Film: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
Stars: John Wayne, James Stewart, Vera Miles, Lee Marvin, Edmond O'Brien, Andy Devine
Director: John Ford
Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Costume Design-Black-and-White)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 4/5 stars
(Spoilers Ahead) The film follows a number of classic western tropes, not least of which
is its stars: few actors (save perhaps Gary Cooper and Roy Rogers) scream classic American
western like John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart. The film opens with Sen. Stoddard (Stewart) visiting the
town of Shinbone (this is such a John Ford movie) with his wife Hallie
(Miles). The senator, who is a
frontrunner to be the next Vice President of the United States, is questioned
for his reasons to come to town, and in a moment of a politician suddenly being
completely honest (only in a movie, and probably only with Jimmy Stewart), he
recounts how he first came to Shinbone and the story behind the man whose
funeral he is in town to attend.
The film then flashes back to Sen. Stoddard being stuck up in a
stagecoach robbery, being beaten badly by a masked man named Liberty Vallance
(Marvin) who comes into town trying to get justice against Vallance, only to
find that he’s an outlaw no one can control. He befriends Hallie, her parents, and a gunslinger who is
clearly Hallie’s intended named Tom Doniphon (Wayne). Slowly, he becomes involved in teaching Hallie (and most of the town) how to read and begins to fall for Hallie, much to Tom's chagrin.
The film then tries to balance this burgeoning feud/romance with political unrest in this part of the country (I didn't actually catch if they ever mentioned what state they were in, though it's clearly a Mountain Range territory), where the "people" want the territory to become a state and the powers-that-be want it to become a territory. Stoddard becomes one of the delegates to the convention, beating Liberty Vallance in the process and making Valance, a far better shot than the greenhorn Stoddard, seething with anger.
The film then moves on to the title sequence, where Valance comes within an inch of killing Stoddard's mentor, a drunken newspaper editor (O'Brien), before Stoddard apparently shoots Valance. Only a fool, though, doesn't realize that it was clearly Tom from a different angle (Ford would never disregard his biggest star in the climax of the movie). This shot manages to define Stoddard's career-he becomes a territorial delegate in large part due to his sudden notoriety, then enjoys a remarkable career as governor and senator until he comes within a hair's breadth of the White House. In the end of the film, the newspaperman who has heard the entire story decides to maintain the legend, and Stoddard decides to not pursue the Vice Presidency, instead retiring back to Shinbone. The film ends on a dour note, with Stoddard getting preferential treatment not for his stature as a statesman, but instead due to his famed (and false) gunfight.
The film's best moments are these slightly sour, darker touches. Many critics discarded this film when it was first released because it was so traditional and starred such well-known and "beyond their prime?" stars (the film was a box office smash, though), but they clearly weren't paying a lot of attention. The movie shows how sad life can be for someone like Stoddard, who can never escape the shadow of a lie he perpetuated when he was younger. This is a man with an unrivaled career (three-term governor, two-term senator, ambassador, and potential future president), but he will always be defined by something that he never did and a lie he can never un-tell. Sergio Leone famously called this is his favorite Ford film because "it was the only film where Ford learned something about pessimism." He's certainly right, and not just from the dour ending.
Probably an even darker example than the ending is Vera Miles character and the way she reacts to Tom in the present-day scenes. Hallie clearly has never gotten over Tom through all of the years-she remembers the way he gave her a flower and pines over the old days. It's not a stretch of the imagination to assume that Hallie has spent her entire life rethinking her decision to go with Stoddard, and that years ago she realized that she made the wrong decision but couldn't go back. Wayne has less screen-time than Stewart and perhaps even Miles, but he looms so large over the film that you can feel his ghost in Hallie's memory.
The movie does have some problems, of course (I couldn't bring myself to add that final star). Stewart and Wayne, though obviously the actors that Ford had in mind for these roles, are way too old to be playing these characters. Stoddard and Tom were probably in their late 20's/early 30's in the flashback scenes, yet both actors were well into their fifties during production (this was juxtaposed even worse by casting the age appropriate 31-year-old Miles as the girl between them). It's a pity this film wasn't made twenty years earlier when they would have been more age appropriate (and Ford could have cast Claire Trevor like he clearly envisioned the role).
The film also toes the line pretty heavily between mocking western tropes and succumbing to them. For the record, this is the film Peter Griffin is mocking incessantly when he keeps using the phrase "pilgrim" in conjunction with John Wayne, as Tom refers to Stoddard by this term of endearment almost every other sentence. The film suffers a bit from this overuse of cliche, even if it's trying to prove a point.
The movie provided Edith Head with one of her two nominations from that year, the other being in the color category for My Geisha (Head received so many nominations in part because Costume was at the time separated between color and black-and-white). She lost both trophies, missing out for Liberty Valance to What Ever Happened to Baby Jane (can you imagine a modern film like Baby Jane getting nominated for, much less winning best costume today?). Her work here is decent, though Head had done much better. It's interesting to see how she handles Stewart in particular, regularly dolling him in perfectly-fit clothes (I doubt very much they had a trip to the tailor after he was robbed at gunpoint), though she keeps Wayne in roughly the same outfit, staying true to the character. We've got another Head film being reviewed tomorrow, so we'll get to see how she matches the star to the look (her specialty), but this was a solid, if not spectacular installment in her massive Oscar nomination haul.
How about you-have you seen Liberty Valance, and where do you land on the film? Do you think Head deserved the nomination? Do you feel that Stewart and Wayne were too old for their parts? Anyone wish that someone would write another classic western and have Miles in a supporting role? Share in the comments!
The film's best moments are these slightly sour, darker touches. Many critics discarded this film when it was first released because it was so traditional and starred such well-known and "beyond their prime?" stars (the film was a box office smash, though), but they clearly weren't paying a lot of attention. The movie shows how sad life can be for someone like Stoddard, who can never escape the shadow of a lie he perpetuated when he was younger. This is a man with an unrivaled career (three-term governor, two-term senator, ambassador, and potential future president), but he will always be defined by something that he never did and a lie he can never un-tell. Sergio Leone famously called this is his favorite Ford film because "it was the only film where Ford learned something about pessimism." He's certainly right, and not just from the dour ending.
The movie does have some problems, of course (I couldn't bring myself to add that final star). Stewart and Wayne, though obviously the actors that Ford had in mind for these roles, are way too old to be playing these characters. Stoddard and Tom were probably in their late 20's/early 30's in the flashback scenes, yet both actors were well into their fifties during production (this was juxtaposed even worse by casting the age appropriate 31-year-old Miles as the girl between them). It's a pity this film wasn't made twenty years earlier when they would have been more age appropriate (and Ford could have cast Claire Trevor like he clearly envisioned the role).
The film also toes the line pretty heavily between mocking western tropes and succumbing to them. For the record, this is the film Peter Griffin is mocking incessantly when he keeps using the phrase "pilgrim" in conjunction with John Wayne, as Tom refers to Stoddard by this term of endearment almost every other sentence. The film suffers a bit from this overuse of cliche, even if it's trying to prove a point.
The movie provided Edith Head with one of her two nominations from that year, the other being in the color category for My Geisha (Head received so many nominations in part because Costume was at the time separated between color and black-and-white). She lost both trophies, missing out for Liberty Valance to What Ever Happened to Baby Jane (can you imagine a modern film like Baby Jane getting nominated for, much less winning best costume today?). Her work here is decent, though Head had done much better. It's interesting to see how she handles Stewart in particular, regularly dolling him in perfectly-fit clothes (I doubt very much they had a trip to the tailor after he was robbed at gunpoint), though she keeps Wayne in roughly the same outfit, staying true to the character. We've got another Head film being reviewed tomorrow, so we'll get to see how she matches the star to the look (her specialty), but this was a solid, if not spectacular installment in her massive Oscar nomination haul.
How about you-have you seen Liberty Valance, and where do you land on the film? Do you think Head deserved the nomination? Do you feel that Stewart and Wayne were too old for their parts? Anyone wish that someone would write another classic western and have Miles in a supporting role? Share in the comments!
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