The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
A senator, who became famous for killing a notorious outlaw, returns to a funeral of a homeless man and tells the truth about his deed. (imdb)
Cast and Information
Directed By: John Ford
Written By: Willis Goldbeck, James Warner Bellah, Dorothy M. Johnson
Starring: John Carradine, John Wayne, Andy Devine, James Stewart, John Qualen, Lee Van Cleef, Edmond O'Brien, Denver Pyle, Lee Marvin, Woody Strode, Vera Miles, Strother Martin
Country: USA
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The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance belongs to 70 collections
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Browse the full list of collections
| Stars | User | Rating | |
| 8 |  |
Mentaculus | 94 94th |
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Stewart is constantly emasculated, Wayne plays second fiddle, Marvin's damnittohell false bravado - Ford is peeling away the mythos of the Western like sunburned skin and the result is as raw and flush with heat as Ford's cinematic language knew how to communicate it. "When fact becomes legend, print the legend" isn't what gets me: it's Stewart's and Mile's faces when confronted with the parlor trick of American idealism - exposed as charlatans even if only to themselves.
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| 5 |  |
Paxton | 73 73rd |
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Possibly the greatest Western cast ever assembled. Do you think Lee Marvin and Lee Van Cleef gave each other advise on how to menace? Do you think Jimmy Stewart laughed when John Wayne told him he'd win an Oscar some day too? Do you think John Carradine regaled everyone with personal anecdotes from the 1700's?
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| 4 |  |
ratedargh | 80 65th |
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Jimmy Stewart and Lee Marvin are the reasons to see this movie. Wayne is a lumbering, pouting jackass. He serves a functional purpose in the story but he's becoming obsolete and he knows it. The fate that befalls Valance is creeping up on him. They are more alike than his Doniphan and Stewart's lawman. It's a little long and after the showdown it stretches past its welcome for a good while longer than what was needed. Instead of expanding depth of meaning it meanders to an unsatisfying finale.
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| 3 |  |
Actionberg | 95 97th |
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I believe this is John Ford's greatest directorial achievement and the best of the classic westerns. James Stewart gives an amazing performance as a man out of place, forced to compromise himself to survive in a savage reality. It's such a beautiful expression of everything I respect about American ideology.
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| 3 |  |
Moribunny | 70 75th |
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Descriptions along the lines of "a swan song to the Old West" get thrown around a lot, but this is the real deal. This patient, meditative film can be read as an allegory with the gun totting John Wayne representing the old ways, and Jimmy Stewart (rehashing his Mr. Smith type thing a little bit) the new. Ford faces the subject with subtlety and ambivalence, and although the film is in many ways traditional, the added depth and nuance deliver it from overfamiliarity.
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| 3 |  |
TheDenizen | 60 40th |
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It's got John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, and Lee Marvin, yet somehow fails to be as engaging as it should.
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| 3 |  |
joseywales | 71 60th |
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John Wayne calls Jimmy Stewart "pilgrim" eleven times. A drinking game would probably make this film more interesting.
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| 3 |  |
Icarus | 97 97th |
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An excellent late Ford film that alternately laments and accepts the coming of civilization to the West. This is Ford at his mythmaking best, and when one character states the famous "print the legend" line, we get an insight into a concern that runs through he entirety of Ford's work--for him, there is something essential about myths, the stuff society is built on. He recognizes their fundamental importance to a working society, even as they require some to be cast aside for the greater good.
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| 3 |  |
Noblet | 78 65th |
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Like The Searchers, I was completely engrossed in the main story but frustrated with annoying side characters and unfunny comic relief. However, I do think this has some real thematic heft, even if it presents a lot of ideas and doesn't really explore all of them thoroughly. Also, Lee Marvin really kills it as Liberty Valance.
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| 2 |  |
MartinTeller | 46 7th |
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I suppose if you like Westerns, this is a good one for you. It's got all the hackneyed staples. I found something to get annoyed about roughly every three minutes. Of course, the main thorn in my side is John Wayne, again portraying an absolute prick. A petulant bully, a misogynist, a swaggering jackass. Also, the film climaxes with what must be one of the most predictable twists in Hollywood history. There is some decent photography and I wasn't bored by it, so it's not a total loss.
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| 2 |  |
Ytadel | 8 93rd |
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(100 Westerns Project #1:) Really enjoyed my first John Wayne movie ever, ironically one that features him in more of a supporting role. It does have a bit of a cheap backlot sort of look to it, but the contrast in the two central men's views on civilization and law and how to solve the Liberty Valance issue makes for a consistently involving morality tale, one with an admirably bittersweet aftertaste and many memorable characters and moments.
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| 2 |  |
Nathan S | 4 74th |
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The End of the West would be done to death in the coming two decades, but Ford got to it early and under his direction it becomes something much more endearing, one of the better entries in his chronicle of American mythology. Jimmy Stewart encroaches on the Wild West in the name of law, education, and orderly civilization but struggles with these ideals. Told in flashback, the entire film affects a mood of nostalgia and mourning.
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| 2 |  |
katje_ | 69 35th |
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I mean, really? Best western ever made? I think it's shallow. Mediocre, even. And talk about a predictable plot twist.
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| 2 |  |
PerryStroika | 75 93rd |
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In The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance the Western begins to deconstruct itself, presenting a fable of the way shared complicity in a crime can serve as the founding myth of a community. Civilization comes to the frontier; the Hobbesian state of nature yields to law and order which arrives by means of democracy, the banding together of the weak against the strong. An extraordinarily rich, ambivalent film full of tensions and contradictions.
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| 2 |  |
Hawkins | 66 37th |
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I found the characters unpalatable and I think the main conflict resolves half an hour too early. It looks great to be sure. Need to watch again with more Western genre context.
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| 1 |  |
eveelun | 80 78th |
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I love the somber and bittersweet elements of this film, as well as the meditations on the nature of violence, law, and the west. I don't particularly care for the hokey stuff, though, such as the irritating Andy Devine and some mediocre comic relief.
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| 1 |  |
Filligan | 82 47th |
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It's good. Wayne is good. Marvin is good. Jimmy is great. The story is good. But that's as far as it goes. Still, a GOOD western is hard to come by.
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| 1 |  |
djross | 65 70th |
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Undoubtedly more thematically complex than most Westerns (in relation to race, freedom, progress, industry, politics, the press, and so on), and explicitly critical of the ideology of the genre (it is 1962, after all: not so early), so for Western aficionados it is undoubtedly interesting, and perhaps a milestone. The principals are all obviously too old for their parts, and despite the "self-critique" it is still very much in the "classic Western" mould, but it draws well on a talented cast.
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| 1 |  |
Pickpocket | 7 68th |
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The beginning and ending of the film is too long, needed to be cut down a bit. John Wayne usually bugs me but he was good here, it was nice to see him get less screen time than the superior actor - Stewart. Probably my favorite John Ford movie so far.
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| 1 |  |
th_mertens | 69 48th |
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Peer pressure does exists. This film is really half as good as it is portrayed to be. John Wayne is being an absolute douchebag, and has a too one dimensional character to deliver. James Stewart and Vera Miles on the other hand are again perfect. ... The big plot twist is ridiculously easy and the extra layer of east meets west and democracy versus chaos is too obvious. ... A good efford but lacks the subtilty too make it brilliant.
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| 1 |  |
Difontaine | 92 98th |
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Superb. Every actor just fits their role and character, hand in glove. It subverts the genre and mythos of the Western without sneering at it. The look at politics feels relevant 60 years later, which is remarkable and depressing.
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| 1 |  |
Luna6ix | 80 74th |
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a bit uneven, there are extremely enveloping parts, but there are pieces of it that seem to float by without leaving any memory that something happened. who can deny stewart's acting prowess; but in this one here he just doesn't do anything special.
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| 1 |  |
monclivie | 70 40th |
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Holy fuck. James Stewart in his fifties, 23 years after Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, playing "youngster, fresh out of law school" is one of the most ridiculous things ever. Imagine Kevin Spacey playing a teenager in his next movie.
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| 1 |  |
moraesfelipe | 93 97th |
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A melancholic, intelligent and such a moving western, that would be matched (and overcame, I would say) years later by Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven in its richness of feelings and beauty.
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| 1 |  |
omgfridge | 7 65th |
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James Stewart is perfect for his role and Wayne steps out of the limelight while giving a solid performance. By no means a surprising western but filled with enough charm and good direction to make it memorable.
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| 1 |  |
SirStuckey | 85 87th |
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I don't like John Wayne that much. I do like James Stewart a whole hell of a lot. This is a pretty damn good movie. I have little else to say about it.
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| 1 |  |
mwgerb | 82 96th |
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A pure classic, with Jimmy Stewart playing his Jimmy Stewartiest and John Wayne playing his John Wayneiest. The script is what elevates this to what is possibly John Ford's best work. One of the boundary lines between classic Westerns and modern deconstructions: this succeeds as both.
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| 1 |  |
billkerwin | 96 96th |
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Over-the-top acting, a multiplicity of Ford cliches, and yet this sentimental movie has a political density and a core of folk wisdom (not to mention a touch of Roshomon-like ambiguity) that makes it a masterpiece.
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| 1 |  |
SeanBerndorff | 55 33rd |
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I'm simply not a Ford guy. Prefer a Leone western anyday.
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| 1 |  |
glumpy_99 | 100 99th |
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Outstanding western which improves on multiple viewings; Stewart and Wayne may be too old for their roles, but the casting of both actors was essential for Ford's deconstruction of the Western myth that he and Wayne perpetuated. It's interesting to note that Wayne performs a carbon of his usual persona but is crafted as an antagonist; of all the male characters in the film, Valance (in a savage performance from Marvin) is the only one free of ambivalence. Many subtle layers in this masterpiece!
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| 1 |  |
DetoxP | 1 0th |
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Almost a funeral dirge for the death of the classic Ford Western, Jimmy Stewart invades a classic white hat/black hat western, wearing no hat at all and an apron instead. "The Man Who Shot" deconstructs the Western in analyzing how the classic John Wayne is fun to watch, but ultimately perpetuates a cycle of violence that brings us Western after Western, leaving Jimmy Stewart to kill the system altogether. The pacing of the ending is off but it's fun. Score is not a grade.
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| 1 |  |
mattorama12 | 70 61st |
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Watching this in the middle of a western marathon helps put this in the perspective as one of the first attempts at deconstructing the western, but I still can't help but compare to other deconstructions that were far more effective. It also drags at the beginning and after the showdown.
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| 1 |  |
DesertPunk | 75 60th |
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Stewart and Wayne are brilliant, and John Ford is a fantastic visual director, but I have no idea where this movie was trying to go half the time. It feels like the story got a backseat to the marquee value, but when it shines, I'm very glad to have been there to witness it.
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| 1 |  |
lex | 90 80th |
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A film actually about American politics merely dressed as a Western. Though not the most "epic" Ford film, it is the most intelligent and actually more thoroughly engrossed me than any other of his Westerns.
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| 1 |  |
patman | 73 83rd |
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A civilized Stewart tries to fight back with books and law after a meeting with Valance. But as Stoddard learns, the old western is founded on manly courage and the gun.
It's a good watch; funny characters, a good love story in a painful triangle. But a few too many minuses to be rated as a classic in my book.
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| 1 |  |
zoink | 60 25th |
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Finally learned where "pilgrim" came from. Didn't love it like I hoped. I just am not a fan of James Stewart apparently.
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| 1 | vv238 | 89 94th |
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Only John Ford, the man who spent most of his career creating the film version of American Western mythos, to expertly deconstruct those same ideas in one of his later works. Couple the aging Ford with a set of past-their-prime stars (Stewart and Wayne) to get a film which pits the ideas of the old west against the reality that legends very seldom reflect fact. Ford spent most of his career printing the legend but with this film he printed the fact, and the film itself became legend.
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| Average Percentile 72.66% from 1839 Ratings |  |