That was an excellent one.

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

In John Ford's worst Western, artificially filmed almost entirely on sound stages, John Wayne plays Tom Doniphon. Doniphon has a ranch outside of Shinbone, a town terrorized by Liberty Valance. As befitting a character played by John Wayne, Doniphon talks tough: "Liberty Valance's the toughest man south of the Picketwire ... next to me," he boasts. But on the two occasions when Doniphon has verbal confrontations with Liberty Valance, Doniphon is backed up by his "boy" Pompey, an imposing black man aiming his rifle right at Liberty. I hate to say this about John Wayne, but Tom Doniphon is a coward. For all his tough talk, he doesn't face Liberty Valance in a fair fight. Instead, he hides in the shadows and bushwhacks him. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance more accurately Ambushed him. Then he Executed him. The one thing he didn't do was Face him. Or Outdraw him. Or Outgun him. Or Outfight him. In fact, in one embarrassing scene, the mighty Tom Doniphon couldn't even muster enough breath to blow out a match. In another scene equally embarrassing, a pacifist lawyer who Doniphon provoked punches Doniphon in his mouth and knocks him on his ass. So much for being the toughest man south of the Picketwire. Then there's John Wayne's performance. He was always more of a movie star than an actor, but in this film he was reduced to a caricature: John Wayne sounding like he's impersonating Rich Little impersonating John Wayne. Add to that the casting of the annoying Andy Devine as comic relief where none was needed, and O. Z. Whitehead, age 51, incredibly playing an elementary school boy who sucks lollipops, and in one scene, is seen skipping, and James Stewart and John Wayne both 20 years older than the characters they were playing. Honestly, if this had been John Ford's only Western, no one today would remember his name.

This is a fine story of the west wild as it was and true to life in its start-up. You will see how gunfights settle scores and was the only law people understood. Marshalls could only do so much and were always being killed so the rules of the west prevailed for some time until there was law and order depicted well in this movie. You got really good "good" guys and really bad "bad" guys making the point of good versus evil throughout the flick. You get butterflies when bad takes a turn and you feel good when good appears. This is raw, well-presented entertainment and what many Westerns relied on to capture not only your interest but to tell the tale as well. Add some shoot em ups, a love interest, horses of course, and plenty drinking at the bar in the local saloon. One thing that always captures my interest in any movie is food scenes as I like to see what people eat, how they eat and what the food looks like. In this movie, I was thrilled. Why? Nice large cuts of fresh steak cooked to order with a side of spuds and beans with bread and deep dish apple pie with hot coffee to wash it all down with. Man, not a bad way to dine! Enjoy Andy Devine, James Stewart, John Wayne and Lee Marvin and many well known others as they act out this little gem that will produce a tear or two. Good movie to eat dinner with, dessert and a tasty drink of choice

It was directed by John Ford, and it features a screenplay by James Warner Bellah and Willis Goldbeck that was based on the story by Dorothy M. Johnson. The titled story is told in flashback by James Stewart's character, Ransom Stoddard, who's now a United States Senator that has returned home to Shinbone to attend the funeral of his old friend Tom Doniphon, played (in flashback) by John Wayne. Woody Strode plays Tom's dependable ranch hand Pompey.While answering questions from reporters, the Senator recalls the day he met his future wife Hallie (Vera Miles), in attendance, and how he became known as "the man who shot Liberty Valance", a notorious outlaw played (in flashback) by Lee Marvin.However, once the truth is revealed - that Ransom had been an educated nonviolent man ("a fish out of water") in the untamed West, capable of standing up to the bully when it finally had to be done but incapable of stopping Valance, even after the outlaw had been drinking (it was Tom that had done the deed from a side alley, initially unbeknownst to Ransom, to protect his friend, and he had lost his girl Hallie, sympathetic to the future Senator, in the process), which was contrary to the "facts" as they were known - Carleton Young's character speaks the famous quote: "This is the west, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend."The cast includes so many (Western) movie veterans that it's a virtual "who's who" of character actors: Edmond O'Brien as a newspaper editor, Andy Devine and his insufferable creaky voice, John Carradine, John Qualen, Willis Bouchey, Young, Denver Pyle, Strother Martin, and Lee Van Cleef (among others).It is incomprehensible to me that such a masterpiece as this only received one Academy Award nomination (Edith Head's B&W Costume Design was Oscar nominated)!Added to the National Film Registry in 2007.

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance If you think you are getting a thoughtless western when you turn on The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, then you are dead wrong, pilgrim. This John Ford classic starring James Stewart and John Wayne brings about a very thought provoking piece to the western genre. The audience will really be challenged to evaluate what they think of right and wrong, and just how absolute the two should be. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance begs the question, will justice always prevail? The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance opens by introducing us to an aged United States Senator as he visits his hometown to attend the funeral of a dear friend. Accompanied by his wife, the audience soon learns that there is quite a history between the deceased person and the Senator. Upon the newspaper reporters' ceaseless questioning of his arrival, the senator goes on to fill them, and the audience, in on the story involving him and the deceased man. Early on in the film a powerful scene takes place in which we meet the main character, Ransom Stoddard (James Stewart) as he is riding in a carriage. Unfortunately for Ransom, he is ambushed by a vicious gang lead by Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin). After protecting the woman accompanying him, the gang turns their violent focus on Ransom savagely beating him and leaving him for dead. Fortunately for Ransom, Tom Doniphon (John Wayne) peels him up from the path and takes him into town to have a local family tend to his wounds. When he finally comes to, Ransom is stunned, both to see the family tending to him so attentively, and to the realization that there is no accepted idea of justice in this Wild West. Ransom is committed to his belief that justice exists everywhere and as a lawyer, refuses to take arms to protect himself against Liberty Valance and his gang of outlaws. As our story progresses, Ransom stays firm in his notion of justice ruling the land. Ransom remains with the family that took him in, he even teaches the adult daughter of the family how to read and write, eventually marrying Hallie (Vera Miles) Ransom takes his teachings a step further and seeks to educate the entire town on basic principles of law and citizenship. Liberty Valance, however, remains just as committed to keeping the law out of his land and cuts Ransom off at every pass of collective improvement. Tensions rise as the boiling point is finally reached between these two culminating in a surprising shoot-out that has the audience on the edge of their seats. First of all, it needs noted that I am a sucker for a good movie told backwards. No flashbacks took place throughout the film, we are just made aware of the ending, after which the film is told in proper succession. To me, this takes a great deal of precision by a filmmaker, which John Ford is more than capable of. When this type of storytelling is properly achieved, even though the audience knows a great deal of how the story turns out, they are no less interested in how it turns. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is a wonderful display of backwards story telling. Another aspect that adds to the story telling of this film is the score. Each change in pitch is punctuated perfectly against the action being told on screen, bringing about a masterpiece of sensory symmetry. The sound effects were also a standout part of this film's experience. For instance, each time Liberty Valance used his weapon of choice, a whip, against his adversary, the sound was realistic enough to give the viewer a sharp sting on their back. Another mark of a great film, for me, is when action is fragmented well between what is seen and unseen. Much of this film reminded me of Burt Lancaster's first film The Killers (1946) in which the most pivotal scene climaxed out of frame proving that when a director can acknowledge the intelligence of the audience, they don't need to put every detail in front of their eyes. This scene, and many others like it, notably from Alfred Hitchcock, has stuck with me years after their initial viewing because there is great power in performing a scene off-camera. This story-telling device requires immense detail and thorough framing; once both of those criterion are met, the audience's mind is free to wonder imaging exactly what the action that took place on screen looked like. This imagination may provide even more depth to a scene than the director would have been able to film. To depict a scene this way also requires a great deal of trust in the actor. In this set-up, a director must be confident that the actor will display enough nonverbal emotion to cue the audience into what is taking place. One illustration of this device occurs when Ransom looks into the casket of his deceased friend and becomes angered that his boots have been removed. If Jimmy Stewart was less of an actor, or if John Ford was less a director, the audience would not have enjoyed such a scene, made all the more powerful by the pinnacle occurring off-camera. Another excellent device used by John Ford was the way he introduced us to John Wayne's character, Tom Doniphon. Tom acted as a savior to Ransom, and a savior is exactly how he was depicted the first time we see him, high upon his horse. One could also notice that Wayne's character first appearing on a horse correlates him to that of a knight, riding up to save the day, which he ultimately did for Ransom. Such direction by John Ford illustrates his legacy and allows the viewer to recognize, first-hand, why he remains a legend more than 40 years after his death.