MOVIE · 1962

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

DramaWestern123 min

When Senator Ranse Stoddard returns to a small Western town for Tom Doniphon’s funeral, the visit opens onto the story that made his name. James Stewart is Stoddard, a lawyer once left bloodied by Liberty Valance’s gang on a lonely stagecoach road, then drawn into a fight over whether the territory will be ruled by law or fear. John Wayne’s Doniphon, a rancher with his own standing in town, becomes Stoddard’s uneasy ally against the outlaw’s hold on the place. John Ford frames the conflict in stark black and white, with Vera Miles close to the center of both men’s lives.