The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

Buy This Item The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance by Paramount  Available from Amazon  $9.99  on 11-26-2008     "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend." That's more than the code of a newspaperman in <I>The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance</I>; it's practically the operating credo of director John Ford, the most honored of American filmmakers. In this late film from a long career, Ford looks at the civilizing of an Old West town, Shinbone, through the sad memories of settlers looking back. In the town's wide-open youth, two-fisted Westerner John Wayne and tenderfoot newcomer James Stewart clash over a woman (Vera Miles) but ultimately unite against the notorious outlaw Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin). Ford's nostalgia for the past is tempered by his stark approach, unusual for the visual poet of <I>Stagecoach</I> and <I>The Searchers</I>. The two heavyweights, Wayne and Stewart, are good together, with Wayne the embodiment of rugged individualism and Stewart the idealistic prophet of the civilization that will eventually tame the Wild West. This may be the saddest Western ever made, closer to an elegy than an action movie, and as cleanly beautiful as its central symbol, the cactus rose. <I>--Robert Horton</I> Reader Reviews They arrive in town for the funeral of a man who was the rock on which the waves beat but at the time, nobody noticed much; the steady, tough but true foundation leaned on by almost all of them at one time or another and taken largely for granted; a man who, though seemingly out of character for a person possessed of such strength himself, stepped aside to let others pass to take credit after the work was done. Broken at last from within himself, recognizing unconquerable personal forces from people he loves or respects for the common cause necessary to tame the frontier, he knows he can never hope to win or make happy what he desires most - Hallie the waitress . One of the first thrills the viewer sees are the ice blue eyes of Lee Marvin, enhanced threefold by the neckerchief covering the bottom half of his face during the holdup that starts the story off. Even though the film is in black and white, the color of those piercing, deadly eyes is readily apparent. Lee Marvin did a splendid job as the outlaw, Liberty Valance - I can think of no other actor better suited to compliment the characters of John Wayne as Tom Donovan, a rough and ready settler ready to defend his property by the means at hand - which means his gun, which is all the law he has ever counted on; and James Stewart as Rance Stoddard, the Eastern Attorney who knows things must change if they are to have a community. One of the best of the best, and once seen, it's one you won't forget. So for someone searching for an old movie, one that won't disappoint no matter how much time passes, this is one to view.

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance Available from Amazon Price: $9.99 Updated on 11-26-2008.

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