance face off, Doniphan fires the shot that kills Liberty Valance from across the street, thus losing the girl he loves to give her what she wants. As the film opens, U. S. Senator Ransom Stoddard (James Stewart) is arriving in Shinbone by the new railroad with his wife Hallie (Vera Miles). [Spoilers] My thoughts on the ending of The Man Who Shot - Reddit The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) - Culturedarm But Stoddard is a powerless man; powerless before Valance; and powerless before Doniphon; and Doniphon lets Stoddard have his woman, his town, and his West. In it, Ford gives us a capsule version of the world it took him 40 years to create, and then shows us how it died. Ford's view of women is interesting. 3 Stagecoach (1939) Stream now on Prime Video, Max, Roku, Tubi, and DirecTV ; In the 1930s, Wayne mostly worked as an extra or had small roles in films. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance at 60: the great American western Be sure to vote on the main blog page, not an individual photo page, so theyll tabulate correctly. 1. Add to that the fact that he kills the villain, not face to face, but pretty much shooting him from the back- something that he abhorred and always criticized Clint Eastwood for doing. Ford would repeatedly use Marvin (and Stewart, who also served in WWII) as a stick to beat John Wayne, who hadnt served in WWII, something that always offended Ford. In a final act of self-negation, he tells Stoddard the truth, absolving him of the act of killing (to which Stoddard had remained steadfastly opposed throughout his ordeal in the West), and taking the sin on himself to suffer alone. Doniphan is ready to kill Valance over spoiling his steak by tripping Stoddard, but does nothing while Valance oppresses his neighbors, and torments innocent people. His chief victim was Woody Strode, with whom he very nearly came to blows. Lee Marvin Liberty Valance When Stoddard nominates him as a representative to the Convention, he refuses, saying, "I've got other plans. Hes even elected as a delegate to the territorial convention but refuses to serve. Next: The Barbarian And The Geisha Had John Wayne Literally Fighting His Director. Regardless, it was a great movie, but perhaps could have been greater. Doniphan, while still doing dishwashing work, hangs. Trying to defend a woman passenger, Stoddard is beaten by Valance, left for dead, and brought to town by Tom Doniphon. However, he is rescued by Doniphan. But Liberty Valance and his guns work for the cattle barons who want to keep the territory for themselves. Stoddard believes that hes a real man, a tough and violent character who can handle himself, and that Stoddard is a tenderfoot who is pretty much useless in the real world. Is The man Who Shot Liberty Valance based on a true story? Here again Doniphon comes to his rescue. Losing the woman he loved to Ransom haunted Tom for the rest of his life and he was never able to move on from it and find love again with anyone else. Wayne losing out to such a loser of a characterwould anger any john Wayne fan, most of all Wayne himself Wayne (and his audience) like to see Wayne triumphant, not as a tragic, moody alcoholic who dies off-screen. Look instead at a debate that continues between the lawyer and the farmer about guns. When a meeting is held to vote on statehood, Pompey sits outside on the porch. This is all to be seen: The role of a free press, the function of a town meeting, the debate about statehood, the civilizing influence of education. Hes mocked by Valance who trips him, causing him to spill Doniphans meal. On the other end of the scale, Ford portrays Liberty Valance as the archetypal villain. When Peabody and Stoddard are elected as the delegates, Valance promises vengeance. Doniphon is not a person of any importance around town, just a sorry old man on the fringes, who passed away unnoticed. But still he admires Stoddard immensely. But it's hard to avoid the feeling that, in retrospect, she loves Doniphon, too. The Man who Shot Liberty Valance--Doniphan is the fallen angel - Reddit Wayne was Americas favorite cowboy, while Stewart, having graduated from the school of Frank Capra, withMr. Smith Goes to WashingtonandIts a wonderful lifeisits favorite idealist. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance: Film Analysis | ipl.org In all other respects, hes the same character John Wayne played in countless films throughout his career, the competent hero, cool under fire, respected by all. Throughout the film, he tells us that hes tougher than Liberty Valance, that he can beat Liberty Valance and he makes us believe. Doniphon: Well, take some advice, pilgrim. He then asks about a cactus rose that was placed on Doniphon's coffin, and she reveals she placed it there; Tom had earlier given Hallie a cactus rose, with the strong implication being that she never stopped loving him. Stoddard picked up with his least favored hand. And so Stoddard tells them the story, one they decide not to print because, in this case, legend has become fact. A newspaper reporter and editor begin asking questions about why the senator is back in town; Doniphon, after all, did not die as a man of any significance. Doniphon (who is courting Hallie) is the only man willing to stand up to Valance. Stoddard continues to defy Valance and earns the respect of the townsfolk, by first opening a law practice in town and then starting a school for teaching illiterate townspeople. And after the flopping of Sergeant Rutledge, Ford found himself out of work. In this sense, the ending is eerily similar to The Searchers, except there he walks back into the mythical wilderness that he came from, here he is just silently absorbed by history. When the fact becomes legend, print the legend," Ford's films show the legend. He wouldnt run, he wouldnt hide. Either way, the film ends with the question of whether Doniphons nature is individualistic or cowardly (or whether theres really any difference between the two) deemed irrelevant. True Grit: How The 2010 Movie Compares To The Book & John Wayne Version, The Barbarian And The Geisha Had John Wayne Literally Fighting His Director. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is Ford's deeply personal farewell to a period in American history he loved, a folklore he helped create. Doniphon comes in and sees Hallie and Stoddard together and apologizes to Hallie that he did not arrive in time to help. That and the fact that few present day people in Shinbone seem to remember Tom Doniphon suggests that after the Valance shooting, Tom Doniphon went into a seculsion, probably just stayed at his little ranch and lived like a hermit.
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