One could argue that Jimmy Stewart’s character is the bravest of them all, even if he did not actually kill Valance. He stood up to him even though he knew he would probably die. The John Wayne character is not in the line of fire. Which is the better man is not an easy question to answer, since each of them shows strong character. Maybe both in their own way are.
A very memorable movie. I see this movie as a parable about the "patriarchal" society -- a society that privileges motherhood (and family). Chesterton argued western civilization is grounded upon respect for femininity (presumably derived from centuries of devotion to the Virgin Mary). John Wayne and Lee Marvin represent the old "masculine" male-dominated west where guys just worked things out (a la the Mexican drug cartels today). Jimmy Stewart is the archetype for "law" used to civilize and to tame raw power in order to make the frontier safe for mothers and children. Vera Miles has to choose between the old masculine west and the new feminized "patriarchal" west where men submit to motherhood. She picks Jimmy Stewart and law/order (aka stability and protection) over the wild west. But at the end of the day, the Duke had to solve the problem. So maybe it suggests there is a veneer of law and order that ultimately can/will fail.
One of my favorite movies of all time. Edmund O'Brien almost steals the show. So many great lines:"Look at that spectacle of justice (Jimmy Stewart) rising out of the gravy and the mashed potatoes!" and staring at his empty jug of liquor"What, no more courage?" Lol.
Last Monday we were treated to an essay on "pilgrim" as Word of the Week, and how John Wayne's character uses it in Liberty Valence as a "habit of speech," allegorically referring to the pilgrimage of Jimmy Stewart's character, who brings from the east, civilization and law to the west. That "habit of speech" appears again within a violent context in Mclintock, a western with a mad-cap plot tenuously tied to Taming of the Shrew. Before John Wayne's character delivers a solid sock to the jaw of the bad guy, played by Leo Gordon, knocking him into a backside pilgrimage down a mudslide, he snarls, "...but pilgrim, you caused a lot of hurt this morning, coulda got somebody killed..."
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
One could argue that Jimmy Stewart’s character is the bravest of them all, even if he did not actually kill Valance. He stood up to him even though he knew he would probably die. The John Wayne character is not in the line of fire. Which is the better man is not an easy question to answer, since each of them shows strong character. Maybe both in their own way are.
A very memorable movie. I see this movie as a parable about the "patriarchal" society -- a society that privileges motherhood (and family). Chesterton argued western civilization is grounded upon respect for femininity (presumably derived from centuries of devotion to the Virgin Mary). John Wayne and Lee Marvin represent the old "masculine" male-dominated west where guys just worked things out (a la the Mexican drug cartels today). Jimmy Stewart is the archetype for "law" used to civilize and to tame raw power in order to make the frontier safe for mothers and children. Vera Miles has to choose between the old masculine west and the new feminized "patriarchal" west where men submit to motherhood. She picks Jimmy Stewart and law/order (aka stability and protection) over the wild west. But at the end of the day, the Duke had to solve the problem. So maybe it suggests there is a veneer of law and order that ultimately can/will fail.
One of my favorite movies of all time. Edmund O'Brien almost steals the show. So many great lines:"Look at that spectacle of justice (Jimmy Stewart) rising out of the gravy and the mashed potatoes!" and staring at his empty jug of liquor"What, no more courage?" Lol.
Gene Pitney’s theme song was great too and was a hit in 1962. I came across it after the fact when I was 10 years old and couldn’t get enough of it:
https://youtu.be/vDN4L7cAQf0?si=YB-V7cMl5hCA_ORG
The lyrics tell the story:
“When Liberty Valance rode to town
The women folk would hide, they'd hide
When Liberty Valance walked around
The men would step aside
'Cause the point of a gun was the only law
That Liberty understood
When it came to shootin' straight and fast
He was mighty good
From out of the East a stranger came
A law book in his hand, a man
The kind of a man the West would need
To tame a troubled land
'Cause the point of a gun was the only law
That Liberty understood
When it came to shootin' straight and fast
He was mighty good
Many a man would face his gun
And many a man would fall
The man who shot Liberty Valance
He shot Liberty Valance
He was the bravest of them all
The love of a girl can make a man
Stay on when he should go, stay on
Just tryin' to build a peaceful life
Where love is free to grow
But the point of a gun was the only law
That Liberty understood
When the final showdown came at last
A law book was no good
Alone and afraid she prayed
That he'd return that fateful night, aww that night
When nothing she said could keep her man
From goin' out to fight
From the moment a girl gets to be full-grown
The very first thing she learns
When two men go out to face each other
Only one returns
Every one heard two shots ring out
One shot made Liberty fall
The man who shot Liberty Valance
He shot Liberty Valance
He was the bravest of them all
The man who shot Liberty Valance
He shot Liberty Valance
He was the bravest of them all
Last Monday we were treated to an essay on "pilgrim" as Word of the Week, and how John Wayne's character uses it in Liberty Valence as a "habit of speech," allegorically referring to the pilgrimage of Jimmy Stewart's character, who brings from the east, civilization and law to the west. That "habit of speech" appears again within a violent context in Mclintock, a western with a mad-cap plot tenuously tied to Taming of the Shrew. Before John Wayne's character delivers a solid sock to the jaw of the bad guy, played by Leo Gordon, knocking him into a backside pilgrimage down a mudslide, he snarls, "...but pilgrim, you caused a lot of hurt this morning, coulda got somebody killed..."