The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)

Directed by John Ford. Starring James Stewart, John Wayne, Edmond O’Brien, Vera Miles, Andy Devine, Lee Marvin, Woody Strode, Jeanette Nolan, John Qualen, Joseph Hoover, Ken Murray, Strother Martin, John Carradine, Lee Van Cleef.

Idealistic lawyer Ranse Stoddard (Stewart) is heading west when his stagecoach is robbed by violent scoundrel Liberty Valance (Marvin). Ranse then ends up in a small town terrorized by Valance’s gang, where he wants to civilize the townsfolk with schooling and proper law and order, but local rancher Tom (Wayne) insists that it’s no use against villains like Valance, and if he won’t carry a gun, he’s better off getting out of town. Robust and intelligent Western, told through a framing device where Ranse is now a middle-aged Senator, is mostly a masterstroke, sneakily complex while dealing with basic dramatic elements and themes; like many of Ford’s films, the world is self-contained and populated with lively, distinct personalities in the supporting cast all the way down to the bit parts. Only the final act is fumbled—more of an extended denouement that follows a climactic confrontation—which would have been better off trimmed down to the meat of the closing revelation. Stewart is awfully old to be playing the young tenderfoot in flashback, but no matter—no one else plays a romanticized paragon quite like him. In the running for finest of all American Westerns.

92/100