Some of Jimmy Stewart's notable Westerns - Destry Rides Again, Bend of the River, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance - center on protagonists who are either unable or unwilling to fire a gun. Whether they are ex-gunslingers ready to settle down or educated Eastern folk, they represent a nonviolent civilizing force.
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, perhaps the most direct of these films, stands as John Ford's tribute to those who saw the West as a place to build communities instead of lawless territory ripe for personal enrichment.
The film begins with the result of their efforts - the calm western town of Shinbone, which hosts a visit from Senator Ransom Stoddard (James Stewart). The townsfolk, now accustomed to peace and quiet (and apparently ignorant of the region's rambunctious early days), are puzzled by the Senator's arrival. His visit is not official business - it is to eulogize his old friend and rival Tom Doniphon (John Wayne), a man who helped him protect and modernize the town. Following this brief introduction, Ford takes us back to Stoddard's first visit to the town. Despite arriving in a similar fashion, he doesn't even make it to Shinbone without being robbed and assaulted by Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin). Doniphon brings him into town, bloodied and bruised, and Stoddard immediately sets out to improve the town according to his civilized perspective.
We see Doniphon as an ornery bastard quick to rage. And yet, while Wayne is someone who I have never found myself rooting for, there's a sympathetic and pitiful side to his tragic Doniphon. He's smarter than he lets on and recognizes that the end of his west is coming. After overcoming the anger he feels over his symbolic demise, he contributes to the founding of a new west. He protects Stoddard (and the rule of law) when Stoddard first stands as Shinbone's delegate to the statehood convention and is the man who ultimately shoots Liberty Valance when Stoddard is unable. This is all done efficiently and grudgingly, as Doniphon realizes that he must cede the role of hero to Stoddard and credit him publicly as "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" while assuaging Stoddard's personal guilt about killing Valance ***. There's never a true Doniphon-Stoddard partnership, but there is a mutual respect between the men as they realize that both the pen and the sword are necessary to civilize Shinbone.
* At this point, even the Psychological Westerns were fading out (High Noon and Bend of the River being released in 1952, Shane being released in 1953, and The Tall T being released in 1957), These would soon be replaced by the antihero Westerns from Italy (Django, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly) and the nascent New Hollywood (The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid)
** Given the cultural significance of having Wayne and Stewart as stars, let us attempt to ignore the fact that they are much older than the roles they are supposed to inhabit (and the woman they are wooing).
*** The actual shooting of Liberty Valance is almost humorously matter-of-fact, revealing Doniphon's split feelings between defending a man who he sees as cowardly and his desire for the positive development of the West.
Side Notes
There are many details that would not fit into the review, but one that I would like to highlight is the later relationship between Sen. Stoddard and his wife Hallie. Despite being the wife of a successful senator, she still loves Shinbone - and possibly Doniphon (putting a desert rose on his grave).
Lee Marvin is incredibly menacing as Valance - it's not radical casting, but the typecasting (as with Wayne and Stewart) works to superb effect - it also doesn't hurt that he's backed up by Lee Van Cleef. It would take too long to mention the entire cast, but the quality of character actors present in the Shinbone ensemble is extraordinary.
The messy democratic process of Shinbone selecting delegates/the Statehood Convention scene is another fine moment that New Yorker critic Richard Brody highlights beautifully.
Roger Ebert suggests that Ford "isn't making an anachronistic statement on racism, but he's being sure we notice it" - pointing out the role of Doniphon's African-American farmhand Pompey, who is treated with disrespect from most of the townsfolk. While Doniphon sticks up for him, he still assumes a subservient role in this segregationist society. Interestingly, there's a moment when Stoddard - while teaching the townsfolk - asks "what the basic law of the land was called….. it had to be added to and changed from time to time by things called amendments." Pompey answers: "It was writ by Mr. Thomas Jefferson of Virginia," (to which Stoddard interjects "it was written") "and he called it the Constitution….." (to which Stoddard responds, "the Declaration of Independence"). Pompey's answer correctly identifies the document while confusing a few of the details, yet he is treated by Stoddard in a manner that is harsher than his corrections of other students right after reciting the words "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal." I doubt that this was an intentional inclusion, but it's a bit ironic that the film that Brody calls "the greatest American political movie" confuses the document that rejects the previous status quo and includes general principles with the document that establishes the mechanisms for guaranteeing those principles. Speaking of the Founding Fathers, perhaps there's an analogy to be made with Doniphon as the Washington figure that was the focal point in rejecting the previous regime and Stoddard as the Jefferson/Adams figure that guaranteed that a new regime would stably take its place (supported by the peaceful transfer of power by Doniphon/Washington).
Crew & Cast
Directed by John Ford (The Searchers, The Grapes of Wrath, Stagecoach, Wagon Train)
Written by James Warner Bellah (Fort Apache, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, Rio Grande) & Willis Goldbeck (Sergeant Rutledge, the Doctor Kildare series), based on the story by Dorothy M. Johnson
Starring
John Wayne - Tom Doniphon
James Stewart - Ransom Stoddard
Vera Miles - Hallie Stoddard
Lee Marvin - Liberty Valance
Edmond O'Brien - Dutton Peabody
Andy Devine - Marshal Link Appleyard
Woody Strode - Pompey
John Carradine - Maj. Cassius Starbuckle