This leads to Stoddard being elected as a delegate (along with Dutton Peabody (Edmond OBrien), publisher of the local newspaper) for a statehood convention at the territorial capital. He always liked his films to be clean and straight, and any form of alteration to the classical structure of the film was anathema to him. But he was frustrated with his costars leisurely pace,; he was a guy who moved fast , talked fast and worked fast. The character of Tom Doniphon was supposed to be a younger man, and the filmmaker relentlessly mocked and teased Wayne during filming. A part-time hobby soon blossomed into a career when he discovered he really loved writing about movies, TV and video games; he even (arguably) had a little bit of talent for it. He is left without the girl he loves at the dawn of a new era that has no need for his kind of individuality. 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. The 10 best screen cowboys - in pictures - The Guardian of course, Ford was making a larger point; that the kind of men needed to master the wilderness are the kind of men that can only function in wilderness; they are men who civilization must expel; If society is tobenefit, then thereis no place for either Valance or Doniphon in the new world. The film was a direct influence on Leones own end of the west westernOnce upon a time in the West. Indeed Hallie and Nora Ericson (Jeanette Nolan) are the only two noticeable women in town; little wonder Tom's love for Hallie is intense. There's a lot in the film if we care to notice. Want to keep up with breaking news? Christ there was no place for me. 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. Valance toys with Stoddard, shooting his arm and laughing at him. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance: Film Analysis | ipl.org His westerns were all optimistic in nature and concentrated on building a myth, rather than showing the gritty reality. 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. A man of action and few words (note his instinctive hatred of the rhetoric in the Convention speeches),. Three men stand at the center of the story: Stoddard, Doniphon, and Valance. Doniphon revealed how he was hidden on a side street with Pompey when the showdown occurred. He wouldnt run, he wouldnt hide. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance movie review (1962) - Roger Ebert He receives a brutal beating from Valance and is left to die. He is everything Doniphon wishes he could be. "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance," the New Yorker's Richard Brody writes, "is the greatest American political movie." Doniphon is not a person of any importance around town, just a sorry old man on the fringes, who passed away unnoticed. They were playing dual archetypes of the myth: the grizzled veteran cowboy and the idealistic, young, city-slicker lawyer. 43 of 48 found this interesting | Share this They soon learn that their father gambled away the family ranch, leading to his own murder. He knows that his cowardice has lost him his chance at happiness. Does this make sense? 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. In a film with Lee Marvin's snarl, Andy Devine's squeaky voice and the accent of the Swedes, John Wayne as usual provides the calm center, never trying for an effect. John Ford and John Wayne together created much of the mythology of the Old West we carry in our minds. Ford turns the ending into a rousing beginning and constructs an elaborate mythology for the American military. ", 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.". He's super modern too, so his favorite movies include Jaws, Die Hard, The Thing, Ghostbusters and Batman. Keeping to one side, Tom Doniphon observes everything but is slow to act; his strength is silently coiled. Stoddard's first confrontation with Doniphon reveals absolutely no understanding between them; they eye each other as if the other were a strange animal. While many people have imagined Stoddard as naively unaware that the law wouldnt be sufficient to deal with Liberty Valance, Stoddard was no fool. Without ever seeming to hurry, he doesn't include a single gratuitous shot. A Thought on the Ending of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance John Carradine Maj. Cassius Starbuckle Stoddard decides that he cannot be entrusted with public service after killing a man in a gunfight and he decides to withdraw. And while most of us dont have the talent of Tom Doniphan, perhaps by Gods grace, we can be more like Ransom Stoddard in our towns and communities. But, it was in direct opposition to the Western code. Hes the individualistic strain in American history: the isolationist, the Randian, the pioneer who wants not to build a community, but his own private empire. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) - Movie Review - John Wayne Ford started the film full of enthusiasm and fire, but he lost interest in the film almost as soon as shooting began. Is The man Who Shot Liberty Valance based on a true story? 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). Even Doniphans attempts to help Stoddard had mixed motives at best. When Peabody and Stoddard are elected as the delegates, Valance promises vengeance. As played by Jimmy Stewart, Stoddard spends much of the film wearing an apron and washing dishes in the restaurant, sending a hardly ambiguous message about a man who doesn't wear a gun. Hallie nurses Stoddard back to health; he pays her back by teaching her how to read. Tom Doniphon: You aim to help me find some?, Strother Martin as Floyd, a sidekick to Liberty Valance in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), Lee Van Cleef as Reese, one of Liberty Valances sidekicks in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), Mr. Scott, to Ransom Stoddard: This is the West, sir. Tom Doniphon: Pilgrim, hold it. Meanwhile, throughout the film, Tom has not 'done the right thing' and stood up to Liberty Valance except in circumstances where he felt he had to. He always wanted to play heroes and he always looked at cinema as a medium for the audience to believe in heroes; there is the famous story where he chastised Kirk Douglas for playing a mad and tragic Van Gogh inLust for Life. Was Hollywood, at that time, incapable of leaving us a more complicated, conflicted ending? 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. Of course, the pick of the lot was Lee Marvin who portrayed the anger, maliciousness, and sadism of a man who symbolized all the lawlessness of the old west, and who refused to step gently aside to encroaching civilization. His magnificent Western landscapes are always there, but as environment, not travelogue. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance - INSP TV | TV Shows and Movies Doniphan, while still doing dishwashing work, hangs. All his assets that he had accrued in his lifetime has been wiped out; on top of that, he too developed severe health problems (which was later diagnosed as lung cancer), which drove him into deep depression. 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. Stoddard picked up with his least favored hand. And as they swarm around the senator for details, Stoddard starts recalling the events leading up to that day and, the film cuts to a flashback. I dont trust ambiguity. Wayne became surly and aggressive during the shoot and he started taking out his anger on everybody else on the set, except Ford. On the page, Tom Doniphon was more of a mentor to Ranse Stoddard, easing him along the road from frontier lawyer to state senator. Ford takes us into the past, to Shinbone before the coming of the railroad modernized the town. He had many murders on his conscience, and much enjoyed using a leather bullwhip. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) - Trivia - IMDb But it's hard to avoid the feeling that, in retrospect, she loves Doniphon, too. Stoddard was the only man in town who would stand up to Valance and if Valance wasnt stopped, hed continued to destroy and hurt people. It's pronounced Paw-rick, not Pad-raig. 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. His mood made life difficult for all the actors involved but he was especially tough on Wayne, who found himself in the direct firing line again. And so, when Doniphon sees that Stoddard killed Valance, and thus won the heart of the girl Doniphon was too afraid to propose too, he shatters in self-disgust. All that said, its a bit of an odd film for Wayne, who got top billing but has one of the least interesting characters. Besides, there is a complication. Thom Donovan - Wikipedia His world is diffused by time, by memory and nostalgia, by folklore and myth. "At the heart of the Western", argues John Lenihan, was always He would also emerge victorious (at least temporarily) in his fight against cancer as well,and he would go on to enjoy more than a decade and half of solid superstardom, before he would finally succumb to cancer. 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. But right on his arrival, he encounters the brutal Valance, who steals all his belongings andalmost whips him to death. Related: True Grit: How The 2010 Movie Compares To The Book & John Wayne Version. 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. When Stoddard is wracked with guilt thinking he killed Valance, Doniphon relieves his conscience, leaving him free to pursue his political career, founded on his false heroism. There are here to attend the funeral of a man named Tom Doniphon (John Wayne). [sic Arkansas] For two years police of two states have been unable to solve five slaying at the state-line city. Look instead at a debate that continues between the lawyer and the farmer about guns. He had no hope of success. Woody Strode Pompey By killing Liberty Valance, facilitating Stoddard's rise to political prominence and the progressive modernization of the West, Doniphon destroys himself. Even his house is far outside the town (whereas Stoddard lives in its heart: at the restaurant and newspaper office). The Man who shot liberty valance Tom Doniphon, the outlaw hero, shot Liberty Valance To protect Hallie and Ransom Stoddard because he knew that Ransom is the right future for his town and Hallie, even though Ransom views contradict with Toms views and wishes. John Ford is regarded as one of the great American filmmakers and has many classics to his name, including Stagecoach, The Quiet Man and The Searchers. Strother Martin Floyd Ransom Stoddard believes in the U. S. Constitution, the rule by law, the trust in government. However, when Valance savagely beats the elderly newspaper editor, Stoddard walks down to confront Valance, still wearing the apron from his dishwashing job, a servants garment. However, Doniphon died a drunken, dislocated man. Flashing back, we learn Doniphon saved. But his is the old form of Western prowess; its Stewart who represents the territorys future. Stoddard's first instinct is to demand the arrest of Liberty Valance; Doniphon tells him that law books mean nothing out West, that if Stoddard wants to take Valance, he'd better start carrying a hand-gun. Working in the restaurant is young Hallie. Wayne always plays characters who take charge of the situation, the guy who takes the fight to the opposition and, the contrast between him and the bad guy is always well defined. 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. But things are not that easy. Once in the town of Shinbone, he finds allies in the form of tough Tom Doniphon (John Wayne) and his fiance, Hallie (Vera Miles). 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. The body of Tom Doniphon is at rest in a plain, wooden casket. What about Tom Doniphan? (Doodie) Tennison, 18, of Texarkana, Texas. Realizing that he will be nominated on the grounds that he shot Liberty Valance. Next to me., Tom Doniphon, after reading Ransoms Attorney at Law sign: Pilgrim, you really aim to hang that up outside somewhere? A * Tom Doniphon, we need to EACH BECOME Tom Doniphon, need. Personality chivalrous, calm, and tough as all hell. James Stewart is Ransom Stoddard, an idealistic young lawyer who heads West and quickly runs afoul of an outlaw named Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin). Scan this QR code to download the app now. Ford bitterly laments the intrusion of reality on his legend. But as he would come to reveal in Liberty Valance, he was just printing the legend all along, leaving out the hard facts. Ford isn't making an anachronistic statement on racism, but he's being sure we notice it. Ford is not interested in reality but in subjective viewpoint, not fact but romance and legend. And Doniphon returns home and burns down the room he was building for the day he and Hallie would marry. There is no formally enforced law and order; Doniphon says, "Out here a man settles his own problems.". Doniphon returns drunken to his place where he torches it and would be content to die if Pompy did not rescue him from the burning house. Did Hallie love Tom Doniphon? The Man who shot Liberty Valance: In his final Western with John Wayne It is made clear in "Liberty Valance" that segregation was the practice in the territory. This will be very true for Liberty Valance; everyone except Wayne not only had the best scenes, but Ford made sure they all give the most flamboyant, over the top performances of their careers, to contrast with the sour and dour Wayne, who represented the truth and moral core of the film. John Ford died in 1973, and even though they didnt make any more films together, John Wayne would remain close to his mentor till his death. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Doniphan, while still doing dishwashing work, hangs up his shingle at a local newspaper, and begins teach people to read, and about their country. Your comment may take some time to appear. John Ford's Funeral Oration: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance Stoddard also becomes friends with Dutton Peabody (Edmond OBrien), editor of the Shinbone Star, as the two advocate for statehood for the territory. In the film, except for two notable acts that change Stoddard's life forever, Doniphon isn't quite so proactive with an eye to Stoddard's future. Liberty Valance cannot abide anyone standing up to him, and the shingle is an affront. [Doniphon kicks Floyd in the face as he bends down to retrieve the tray] But the very final scene of the film had John Wayne extolling the virtues of the American soldier, and in the background, the Cavalry is seen riding out take on the Indians. The movie becomes about making a sacrifice for the greater good, and includes an element of chance or fate. But Liberty Valance and his guns work for the cattle barons who want to keep the territory for themselves. When Liberty Valance was finally released, it met with mixed critical reaction, the American critics didnt think much of it, but the European critics called it one of Fords masterworks. Fazing Tom is a nearly impossible task, partly because he knows he'll beat anyone in a fight, whether fought with . His relationship with Wayne was a little strained at the time, mainly because of incidents involving Waynes directorial ventureTheAlamo, in which Ford worked as a second unitdirector. Doniphon finally does kill does kill Valance. 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." The entire film has been Stoddard struggling to remain devoted to law and order, while Tom berates and humiliates him for it. [Spoilers] My thoughts on the ending of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Now with his conscious clear, Stoddard returns to the convention, accepts the nomination, and is elected to the Washington delegation.