Fridge / The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

• Is it conceivable that a local paper has no obituary on Tom, even if he was completely forgotten? Does that mean he ended his life as a bum?
  • He did manage to hold onto his ranch, so I suppose drunken hermit is closer to the truth.
  • Did he? When Linc takes Hallie there, the building is in ruins; it doesn't look like anyone could have lived there recently.
• Is it possible that Ransom actually did shoot Valance? He was fairly close to Valance; even a poor shot like Ransom might have been able to hit him. The angle and timing both seem right. What if the lie was not Ransom getting undue credit? What if he deserved the credit, and it is Ransom's lifetime of guilt that is built on a lie? Ransom actually put his life on the line and took a brave stand against Valance, and now his stand may be forever tainted by the belief that someone else had to do it for him.
  • Why exactly did Tom Doniphon tell Ransom the truth...because Ransom felt guilty about killing a man, and hated the fact that despite being an Actual Pacifist his political career was built on violence. If Ransom did kill a man, he would still feel like crap, especially because he felt that he had no choice. So either way, there's no scenario where a man like Ransom is going to feel good about it. Tom Doniphon telling Ransom that he shot Liberty Valance is meant to remind him of his responsibilities, to honor and fulfill Tom's sacrifice, to not be so egotistic.
• If it's obvious that one newspaper won't publish the story that Doniphon is the real "Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" (because they have decided to "print the legend" instead), surely there must be another newspaper somewhere (anywhere) in the United States of America that will accept an interview with a well-distinguished Senator like Ransom and print it (and this fact) without any alterations?
  • It's obvious that Ransom wants Shinbone to accept the truth, and celebrate and honor Tom. If he puts the story out in another newspaper, it's unlikely to spread and reach within Shinbone itself. And most likely, few people outside of Shinbone and that district care about "Liberty Valance" and it's likely there are political consequences to hurt his constituency. Ransom wants Shinbone, Tom's home and community, to accept the truth and understand his situation. Instead the newspaper on hearing that the founding event of their entry to civilization is a lie, simply decides to suppress it. Also this is a classical Hollywood film, and old-fashioned even in the year of its release (Deliberately Monochrome at a time most Westerns were in colour), so on that level you have to accept that it's somewhat like a parable or a fable.
  • He's the State Senator. Even if it's pretty much an Empty Cop Threat, why the hell doesn't he demands the newspaper to publish the story he told just he told it?
  • The other possibility might be that perhaps Ransom Stoddard doesn't want to really confess. He doesn't like living a lie but he's become too adjusted to power to compromise himself. He's really doing it for Hailie's sake because he knows that Tom is between them, and this is a way of healing their marriage. Him telling the Shinbone paper and not taking it elsewhere is more or less a half-hearted attempt to tell the truth but somehow give the impression that he's done so. At the end, it doesn't matter because Hailie doesn't love him anymore, as when he brings up the cactus by the coffin.
  • It's mainly that he understands that this is his burden to bear. Once it's clear Tom won't get the credit he deserves, Rance accepts that the guilt is the price he must pay for his accomplishments. The only way he can really free himself is to walk away and return to life as a private citizen. He can't eliminate his fame, but he can remove himself from the public eye.
  • Who did Hallie really love? She was never given the option to make her own choice. Tom essentially made it for her. While she seemed enamored of the idealistic young lawyer who taught her to read, at the end she seemed more in tune with the small town life in Shinbone. Had Tom not just given up in the aftermath, she might have decided he was more suitable to her.