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The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)

Director(s) John Ford
Producer(s) John Ford, Willis Goldbeck
Top Genres Action, Drama, Romance, Western
More Films Directed by John Ford More Films Produced by John Ford More Films from 1962 More Films from the 1960s Top Classic Movies of the 1960s

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance Overview:

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) was a Drama - Romance Film directed by John Ford and produced by John Ford and Willis Goldbeck.

SYNOPSIS

In director Ford's swan song for the conventional frontier Western, he answers the Death Valley panorama of his classical frontier films with the demise of the archetypal gunfighter-hero, with Wayne and Stewart representing wilderness vs. civilization. Stewart plays Ransom Stoddard, a law-school graduate from the East who tries to bring peace to the burgeoning town of Shinbone, which suffers under the tyranny of Valance (Marvin). After a series of run-ins and a hopeless attempt by Tom Doniphon (Wayne), a gritty Western hero, to teach him to shoot, Stoddard agrees to a showdown with Valance, but the real shooter - and savior - of Shinbone is his friendly rival, Doniphon. As peace comes to Shinbone, Stoddard wins an election and the hand of Doniphon's girl (Miles), while Doniphon never tells the townspeople the truth about the killing. A wonderfully realized film, which is both an elegy to a dying way of life and a wise commentary on the fragility of modern society. A keystone in Ford's career. Gene Pitney's title song was a million-seller.

(Source: available at Amazon AMC Classic Movie Companion).

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance was inducted into the National Film Registry in 2007.

Academy Awards 1962 --- Ceremony Number 35 (source: AMPAS)

AwardRecipientResult
Best Costume DesignEdith HeadNominated
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The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance BlogHub Articles:

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

By Beatrice on Sep 16, 2017 From Flickers in Time

The Man Who Shot Liberty ValanceDirected by John Ford Written by James Warner Beliah and Willis Goldbeck from a story by Dorothy M. Johnson 1962/USA Paramount Pictures/John Ford Productions Repeat viewing/Netflix rental One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die John Ford delivers another cla... Read full article

THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE ( 1962 )

By Theresa Brown on Oct 2, 2016 From CineMaven's Essays from the Couch

“Sir, I don’t want to intrude. But a United States Senator is news. I’m the editor of a newspaper with a state~wide circulation. I’ve got a responsibility to know why you came all the way down here to bury a man. You can’t just say ‘his name was Tom Doniphon,’ and leave it at that. Who... Read full article

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) with John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart

By Greg Orypeck on Feb 26, 2015 From Classic Film Freak

Share This!“I know those law books mean a lot to you, but not out here.  Out here a man settles his own problems. —Tom Doniphon (John Wayne) to Ransom Stoddard (James Stewart) The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is a milestone film in a number of ways.  Although receiving poor reviews and a d... Read full article

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) with John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart

By Greg Orypeck on Feb 26, 2015 From Classic Film Freak

Share This!“I know those law books mean a lot to you, but not out here.  Out here a man settles his own problems. —Tom Doniphon (John Wayne) to Ransom Stoddard (James Stewart) The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is a milestone film in a number of ways.  Although receiving poor reviews and a d... Read full article

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)

on Aug 1, 2014 From Journeys in Classic Film

John Wayne’s mythos has transformed from just a man playing a part, into a representation of America and the American West itself. So it makes sense to end John Wayne week with a film about the self-creation of myths and the blossoming changes of the American West: The Man Who Shot Liberty Val... Read full article

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The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance Quotes:

Liberty Valance: [Raising his gun] This time, right between the eyes.
Liberty Valance: You lookin' for trouble, Doniphon?
Tom Doniphon: You aim to help me find some?
Tom Doniphon: Liberty Valance's the toughest man south of the Picketwire - next to me.
Election Council President: [at the territorial statehood convention] The chair recognizes its old friend; that distinguished member of the Fourth Estate, founder, owner, publisher and editor of the Shinbone Star, Mr. Dutton Peabody, Esquire!
Dutton Peabody: Thank you, thank you, Mister Chairman, for those kind words; but why don't you tell them the whole truth: founder, owner, editor, and I also sweep out the place.
[Doniphon has just faced down Valance in the diner]
Tom Doniphon: Well, now; I wonder what scared 'em off?
Dutton Peabody: [poking fun at Stoddard for his idealism] You know what scared 'em - the spectacle of law and order here, risin' up out of the gravy and the mashed potatoes.
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The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance Facts
Several reasons have been put forward for the film being in black and white. John Ford once claimed it added to the tension, however others involved with production said Paramount was cutting costs and so they had to make the movie on sound stages at the studio. Without the budget restraints, Ford would have been in Monument Valley using Technicolor stock. It has also been suggested that since both John Wayne and James Stewart were playing characters thirty years younger than they actually were (Wayne was 54 when the movie was filmed in the autumn of 1961 and Stewart was 53), the movie needed to be in black and white because they would never have got away with it in color. The age difference was particularly noticeable in Stewart's case, since he was playing a young lawyer who had only just graduated from law school and had moved West without even practicing law back East.
In the scene where Stoddard is carried into the "Peter's Place" kitchen wounded, Nora (Jeanette Nolan) gives him a cup of coffee laced with what she describes as "Akvavit, Swedish brandy" - the bottle is, in fact, a quite recognizable Akvavit bottle. The drink is found in all of Scandinavia but is largely considered to stem from Denmark.
First occasion of John Wayne calling someone "Pilgrim".
This was John Ford's last film in black and white.
John Ford deliberately shot this film on soundstages in an effort to distance it from his Monument Valley epics.
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