History Film / TheManWhoShotLibertyValance

----

* AxCrazy: Liberty Valance. Half his screentime is spent cackling, smashing windows, or whipping people. It's a wonder nobody ever stood up to him before Ranse did.

* TragicHero: Tom Doniphon is a man perfectly adapted for survival in a lawless culture of violence, respected by all, even his enemies. He has a sense of justice that won't allow him to let the strong to victimize the weak, and his own heroism ultimately brings about his undoing and destruction. Tom could have let Liberty Valance kill Ranse Stoddard, which in turn would have let Tom keep his girl. Instead, he commits murder to save Ranse, with the certain knowledge that he would also lose his girl. By his own hand, he destroys his own hopes and dreams. That which gave his life meaning is gone. In the end he is nobody, a dissipated life, a forgotten man.

* EvilSoundsDeep: With Liberty being played by Lee Marvin, one of the most renowned [[BadassBaritone Badass Baritones]] in Hollywood history.

* FramedForHeroism: Ransom gets a heroic reputation for killing a man, and that reputation can propel him into the White House if he wants. He didn't commit the killing in the first place. He gets rewarded for something he didn't do. On the other hand, his ''real'' heroism is being willing to make a stand and face Valance rather than fleeing.

** Peabody--'''[[UpToEleven and how!]]'''

* LivingLegend: Ransom Stoddard, the Man Who Shot Liberty Valence. Or not. Even discounting that lie he manged to have a very impressive political career.

-->''No courage left. Well, courage can be purchased at yon tavern!''oda

* WhereTheHellIsSpringfield: It's never actually said ''which'' US territory is fighting for statehood in this movie, making Shinbone's location simply "The West". (However, a little research reveals that the Picketwire River (actually [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purgatoire_River the Purgatoire River]]) runs through Colorado.)

-->''No courage left. Well, courage can be purchased at yon tavern!''

The film opens with the return of Senator Ransom "Ranse" Stoddard (Stewart) and his wife, Hallie (Creator/VeraMiles), to the small frontier town of Shinbone. Stoddard is an influential and well-liked political figure, but nowhere is he more revered than in Shinbone, the place where his career started. On this sad day, however, Ranse has come back to pay tribute to an old friend, Tom Doniphon (Wayne), who has recently died. Initially, he intends to slip in and out of Shinbone with little fanfare, but after a newspaper reporter corners him, he decides to reveal the true story about how his life in politics began.

* ShadowArchetype: Liberty to Tom, oh so very much. A great deal of the film's conflict comes from that fact that, in Ranse's eyes, they're really NotSoDifferent: they're both cynical, tough-as-nails Western gunfighters who love the freedom of the Old West above all else, and believe that [[MightMakesRight justice can only be dealt out with a gun]]. The only difference is that Tom has a CodeOfHonor that compels him to defend the innocent, whereas Liberty is an amoral thug who simply lives to take what he wants, but in either case neither of them has any place in the post-Wild West America.

* RealityEnsues: [[spoiler:Ranse, a young lawyer, is absolutely no match for an experienced gunfighter like Liberty Valance. Tom Doniphon has to bail him out during their duel by killing Valance in secret.]] In fact, the major theme of the film is the gritty truth behind the grand legends about the taming of the Old West.

* TheStoic: Reese, Valance's non-giggly henchman who's a man of few words--played, appropriately enough, by Creator/LeeVanCleef

* VillainousGentrification: While not "villainous" per se, it's made clear that Ransom Stoddard's quest to gentrify Shinbone has not brought prosperity to any of the people he and Haille knew personally (and in fact has worsened their lives), and Haille doesn't likes coming back to see the town being "tamed". And while she may not flat-out hate Ranse for it, she certainly makes clear that it put a crack in the pedestal:
-->'''Hallie''': Look at it. It was once a wilderness, now it's [[StepfordSuburbia a garden]]. [[ArmorPiercingQuestion Aren't you proud?]]

* WorthyOpponent: It's been suggested that a reason Tom hasn't just gone ahead and shot Liberty himself is because he likes having a skilled gunfighter as an ArchEnemy. Liberty backing down when Tom confronts him suggests the feeling might be mutual.

* OnceMoreWithClarity: The shooting of Liberty Valance is showed twice. The first time, it seems that Ranse killed him. The second time (in a {{Flashback}}), we realize that Tom shot him.

* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVsCynicism: Falls somewhere in the middle, though it is still arguably the most cynical of all the films that John Ford directed and both of the lead actors starred in. On one hand, Tom does give up everything he holds dear for the sake of the town, his friend, and the women he loves. Yet on the other hand he dies alone and forgotten while his friend takes the credit (even if reluctantly so).

* LiquidCourage: Peabody's comments when he runs of booze.

The film opens with the return of Senator Ransom "Ranse" Stoddard (Stewart) and his wife, Hallie (Creator/VeraMiles), to the small frontier town of Shinbone. Stoddard is an influential and well-liked political figure, but nowhere is he more revered than in Shinbone, the place where his career started. On this sad day, however, Ransom has returned to pay tribute to an old friend, Tom Doniphon (Wayne), who has died. Initially, he intends to slip in and out of Shinbone with little fanfare, but, when a newspaper reporter corners him, he decides to reveal the true story about how his life in politics began.

A classic 1962 {{Western}} directed by Creator/JohnFord, starring Creator/JamesStewart and Creator/JohnWayne in their first screen pairing.

We then [[{{flashback}} flash back]] to years earlier, as Ranse arrives in Shinbone broken, bruised, and bloodied after being robbed and beaten by the notorious outlaw, Liberty Valance (Creator/LeeMarvin), who drips malice and paranoia. With the help of Hallie and her parents, he recovers his health and vows to bring Valance to justice. For Ranse, a book-learned attorney with little knowledge of the real world, "justice" means "arrest and jail". But in Shinbone, where the marshal (Andy Devine) is completely spineless and almost everyone else is afraid of Liberty, justice is a bullet. This is the lesson that Tom tries to impress upon Ranse, that in Shinbone, enforcing the law requires a gun, not a book. Tom is one of the most respected men in Shinbone because of his prowess with a gun and because he is the only one who can, and will, stand up to Liberty and make him back down. The two become rivals for Hallie's affections, but each earns the other's grudging respect. Yet another conflict arises when Ranse and local newspaperman Dutton Peabody (Edmond O'Brien) find themselves challenging Liberty to serve as Shinbone's delegates to the territory's upcoming statehood convention.

We see in {{flashback}} when years earlier, Ranse arrives in Shinbone broken, bruised, and bloodied after being robbed and beaten by the notorious outlaw, Liberty Valance (Creator/LeeMarvin), who drips malice and paranoia. With the help of Hallie and her parents, he recovers his health and vows to bring Valance to justice. For Ranse, a book-learned attorney with little knowledge of the real world, "justice" means "arrest and jail". But in Shinbone, where the marshal (Andy Devine) is completely spineless and almost everyone else is afraid of Liberty, justice is a bullet. This is the lesson that Tom tries to impress upon Ranse, that in Shinbone, enforcing the law requires a gun, not a book. Tom is one of the most respected men in Shinbone because of his prowess with a gun and because he is the only one who can, and will, stand up to Liberty and make him back down. The two become rivals for Hallie's affections, but each earns the other's grudging respect. Yet another conflict arises when Ranse and local newspaperman Dutton Peabody (Edmond O'Brien) find themselves challenging Liberty to serve as Shinbone's delegates to the territory's upcoming statehood convention.