Because he had murdered Valance, rather than shooting him in self-defence, Doniphon had to conceal his role, lest he be prosecuted. He explains: "The Western is intrinsically the most political movie genre, because, like Plato's 'Republic,' it is concerned with the founding of cities, and because it depicts the various abstract functions of government as direct, physical actions." Most of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance's story is told in flashback, as Stoddard and Hallie return to the town over 25 years later to attend Doniphon's funeral. In this movie Ransom Stoddard is a well educated attorney from the East who comes to the West to find new opportunity and a place to practice law. Three men stand at the center of the story: Stoddard, Doniphon, and Valance. Liberty Valance, who supports cattle barons opposed to statehood. And so Stoddard tells them the story, one they decide not to print because, in this case, legend has become fact. As the film opens, U. S. Senator Ransom Stoddard (James Stewart) arrives in Shinbone by the new railroad with his wife Hallie (Vera Miles) to attend the funeral of a man named Tom Doniphon (John Wayne). > did Tom Macdonald was born on November 22, 1900 and on! John (John Wayne) is the gunfighter, Tom (Dean Martin) is the gambler, Matt (Earl Holliman) is the quiet one, and Bud (Michael Anderson Jr.) is the youngest. Does this make sense? From the time Ford first teamed up with Wayne inStagecoachin 1939, Waynes towering persona was Fords chief instrument in conceiving and propagating the myths about the old west. In How Green Was My Valley, Ford's adaptation of Llewellyn's novel of Welsh coal miners, the story resembles a dream, seen in retrospect by a man who has had his entire life to romanticize the past: his childhood and his family. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.. That he does this by mixing in history, humorous supporting characters and a poignant romance is typical; his films were complete and self-contained in a way that approaches perfection. Now it's a garden. Next: The Barbarian And The Geisha Had John Wayne Literally Fighting His Director. As a note of trivia, a Burt Bacharach-Hal David song by the same name was recorded for the film by Gene Pitney, but wasnt used in the soundtrack. Tom Doniphon tells him that without a gun in his hand and the experience to use it, he will sooner or later certainly be killed by Valance. Legend is that Ford wanted younger actors for his film, and didnt want to use John Wayne. Rodney King was beaten by the police on March 3, 1991. The age factor was a bigger problem with Stewart, because he was playing aguy half his real age for most part of the film, but with Wayne, he was again playing a personality, a symbol which represents some abstract values, so it was not a problem for him. The nave myths and legends (or untruths) that Ford had propagated about the civilizing of the West (and the building of the American nation), through the 70 odd films he made in his lifetime are all overturned by him in this film. Ford takes us into the past, to Shinbone before the coming of the railroad modernized the town. And he holds the center stage in a film, with his quiet dignity and powerful, charismatic presence, where everybody else, including Stewart, is giving highly exaggerated, even cartoonish performances. At the convention, Stoddard and an ally (a local newspaper and town drunk played by Golden Globe Winner Edmond OBrien) are elected, but Valance threatens to kill him. This is why he can make a scene at the town meeting, mocking the participants and the rules (the Law says the bar is closed!) while turning down appointment to the delegation: if appointed, he might embarrass himself, perhaps showing himself to be ignorant of the rules or other social expectations. Regardless, it was a great movie, but perhaps could have been greater. Doniphon finally does kill does kill Valance. The character of Tom Doniphon was supposed to be a younger man, and the filmmaker relentlessly mocked and teased Wayne during filming. Collin Brendemuehl: Fake history is worthy of exploration if to correct bad history. I really enjoyed it but felt somewhat cheated by the 'twist' ending. He also hated, what he called, intellectual snobbishness, but, this film is the most intellectual of all his films, not to mention cynical, political, pessimistic and subversive. But his luck finally ran out on April 3, 1992 when a jury found Gotti guilty of arranging the assassination . Thom Donovan (born Thomas Joseph Donovan; July 24, 1974 in St. Louis, Missouri) is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter and producer.He has released five solo albums and was the lead vocalist and guitarist of the band Lapush.His international performance career has included concerts across the United States as well as cities around the world. 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 kicks Floyd in the face as he bends down to retrieve the tray] [Doniphon has just faced down Valance in the diner] It turns out an unseen Doniphon shot Valance with a rifle from across the street and he later came to regret saving Stoddard as he lost Hallie to the lawyer, but he pushes him to pursue a career in politics to make Hallie proud. Tom Doniphon : My boy, Pompey; kitchen door. Their opponent? The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance from 1962 was one of their final projects together, though John Wayne was cast by the studio against Ford's wishes. The film, also starring James Stewart, Lee Marvin and Vera Miles, is Fords most political film that subverts a lot of myths about the American West as well as the John Wayne persona that Ford himself created, This is the West, sir. He is Tom's farmhand and seems to be his only confidant, a protective presence; he always has Tom's back. [Valance looks and sees Pompey at the door holding a rifle] Floyd: I'll get it, Liberty! Recognizing that that kind of cowardice is his own and not Stoddards, he gives him a pep talk and tells him what he wants to hear: that he did not violate his belief in non-violence, that he is the man he always thought he was. Was Hollywood, at that time, incapable of leaving us a more complicated, conflicted ending? In a few characters and a gripping story, Ford dramatizes the debate about guns that still continues in many Western states. Everyone in Shinbone hates Liberty Valance, but they're powerless against him and his two sidekicks, one of them a giggling fool. Marvin is magnificent as the snarling villain. There was lot of tension between Ford and Wayne during shooting. He even takes on the duty of helping out with waiting tables. Wayne is seen by many as the hero because he realized the only way you could deal with someone like Liberty Valance was through force and he did the deed that had to be done. But the most important of all, the film begins with the death of his lead character, Tom Doniphon, played by none other than John Wayne. However, Doniphon died a drunken, dislocated man. Tom Doniphon: Pilgrim, hold it. In glorious, retro black & white! As Tom Doniphon, Wayne just as ideally symbolizes dogged individualism, playing the simple, old-fashioned kind of Westerner who can pat his gun and say "Out here a man settles his own problems," and who replaces community spirit with personal loyalities and friendships. But what if Doniphon is lying, what if Stoddard really is the man who shot Liberty Valance? Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. As a young lawyer, he comes to practice law in a lawless Western town and on the way into town, hes on a stagecoach thats robbed by Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin). When the legend becomes fact, print the legend., Tom Doniphon: It aint mannerly out west to let a fella drink by himself., Tom Doniphon, about to leave town and knowing the newspaper is about to pick a fight with Liberty Valance: Take note of what goes on around here, because by the time I get back there aint gonna be no newspaper to read it in., Linc Appleyard, on the prospect of getting tough with Liberty Valance: The jails only got one cell, and the locks broke and I sleep in it., John Wayne as Tom Doniphon, the one man in Shinbone willing to stand up to Liberty Valance in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), James Stewart as Ransom Stoddard, victim of a stage holdup in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), Vera Miles as Hallie trying to talk Ransom Stoddard out of a showdown in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), Andy Devine as Lince Appleyard, the rather meek sheriff of Shinbone in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), Ken Murray as Doc WIlloughby, realizing the day hes wished for has arrived in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), Woody Stode as Pompey, welcoming Ransom and Hallie Stoddard back to Shinbone in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), ohn Qualen as Peter Ericson, father of Hallie and owner of a restaurant in Shinbone in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), Jeanette Nolan as Nora Ericson, taking English lessons at Ransom Stoddards school in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), John Wayne as Tom Doniphon, sharing a secret about the night an outlaw died with Ransom Stoddard (James Stewart) in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), James Stewart as Ransom Stoddard and Vera Miles as Hallie Stoddard, reflecting on their visit to Shinbone in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962). Now obviously this revelation makes the frame story of Old Senator Stoddard work better. Now with his conscious clear, Stoddard returns to the convention, accepts the nomination, and is elected to the Washington delegation. The body of Tom Doniphon is at rest in a plain, wooden casket. He pays off room and board to her Swedish parents by working in their cafe. It is made clear in "Liberty Valance" that segregation was the practice in the territory. The next bullet, he says, will be right between the eyes; but Stoddard fires first, and to everyones surprise, Valance falls dead. But as he would come to reveal in Liberty Valance, he was just printing the legend all along, leaving out the hard facts. Valance and his two sidekicks hold up a stagecoach on the way to town, and when one of the passengers, Ransom, stands up to him Liberty nearly whips him to death. Strother Martin Floyd He would suddenly come across as a selfish coward because he was late to the scene, certainly a shocking resolution for any John Wayne character. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valanceis one of those classic films I hadnt gotten around to seeing other than having caught the end on TNT one day. Hallie attends to Stoddards wounds and it appears to Doniphonthat she has fallen in love with Stoddard. They would make one more film together, the lighthearted comedyDonovans Reef (1963), and call it quits. The story focuses on Ransome Stoddard (Jimmy Stewart), an American senator arriving at the town of Shinbone with his wife, Hailey (Vera Miles), to attend the funeral of Tom Doniphon (Wayne). Thus buoyed, Stoddard rushes off to become the heroic figure that will dominate the politics of the territory, and then state, for decades to come. Farmers want statehood. When he recovers, the college-education lawyer goes to work as a dishwasher in the hotel that took him in. However, thematically I felt wronged by this outcome. ", Also online in my Great Movies Collection: John Ford's "The Grapes of Wrath," "Stagecoach," "The Searchers," "Rio Bravo" and "My Darling Clementine," and John Wayne in Howard Hawk's "Red River.". His own conscience clear, Stoddard goes back into the hall and accepts the nomination; Doniphon goes home alone. I said you, Valance; you pick it up. The characters in Liberty Valance are the archetypal figures of all Ford westerns brought together for a last reunion, in order that they might be destroyed. When a meeting is held to vote on statehood, Pompey sits outside on the porch. Carleton Young Maxwell Scott, Edmond OBrien as Dutton Peabody, the man who lets Stoddard set up a law office and school in his newspaper building in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), Woody Strode as Pompey, backing up Tom Doniphon as Hallie (Vera Miles) looks on in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), Tom Doniphon: Liberty Valance is the toughest man south of picket wire. But right on his arrival, he encounters the brutal Valance, who steals all his belongings andalmost whips him to death. None of his recent films have been big hits, even the ones he made with John Wayne likeThe Horse Soldiers were failing to find favor with the audience. The first time we see it, James Stewart is bullied and wounded but miraculously shoots Valance, who seems to have woefully underestimated him. 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. 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. Just finished watching The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Authorities hoped to learn the answer today as they continued an investigation of the poison death of H. B. Tom Doniphon is played by John Wayne, while Ransom Stoddard is played by Jimmie Stewart. And so Stoddard tells them the story, one they decide not to print because, in this case, legend has become fact. Ford had lost his faith in notion of community and those good old values and It is at this point that he mooted the idea of filming Liberty Valance. That Stoddard, thus relieved of the sin of murder has no problem committing the sin of dishonesty says as much about the nature of politicians as it does his own character. 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. Stoddard believes so firmly in the law that he is willing to lose his life for his principles. John Carradine Maj. Cassius Starbuckle In a long flashback involving most of the film, Ford recalls the events leading up to that day. With that one line of dialogue, John Ford pretty much dismantles the entire mythology of the American west that he had created over a course of 40 years. In its tone, structure and visual style, the film is very different from other John Ford Westerns. So the resulting fame for Stoddard was hugely unfair, right? 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. Here, Doniphon is a horse trader while the bad guy Valance is a stagecoach robber; within the framework of the film, both are from the same world and are pretty much allies; both are trapped in obsolescent careers, neither seems willing to adapt; they represent the best and worst of that old-world. There are here to attend the funeral of a man named Tom Doniphon (John Wayne). 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. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. The legend of how Stoddard stood up to Valance and killed him spread wide and helped him build a career in politics. He makes a positive first impression when he brings Stoddard in. It is also his most claustrophobic western; shot in Black & White and completely on a studio lot with minimal sets, the film has none of his trademark shots of stunning landscapes and colorful panoramic vistas. In The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, the newspaper editor says, "This is the West. 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. And Miles is also effective as the young woman eager to learn under Stewarts tutelage and hoping that his vision of a West where law and order prevail comes to be. 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). To Ford, Stoddard represents blind progress. As is the question of who really killed Liberty Valance. Stoddard grabs a six-gun he can barely use and offers to meet Valance in the street while Hallie summons Doniphon for help. This was a breakout role for Marvin, who has been struggling in supporting parts and TV roles. Denver Pyle Amos Carruthers 25 Years ago, Shinbone was held in a grip of terror by the sadistic Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin), who committed many murders and enjoyed torturing his victims using a leather bullwhip. Whatever the reasons, the end result is that the studios refused to finance Liberty Valance, if Wayne was not in the cast. It is the Ford town, complete with a drunken doctor, a crusading newspaper editor, a cowardly marshall (brillantly played by Andy Devine), two saloons-one high class, and then the Spanish place down the street--and assorted cowboys and farmers. Stoddard's first confrontation with Doniphon reveals absolutely no understanding between them; they eye each other as if the other were a strange animal. And more importantly, why does he do it in secret? In response to TIME making Greta Thunberg their 2019 Person of the Year, Shane Vander Hart nominates Baby Yoda and Conan the war hero dog instead. His chief victim was Woody Strode, with whom he very nearly came to blows. There is so much to love about this movie and John Ford is especially skilled at luring sentimentality out of you (even for otherwise comic-relief characters like the town drunk/newspaperman). You put that thing up, youll have to defend it with a gun. After hearing all this, the newsmen decide not to print the story, as the mythology that propelled Stoddard has to be protected at any cost. He's super modern too, so his favorite movies include Jaws, Die Hard, The Thing, Ghostbusters and Batman. You helped to make it," we cannot help feeling a deep regret that it had to happen that way. And so begins the political career for the lawyer from back East. Live Action again exposes Planned Parenthood. 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. in Liberty Valance, he just slowly fades away from screen. And confessed that it was he who, out of love for Hallie, fired from the shadows that.. To inflict and how did tom doniphon die violence t feature Tom or Jerry committing suicide film. Doniphon takes Stoddard aside, and in a flashback within a flashback, confides that he, Doniphon, actually killed Valance from an alley across the street, firing at the same time as Stoddard. Personality chivalrous, calm, and tough as all hell. In fact, they find themselves up for election as territorial delegates to work toward that goal. Tom Doniphon is the archetypal Ford hero, the John Wayne of all Ford's westerns. He is putting to death all that Wayne represented in his westerns up until that time and for the rest of the film, he is going to painfully reconstruct the mythology of the west and Wayne through some cold hard facts. The film flashes forward to the present, where Stoddard sums up the rest of his story. (Doodie) Tennison, 18, of Texarkana, Texas. It asks the question: Does a man need to carry a gun in order to disagree or state an opinion? Director John Ford has been a pioneer, not only of the Western genre, but also the art form of cinema itself; he is an inspiration to some of the greatest filmmakers all around the world; Akira Kurosawa, Orson Welles, David Lean,.. Have all expressed their admiration and debt to Ford in developing their own cinematic technique. Ford is not interested in reality but in subjective viewpoint, not fact but romance and legend. It's pronounced Paw-rick, not Pad-raig. But today I saw it and came away with a different conclusion. Ransom: Thats why I painted it. It's clear they loved him. The deadliest and most sadistic killer in all Ford's films, Liberty Valance has been filtered through all Ford's other villains, emerging as a composite of the worst features in each. The rough and tough Doniphon later tries to teach Stoddard to defend himself and shoot a gun, all to little success. 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. But in Liberty Valance (as well as in his previous filmSergeant Rutledge) I find a strong influence of Kurosawas Rashomon; especially, dealing with the exploration of a particular event (involving a crime) from multiple vantage points. John Qualen Peter Ericson It should be clear from that line-up that he often worked alongside John Wayne too, who credited the filmmaker with making him a star. Go to the bottom of each blog and youll find a ratings widget. 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. 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. Flashing back, we learn Doniphon saved. Tom Doniphon and his handyman, Pompey, find Ranse and take him to Shinbone, where Tom's girlfriend, Hallie, treats his wounds. He then throws down a challenge to Stoddard: leave town or face him in a gunfight. Change). And the scene where Stoddard (James Stewart) confronts Valance was incredible. This would make him a tragic figure, even if he lived the rest of his days honorably under the 'law and order' creed. A man of action and few words (note his instinctive hatred of the rhetoric in the Convention speeches),. In this scenario, Doniphon is not simply a radical individualist who refuses to partake in community out of a twisted kind of idealism, rather hes simply a coward. Andy Devine says "he hasn't worn them in years" . Vera Miles as Hallie Stoddard, concerned about the wounded man Tom Doniphon delivers to her home in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), Lee Marvin as Liberty Valance, upset over an item published in Peabodys newspaper in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), Cast: 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.
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