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The
Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
In John Ford's nostalgic and memorable last Western
with John Wayne (in a quintessential role):
- the opening scene in which elderly and revered US
Senator Ransom "Ranse" Stoddard (James Stewart) arrived
in the year 1910 in the small western town of Shinbone (either
Arizona or Colorado Territory) with his wife Hallie Stoddard (Vera
Miles) to attend the funeral of Tom Doniphon (John Wayne); he told
newspaperman Maxwell Scott (Carleton Young), in the film's lengthy
flashback, about how he had allegedly become a legend and was known
as "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance"
- Stoddard's look back on his past, beginning 25 years
earlier when he first arrived in the small frontier town as a young,
idealistic pacifistic attorney at law from the East Coast: ("l
was just a youngster, fresh out of law school, bag full of law books
and my father's gold watch, $14.80 in cash. l had taken Horace Greeley's
advice literally: Go west, young man, go west, and seek fame, fortune,
adventure")
- and the Senator's continuing description of his relationship
with tough and rugged homesteader and gunslinger Tom Doniphon - who
had protected Ransom (famously referred to as "Pilgrim")
from continual taunting, including caring for him after he was beaten
up by outlaw Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin) during a stagecoach robbery;
when Doniphon urged: ("You better start packin' a handgun"),
Stoddard vowed that he was non-violent, and was relying on his law
books to bring justice to the town: ("A gun? l don't want a
gun. I don't want a gun. l don't want to kill him. l want to put
him in jail")
- the character of drunken, abusive, violent, silver-knobbed
whip-wielding villain and gun-man Liberty Valance and his conflict
with Ransom - especially their memorable confrontational restaurant
scene when Valance deliberately tripped apron-wearing dishwasher/waiter
employee Ransom while serving a steak dinner to Doniphon - who then
threatened Valance: "That was my steak, Valance!"
- the scene in which Doniphon taught Ransom to shoot
- when Doniphon deliberately splattered Ransom with paint from one
of three paint cans during target practice: ("l hate tricks,
Pilgrim, but that's what you're up against with Valance. He's almost
as fast as l am") - and Ransom's growling response and slugging
of Doniphon in the jaw that sent him to the ground: "I don't
like tricks myself, so that makes us even"
- the climactic shootout-showdown on the dusty street
in which Valance taunted and then wounded Ransom in his right arm;
and then Valance aimed his gun and vowed: ("This time, right
between the eyes"); miraculously, Random - left-handed - appeared
to shoot Valance dead
- Doniphon's private confrontation with Ransom a few
weeks later when he informed him about the real truth of the legendary
gunfight - Ransom never shot Liberty; it was told during a
'flashback-within-a-flashback' introduced with a swirl of smoke from
Doniphon's cigarette: ("You didn't kill Liberty Valance...Think
back, Pilgrim. Valance came out of the saloon. You were walking toward
him when he fired his first shot. Remember?"); Doniphon revealed
how he was hidden on a side street with sidekick Pompey (Woody Strode)
when the showdown occurred; Pompey threw him a rifle and at the exact
moment of the shooting, Doniphon killed Valance; he had shot Liberty
to sacrificially protect the love of his life Hallie from heartbreak
(knowing Stoddard would die in a face-off), and also for the greater
good of the territory poised for statehood: (Doniphon: "Cold-blooded
murder, but l can live with it. Hallie's happy. She wanted you alive");
Doniphon was regretful for saving Ransom's life: "I wish I hadn't.
Hallie's your girl now. Go on back in there and take that nomination.
You taught her how to read and write. Now give her somethin' to read
and write about!"
- the bitter sad, and tragic result of Doniphon's
killing of Liberty Valance, allowing Ransom to take Hallie away
as his wife - the woman Doniphon had loved in silence and had hoped
to marry; a drunken Doniphon staggered home and set his own house
on fire by tossing an oil lamp into it; it had an extra addition
that he had built - planned to be the residence for his bride-to-be
Hallie; Doniphon (and his horses) were saved only by Pompey's intervention
- for the remainder of his life as a politician ("Three
terms as governor, two terms in the Senate, Ambassador to the Court
of St. James, back again to the Senate, and a man who, with the snap
of his fingers, could be the next Vice President of the United States"),
Stoddard was mistakenly known as "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance"
- at the end of Stoddard's flashback after finishing
the true tale about his past, local newspaper editor Maxwell Scott
(Carleton Young) delivered a famous line of dialogue in the film's
conclusion as he ripped up his novice reporter's notes and refused
to publish the truth of the story: (Ransom: "You're not going
to use the story, Mr. Scott?" Scott: "No, sir. This is
the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend")
- the complex (and melancholic) reactions of Ransom
and Hallie when the conductor on their train back to Washington DC,
after their visit, enthusiastically told them: "Nothing's too
good for the Man Who Shot Liberty Valance"
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Ransom Stoddard (James Stewart) - Beaten Up During Stagecoach
Robbery
Tom Doniphon (John Wayne)
Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin)
Doniphon Slugged to the Ground by Ransom
Doniphon's Confession About Who Shot Liberty Valance
Doniphon Setting His Own House on Fire
The Telling of Ransom's Flashbacked Tale
The Train Ride Home
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