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- It is based on a short story written by Dorothy M. Johnson. The movie tells the tale of an aging Senator who reveals the truth behind his rise to fame in the Wild West. The theme of the movie revolves around justice, honor, and the sacrifices made for the greater good. It explores the contrast between lawlessness and civilization.
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The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (/ ˈ v æ l ə n s /) is a 1962 American Western film directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne and James Stewart. The screenplay by James Warner Bellah and Willis Goldbeck was adapted from a 1953 short story written by Dorothy M. Johnson.
Jun 15, 2018 · However, neither Schickel, nor John Ford, nor the screenwriters, nor Larry McMurtry refer to the original source that gave rise to those oft-quoted words – a short story published in 1953 by Dorothy M. Johnson, called The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. And, note: those lines are not in the book.
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- Production notes and credits
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The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, American western film, released in 1962, that was John Ford’s poetic and sombre look at the end of the Wild West era. Although atypical of his usual works, it is widely considered Ford’s last great movie and among his best westerns.
The story opens with the return of elderly U.S. Sen. Ransom Stoddard (played by James Stewart) and his wife, Hallie (Vera Miles), to their small hometown of Shinbone in the American West. They are there to pay their respects to their old friend Tom Doniphon (John Wayne), who is being buried in a pauper’s grave. Stoddard, who rode to fame as a tenderfoot lawyer credited with having fatally shot the notorious gunman Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin), makes a startling confession to local newspaper reporters. In a tale told in flashback, he relates how he arrived in Shinbone hoping to establish a law office but found the town terrorized by Valance and his gang. Although Stoddard was meek in nature, Valance’s continued harassment of him resulted in an impromptu showdown in which Valance was shot dead. Stoddard thus became a local legend, and he was subsequently elected to the U.S. Senate. However, he confesses to the local reporters that he had learned years ago that it was Doniphon who actually fired the fatal shot at Valance and later allowed Stoddard to be credited with the deed. Despite his confession, Stoddard finds the press uninterested in publishing the revelation, preferring instead to let his myth remain unaffected. As one journalist says—in the film’s famous tagline— “This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.”
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•Studio: Paramount Pictures
•Director: John Ford
•Producer: Willis Goldbeck
•Writers: James Warner Bellah and Willis Goldbeck
•Music: Cyril Mockridge
•Running time: 123 minutes
•James Stewart (Ransom Stoddard)
•John Wayne (Tom Doniphon)
•Vera Miles (Hallie Stoddard)
•Lee Marvin (Liberty Valance)
- Lee Pfeiffer
Nov 25, 2019 · The name “Liberty Valance” is a dark irony; though the mythology of the Old West holds that it is a place of maximum liberty, true liberty is contingent on the rule of law.
Dec 28, 2011 · It’s not saying too much to note that Ransom Stoddard is elected to the U. S. Senate because he is “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.” Yes, but there’s more to it than that, and in John Ford’s mind, gun ownership is very much an open question.
Sep 22, 2013 · “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.” She wrote it. She changed her byline to Dorothy M. Johnson, feeling that Dorothy Marie sounded too frilly; she wrote the short story that was turned...
