'The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance' (1962)
Apr 1, 2018 23:01:07 GMT
spiderwort and harpospoke like this
Post by petrolino on Apr 1, 2018 23:01:07 GMT
The political western 'The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance' is based on a short story written by Dorothy M. Johnson who was born in McGregor, Iowa and raised in Montana. Senator Ranse Stoddard (James Stewart) arrives in the town of Shinbone with his wife Hallie (Vera Miles) to attend the funeral of Tom Doniphon (John Wayne). Stoddard relays the details of how he came about knowing Doniphon to a small gathering of friends and reporters who are attentive listeners.
The bulk of John Ford's elegaic western 'The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance' is set 25 years in the past and recounts how Ranse Stoddard and Tom Doniphon were brought together to counter the threat of feared gunfighter Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin) and his gang. Opening with a funeral in present day, Ford venerates The Duke as his casket is diligently guarded by elderly farmhand Pompey (Woody Strode). An overwhelming sense of reflection pervades as William Clothier's lingering camera pushes grandiose images set to sounds bathed in sentiment. Everything is exaggerated early in the presentation and this continues in Shinbone as James Stewart amps his stutter up to 10, Vera Miles shrieks and hollers while throwing temper tantrums and John Wayne rolls out the drawl and piles on the swagger. Ford fills out his ensemble with beloved cuddlies led by Jeanette Nolan, John Qualen and bumbling Andy Devine. The "oh golly gee, shucks" atmosphere verges on self-parody but it's an elaborate emotional set-up for what's to come ...
Timid cowhands and uneducated locals are taught to find their voice by Ranse who takes a job washing clean dishes to give them a shine. A transition in Shinbone's evolution allows Ford to launch a paean to the joys of education, celebrate political empowerment and honour historical reenactment as a source of progress. The locals' blundering buffoonery is shown to be a product of fear and frustration, which creates an urge to get mindlessly drunk or fill in conversational spaces, all born from a simple lack of education. Except it's not that simple; these smart people have shown the common sense, work ethic and wherewithal to carve out respectable, reasonably comfortable lives without formal education or government assistance. They also understand the true meaning of community and the importance of showing solidarity. But as the rich continue to get richer, the nation's uneducated poor risk becoming disenfranchised or left behind, and through Ranse's eyes, there's joy as well as effort that comes with learning.
There are some colourful characters in 'The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance'. Lee Marvin is a real piece of work as Valance who's always flanked by Lee Van Cleef as smirking gunfighter Reese and Strother Martin as crawling sycophant Floyd. Edmond O'Brien digs deep into his armoury as Dutton Peabody, editor of 'The Shinbone Star' and Woody Strode is wonderful as mild-mannered rifleman Pompey who's a horse wrangler by trade. John Carradine has a hilarious bit as self-congratulatory windbag Major Cassius Starbuckle. John Wayne and James Stewart engage in plenty of sparring which is a pleasure to watch, especially when Ranse surprises Tom at the gun range.
"Lawyer, huh? Well I'll teach you law. Western law!"
John Wayne, John Ford & James Stewart
'The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance' - Gene Pitney
John Wayne, John Ford & James Stewart
'The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance' - Gene Pitney
The bulk of John Ford's elegaic western 'The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance' is set 25 years in the past and recounts how Ranse Stoddard and Tom Doniphon were brought together to counter the threat of feared gunfighter Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin) and his gang. Opening with a funeral in present day, Ford venerates The Duke as his casket is diligently guarded by elderly farmhand Pompey (Woody Strode). An overwhelming sense of reflection pervades as William Clothier's lingering camera pushes grandiose images set to sounds bathed in sentiment. Everything is exaggerated early in the presentation and this continues in Shinbone as James Stewart amps his stutter up to 10, Vera Miles shrieks and hollers while throwing temper tantrums and John Wayne rolls out the drawl and piles on the swagger. Ford fills out his ensemble with beloved cuddlies led by Jeanette Nolan, John Qualen and bumbling Andy Devine. The "oh golly gee, shucks" atmosphere verges on self-parody but it's an elaborate emotional set-up for what's to come ...
"John Ford and John Wayne together created much of the mythology of the Old West we carry in our minds. Beginning with "Stagecoach" (1939), continuing from 1948 through 1950 with the Cavalry Trilogy ("Fort Apache," "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon" and "Rio Grande"), and finally to 1962 and "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance," together in 10 features they largely formed the templates of the Hollywood Western. Of these "Liberty Valance" was the most pensive and thoughtful."
- Roger Ebert, The Chicago Sun-Times
"There’s much to say about 'The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance'; the simplest is that it’s both the most romantic of Westerns and the greatest American political movie. The Western is intrinsically the most political movie genre, because, like Plato’s “Republic,” it is concerned with the founding of cities, and because it depicts the various abstract functions of government as direct, physical actions. It’s also an inherently romantic genre, because of its connection with the nation’s founding mythology. (One of the strengths of Ford’s movie is its depiction of the actual grassroots practical politicking in the Western territories.) The movie’s most famous line, of course, is that of a newspaperman: “This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.” Ford prints it—and prints the facts behind it—and makes a movie about the moral burden of a life lived in the name of a myth and the ethical implications of direct action. Implicitly, the subject of the film is also that of a nation founded in this way. In his next Western, “Cheyenne Autumn,” from 1964, Ford takes on another overlooked Western reality: that of the Native Americans and their relations with the United States government."
- Richard Brody, The New Yorker
"Filmed in monochrome on backlots and soundstages, John Ford’s adaptation of Dorothy M. Johnson’s short story was as much a lament for the passing of the Hollywood studio system and the traditional western genre as an elegy for the lost frontier. Dismissed by many critics on its release, 'The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance' has since been claimed as a twilight masterpiece that sums up Ford’s changing attitudes since My Darling Clementine to the central themes of his career."
- David Parkinson, The British Film Institute
John Wayne
'In The Good Old Days' - Merle Haggard
- Roger Ebert, The Chicago Sun-Times
"There’s much to say about 'The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance'; the simplest is that it’s both the most romantic of Westerns and the greatest American political movie. The Western is intrinsically the most political movie genre, because, like Plato’s “Republic,” it is concerned with the founding of cities, and because it depicts the various abstract functions of government as direct, physical actions. It’s also an inherently romantic genre, because of its connection with the nation’s founding mythology. (One of the strengths of Ford’s movie is its depiction of the actual grassroots practical politicking in the Western territories.) The movie’s most famous line, of course, is that of a newspaperman: “This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.” Ford prints it—and prints the facts behind it—and makes a movie about the moral burden of a life lived in the name of a myth and the ethical implications of direct action. Implicitly, the subject of the film is also that of a nation founded in this way. In his next Western, “Cheyenne Autumn,” from 1964, Ford takes on another overlooked Western reality: that of the Native Americans and their relations with the United States government."
- Richard Brody, The New Yorker
"Filmed in monochrome on backlots and soundstages, John Ford’s adaptation of Dorothy M. Johnson’s short story was as much a lament for the passing of the Hollywood studio system and the traditional western genre as an elegy for the lost frontier. Dismissed by many critics on its release, 'The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance' has since been claimed as a twilight masterpiece that sums up Ford’s changing attitudes since My Darling Clementine to the central themes of his career."
- David Parkinson, The British Film Institute
John Wayne
'In The Good Old Days' - Merle Haggard
Timid cowhands and uneducated locals are taught to find their voice by Ranse who takes a job washing clean dishes to give them a shine. A transition in Shinbone's evolution allows Ford to launch a paean to the joys of education, celebrate political empowerment and honour historical reenactment as a source of progress. The locals' blundering buffoonery is shown to be a product of fear and frustration, which creates an urge to get mindlessly drunk or fill in conversational spaces, all born from a simple lack of education. Except it's not that simple; these smart people have shown the common sense, work ethic and wherewithal to carve out respectable, reasonably comfortable lives without formal education or government assistance. They also understand the true meaning of community and the importance of showing solidarity. But as the rich continue to get richer, the nation's uneducated poor risk becoming disenfranchised or left behind, and through Ranse's eyes, there's joy as well as effort that comes with learning.
"In recent years, philosophers have begun mining films for their philosophical insights. Although some remain skeptical about whether films can add to the body of philosophical knowledge, others have been keen to demonstrate that films -- and, indeed, other artistic mediums -- can enrich the practice of philosophy. Part of what remains at issue is exactly how a careful study of individual films can add to our understanding of specific philosophical issues.
Robert B. Pippin's concise study of Hollywood Westerns, Hollywood Westerns and American Myth, promises to be an interesting contribution to this debate. Pippin claims that the great Westerns make an essential contribution to political philosophy, specifically to our understanding of what he calls "political psychology," by which he means the way in which human beings, with their complex structure of passion and desire, are suited or not to the political structures within which they find themselves. Indeed, he thinks that paying attention to what Westerns have to say about this can enrich what he takes to be the reductive focus on much contemporary political philosophy on the question of legitimacy, i.e., what justifies the state's monopoly of coercive power.
Pippin's book consists of five chapters: an introduction that outlines his claims and also contains a short discussion of John Ford's Stagecoach (1939); three chapters on individual films: the first on Howard Hawks' 1948 film, Red River, the second on Ford's 1962 film, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, with an additional discussion of Fred Zinneman's High Noon (1952), and the third on Ford's 1956 classic, The Searchers; and a conclusion that discusses Nicolas Ray's The Lusty Men (1952). Although Pippin gives interesting interpretations of the films, he intends to do more than just illuminate the structure of these interesting Westerns."
- Thomas E. Wartenberg, 'Hollywood Westerns And American Myth : The Importance Of Howard Hawks And John Ford For Political Philosophy'
"John Ford's greatest films are his westerns, a uniquely American art form he helped create, and a genre of which he is undisputed master. These westerns are memory films, filled with the traditions of the past, created from the anecdotes, fables, and songs that sprang from American history. But in addition to drawing on Americana, Ford created it; the characters and situations in his westerns, from 'The Iron Horse' to 'Stagecoach' to 'Ford Apache' to 'The Searchers' to 'The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance', have become as much a part of American tradition as those on which Ford originally drew. He has chronicled every conceivable part of the West, and his personal heroes are among the most fully realized characters in motion picture history: Doc Boone (Thomas Mitchell) in 'Stagecoach', 'Wyatt Earp' (Henry Fonda) in 'My Darling Clementine', and the men that John Wayne played in 'She Wore A Yellow Ribbon', 'The Searchers', and 'The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance'. 'The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance', made by the 67-year-old Ford in 1962, is unmistakably the director's final statement on the West. In it, Ford gives us a capsule version of the world it took him 40 years to create, and then shows us how it died. Liberty Valance is a film about death, about a sad but inevitable transition from an old social order to modern society as we know it today."
- Tim Hunter, The Harvard Crimson
James Stewart
'Rubber Room' - Porter Wagoner
Robert B. Pippin's concise study of Hollywood Westerns, Hollywood Westerns and American Myth, promises to be an interesting contribution to this debate. Pippin claims that the great Westerns make an essential contribution to political philosophy, specifically to our understanding of what he calls "political psychology," by which he means the way in which human beings, with their complex structure of passion and desire, are suited or not to the political structures within which they find themselves. Indeed, he thinks that paying attention to what Westerns have to say about this can enrich what he takes to be the reductive focus on much contemporary political philosophy on the question of legitimacy, i.e., what justifies the state's monopoly of coercive power.
Pippin's book consists of five chapters: an introduction that outlines his claims and also contains a short discussion of John Ford's Stagecoach (1939); three chapters on individual films: the first on Howard Hawks' 1948 film, Red River, the second on Ford's 1962 film, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, with an additional discussion of Fred Zinneman's High Noon (1952), and the third on Ford's 1956 classic, The Searchers; and a conclusion that discusses Nicolas Ray's The Lusty Men (1952). Although Pippin gives interesting interpretations of the films, he intends to do more than just illuminate the structure of these interesting Westerns."
- Thomas E. Wartenberg, 'Hollywood Westerns And American Myth : The Importance Of Howard Hawks And John Ford For Political Philosophy'
"John Ford's greatest films are his westerns, a uniquely American art form he helped create, and a genre of which he is undisputed master. These westerns are memory films, filled with the traditions of the past, created from the anecdotes, fables, and songs that sprang from American history. But in addition to drawing on Americana, Ford created it; the characters and situations in his westerns, from 'The Iron Horse' to 'Stagecoach' to 'Ford Apache' to 'The Searchers' to 'The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance', have become as much a part of American tradition as those on which Ford originally drew. He has chronicled every conceivable part of the West, and his personal heroes are among the most fully realized characters in motion picture history: Doc Boone (Thomas Mitchell) in 'Stagecoach', 'Wyatt Earp' (Henry Fonda) in 'My Darling Clementine', and the men that John Wayne played in 'She Wore A Yellow Ribbon', 'The Searchers', and 'The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance'. 'The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance', made by the 67-year-old Ford in 1962, is unmistakably the director's final statement on the West. In it, Ford gives us a capsule version of the world it took him 40 years to create, and then shows us how it died. Liberty Valance is a film about death, about a sad but inevitable transition from an old social order to modern society as we know it today."
- Tim Hunter, The Harvard Crimson
James Stewart
'Rubber Room' - Porter Wagoner
There are some colourful characters in 'The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance'. Lee Marvin is a real piece of work as Valance who's always flanked by Lee Van Cleef as smirking gunfighter Reese and Strother Martin as crawling sycophant Floyd. Edmond O'Brien digs deep into his armoury as Dutton Peabody, editor of 'The Shinbone Star' and Woody Strode is wonderful as mild-mannered rifleman Pompey who's a horse wrangler by trade. John Carradine has a hilarious bit as self-congratulatory windbag Major Cassius Starbuckle. John Wayne and James Stewart engage in plenty of sparring which is a pleasure to watch, especially when Ranse surprises Tom at the gun range.
"When asked which directors he liked best, Orson Welles famously said, “I like the old masters... by which I mean John Ford, John Ford, and John Ford.” The comment continued: “With Ford at his best, you get a sense of what the earth is made of -- even if the script is by Mother Machree.” I read all this to Ford and he said, “Where is Orson now?” I told him Welles was at the Beverly Hills Hotel and he grunted. A couple of days later, Welles called me: “Did you tell Ford that quote of mine?” Yes; why? “I just got a telegram from him that reads: ‘Dear Orson, Thanks for the compliment. Signed, Mother Machree.’” Laughing, Welles said, “He went right for the one negative!”
Of course, Orson’s “one negative” is not unique in Ford criticism. Ford is often referred to as over-sentimental, which is true at times, but more often the work is filled with legitimate and powerful sentiment, quite a different thing. I’ve also been noticing that things which seemed only sentimental when you were younger, turn out to feel pretty real as you get older. Anyway, Welles felt that Ford, whom he also defined as a “poet and comedian,” was certainly the best American director.
He is not alone: the late Andrew Sarris has floated Ford as America’s greatest director, and a decade ago, 'American Heritage' ran a long piece calling Ford’s 'The Searchers' (1956) “The Movie of the Century.” He is still the Academy’s most frequently honored filmmaker, with 6 Oscars for direction -- four for features, two for war documentaries -- as well as the New York Film Critics’ record holder, with four as director of the year. He was the first director honored by the American Film Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award, the first filmmaker to receive the Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian award. Personally, Ford was the first director I ever knew of, as Marty Scorsese told me he was too, and with whose work I connected immediately. When I was ten and Ford’s 'She Wore A Yellow Ribbon' (1949) had just out, I saw it several times; I would name it at age eleven or twelve as one of my three favorite movies."
- Peter Bogdanovich, IndieWire
“John Ford made me what I am... I was 13 and I saw ‘Fort Apache’ and ‘She Wore A Yellow Ribbon’ in the same week. I suddenly felt and understood that one could write with images as with words. I decided then that I wanted to be a filmmaker, and this relationship with Ford and with his films has never stopped.”
- Bertrand Tavernier speaking at the John Ford Symposium in Dublin, Ireland
"Paramount Pictures is developing a remake of the classic John Wayne-James Stewart Western “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.” Matt Jackson, the president of production at IM Global, is producing the remake. The project may be set in a relatively contemporary period, such as 1980s Western Pennsylvania amid the retrenchment of the steel and auto industries, but no decision has been made. The studio has been seeking a writer for the remake. Terence Winter, whose credits include “The Wolf of Wall Street,” “Boardwalk Empire” and “The Sopranos,” had earlier been attached to “Liberty Valance” but is no longer involved."
- Dave McNary reports on the status of Paramount Pictures' proposed crime reimagining of 'The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance' in 2015, Variety
Lee Marvin & Lee Van Cleef
'Why don't you get yourself a fresh steak on me?"
Of course, Orson’s “one negative” is not unique in Ford criticism. Ford is often referred to as over-sentimental, which is true at times, but more often the work is filled with legitimate and powerful sentiment, quite a different thing. I’ve also been noticing that things which seemed only sentimental when you were younger, turn out to feel pretty real as you get older. Anyway, Welles felt that Ford, whom he also defined as a “poet and comedian,” was certainly the best American director.
He is not alone: the late Andrew Sarris has floated Ford as America’s greatest director, and a decade ago, 'American Heritage' ran a long piece calling Ford’s 'The Searchers' (1956) “The Movie of the Century.” He is still the Academy’s most frequently honored filmmaker, with 6 Oscars for direction -- four for features, two for war documentaries -- as well as the New York Film Critics’ record holder, with four as director of the year. He was the first director honored by the American Film Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award, the first filmmaker to receive the Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian award. Personally, Ford was the first director I ever knew of, as Marty Scorsese told me he was too, and with whose work I connected immediately. When I was ten and Ford’s 'She Wore A Yellow Ribbon' (1949) had just out, I saw it several times; I would name it at age eleven or twelve as one of my three favorite movies."
- Peter Bogdanovich, IndieWire
“John Ford made me what I am... I was 13 and I saw ‘Fort Apache’ and ‘She Wore A Yellow Ribbon’ in the same week. I suddenly felt and understood that one could write with images as with words. I decided then that I wanted to be a filmmaker, and this relationship with Ford and with his films has never stopped.”
- Bertrand Tavernier speaking at the John Ford Symposium in Dublin, Ireland
"Paramount Pictures is developing a remake of the classic John Wayne-James Stewart Western “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.” Matt Jackson, the president of production at IM Global, is producing the remake. The project may be set in a relatively contemporary period, such as 1980s Western Pennsylvania amid the retrenchment of the steel and auto industries, but no decision has been made. The studio has been seeking a writer for the remake. Terence Winter, whose credits include “The Wolf of Wall Street,” “Boardwalk Empire” and “The Sopranos,” had earlier been attached to “Liberty Valance” but is no longer involved."
- Dave McNary reports on the status of Paramount Pictures' proposed crime reimagining of 'The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance' in 2015, Variety
Lee Marvin & Lee Van Cleef
'Why don't you get yourself a fresh steak on me?"
Dorothy Johnson wrote the stories behind Delmer Daves' 'The Hanging Tree' (1959) and Elliot Silverstein's 'A Man Called Horse' (1970), the latter inspiring the birth of the "cannibale", an adventure subgenre based on survivalism that was popularied in Italy by action directors Umberto Lenzi, Ruggero Deodato and Sergio Martino. Two admirers of 'The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance' were said to be Italian filmmakers Sergio Leone and Sergio Corbucci who specialised in "spaghetti" westerns. In 2007, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
