Despite a vast budget of over $2 million, and shooting in two formats – traditional 35 mm and 75 mm Grandeur film widescreen – the film failed at the box office, and Wayne spent much of the subsequent decade appearing in smaller roles and in B-movies. Stardom and Performance The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) Paramount Pictures Director Producer Screenplay Based on the short story by Cinematography Editing Art Direction Set Decoration Original Music Costume Design John Ford John Ford &Willis Goldbeck James Warner Bellah & Willis Goldbeck Dorothy M. Johnson William H Clothier Otho Lovering Eddie Imazu & Hal Pereira Sam Comer … The belief that he shot and killed Valance – far from establishing his credentials – serves as the sole barrier to his nomination; allowing those opposing him to cast him as heedless and blood-stained. Doniphon – calling Stoddard ‘Pilgrim’, an epithet which has become popularly associated with Wayne – is dismissive, telling Stoddard, ‘I know those law books mean a lot to you, but not out here. The studio also specified that Wayne's name appear before Stewart's on theatre marquees, reportedly at Ford's request. [12], Stewart related that midway through filming, Wayne asked him why he, Stewart, never seemed to be the target of Ford's venomous remarks. Valance and his gang vandalize Peabody's newspaper office and beat him nearly to death after Peabody ran a story about Valance's prior murder of some farmers. Wayne's avoidance of wartime service was a major source of guilt for him in his later years. Ford admitted to wanting Wayne to be the lead; in an interview with Peter Bogdanovich, he stated that he tried to stress Hallie’s lasting attachment to Doniphon throughout the film in order to assert that character above Stewart’s Ranse Stoddard. Stoddard's story flashes back 25 years. The stories in this book are her very best. The film was released April 18, 1962, and the song entered the Billboard Hot 100 the week ending April 28, 1962, peaking at number four in June. These protestations cause Stoddard to leave the delegation in distress and uncertainty. This political change implicates for Ford other themes and other contests: it suggests the potential disenchantment of the individual and the end of rugged heroism; and encourages a questioning of the natures of truth and legend. When the stagecoach is held up by outlaws, he is savagely beaten by Liberty Valance. ‘You know the rest of it’, he tells the young Star journalists: he went to Washington and statehood was achieved; he became the state’s first Governor, serving for three terms; served two terms in the Senate; as ambassador to the United Kingdom; returned for one more term in the Senate; and now stands on the threshold of becoming Vice President. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance began as a short story in Johnson's 1953 collection Indian Country. As a lawyer he came to Shinbone to bring law and order to the west by means of law books. The song “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” was a Top 10 hit for Gene Pitney but was not included in the film. Valance toys with Ranse, shooting him in the arm, and then aims to kill him, when Ranse fires his gun and Valance drops dead. Foreshadowing: Liberty is playing poker when Ransom calls him out for his lynching of the newspaper editor Peabody. Senator Ranse Stoddard and his wife Hallie arrive in Shinbone, a frontier town in an unnamed western state, to attend the funeral of Tom Doniphon. Edith Head's costumes were nominated for an Academy Award for Best Costume Design (black-and-white), one of the few Westerns ever nominated in that category. It is interesting in this respect to briefly consider the relationships certain directors have shared with their leading men. Great works of art require our openness as viewers: their flaws and conflicts are, after Joyce, the portals of discovery and ought to be accepted and investigated rather than dismissed. Ranse's wounds are treated by Tom's girlfriend, Hallie, and others, who explain to him that Valance terrorizes the residents, and the town's Marshal Appleyard is powerless to stop him. he demanded. Directed by John Ford.Screenplay by James Warner Bellah and Willis Goldbeck.Adapted from a short story written by Dorothy M. Johnson. Otherwise we would have been in Monument Valley or Brackettville and we would have had color stock. (Special Edition) Hellfighters, The High and the Mighty Hondo Horse Soldiers How The West Was Won In Harm's Way Island in the Sky Legend of the Lost Longest Day, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The (Single) The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance/Donovan's Reef McLintock! The story opens with the return Other cast- and crew-members also noticed Stewart's apparent immunity from Ford's abuse. Ford responded, "What's wrong with Uncle Remus?" Wayne and Carey would also work together and become close. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is a 1962 Western in which a senator returns to a western town for the funeral of an old friend and tells the story of his origins.. The emphasis given to Hallie’s remaining feelings for Doniphon brings into question her relationship with Stoddard. As Stoddard revives, weak and in a daze, he feels he has something he must do: he wants to arrest Valance and his men. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962 poster).jpg 1,913 × 2,918; 2.86 MB The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (publicity photo - Wayne & Stewart).jpg 698 × 861; 249 KB Vera Miles & James Stewart The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance Still.jpg 385 × 489; 84 KB Then, toward the end of filming, Ford asked Stewart what he thought of Strode's costume for the film's beginning and end, when the actors were playing their parts 25 years older. He tosses down Aces and Eights - The infamous "Dead Man's Hand". When she and Stoddard first arrive back in Shinbone, Stoddard is whisked off by the eager men of the Shinbone Star for an interview; while Hallie – with Link Appleyard, the town’s former marshal – visits Doniphon’s old ranch, never fully restored after the fire. The screenplay – adapted for Ford by James Warner Bellah and Willis Goldbeck – has the effect of placing the two men in contrast; but it also makes the character of Doniphon more ambiguous, and less sympathetic. ; at which he brutally whips him. Back in the present at the close of the film, Hallie has left a cactus rose atop Doniphon’s coffin – a fact which causes Stoddard some furrow-browed reflection. "[28] Harrison's Reports gave the film a grade of "Very Good",[29] but Brendan Gill of The New Yorker was negative and called it "a parody of Mr. Ford's best work. Well I’ll teach you law…Western law! The two better-known stories, Liberty Valance and A Man Called Horse only run about 30 pages each. ‘They travelled west for gold, hope and liberty. Ford is attributed as saying, early in Wayne’s career, that Wayne would become the biggest film star ever owing to the public’s sense of him as an everyman. ‘This is the West, Sir’, he says, ‘When the legend becomes fact, print the legend’. IN COLLECTIONS. The film is considered one of Ford's best,[31] and in one poll, ranked with The Searchers and The Shootist as one of Wayne's best Westerns. Doniphon and Hallie have a simmering relationship: the Ericsons initially consider a marriage proposal only a matter of time, but whether it is restraint, a languid style, a certain complacency, or whether he is simply waiting for the right moment, Doniphon proves slow to act. On the train back to Washington, Stoddard suggests leaving political life – after passing an irrigation bill – and returning to live in Shinbone. Later, in the body of the film, we see Doniphon present Hallie with a cactus rose as a present; she shows it to Stoddard, proudly acclaiming it ‘the prettiest thing you ever did see’; Stoddard admits its prettiness, but asks, ‘Hallie, did you ever see a real rose?’. "[30], More recent assessments have been more uniformly positive. [6], Others have interpreted the absence of the magnificent outdoor vistas so prevalent in earlier Ford Westerns as "a fundamental reimagining [by Ford] of his mythic West" – a grittier, less romantic, more realistic portrayal of frontier life. Journey into the Wild West, 1890 in this classic story of good versus evil, law versus the gun, one man versus Liberty Valance. Liberty Valance is going to get shot. John Ford’s The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) centers around the story of infamous bandit Liberty Valance’s death. Liberty is portrayed as being an almost mystic… Out here, a man settles his own problems’. The viewer also knows from the beginning that Ranse will get the girl and that Tom will end up alone. to become the man who shot Liberty Valance. By a man. ‘A youngster, fresh out of law school; a bag full of law books and my father’s gold watch’, Stoddard journeys to Shinbone – prior to the introduction of the railroad – on stagecoach. On TV he would have been dispatched by the second commercial and the villainy would have passed to some shadowy employer, some ruthless rancher who didn't want statehood. I’m building that brand new room and porch for her for when we get married’. Released in 1962, Ford would direct only four more feature-length pictures; including one more with his friend and longtime collaborator Wayne, in 1963’s Donovan’s Reef; and one more with Stewart, 1964’s Cheyenne Autumn. To a journalist, who's wondering what the senator is doing in Shinbone, he tells how his career started as "the man who shot Liberty Valance". It would, in a word, render us guilty of printing a narrow legend. In the present, Stoddard's political accomplishments fill in the intervening years; but his story will not be published, with editor Scott stating, "This is the West, sir. 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