Another masterpiece from John Ford starring Jimmy Stewart playing his usual common man transplanted into the rough and tumble world of the west. John Wayne plays his polar opposite, a gunslinging cowboy who knows how to use a gun. There are two people between them. One is the damsel in the tiny western town played by Vera Miles. The other is Liberty Valance, a sadistic gun for hire played by the great Lee Marvin.This film is more about the taming of the west. When Stewart's character arrives it's a madhouse like all wild west towns are, but by the end of the film everything has become more civilized, even though the Easterner had to use means that he is against at the start of the picture.
Stewart and Wayne play their trademark roles in this film. This film is almost like looking at both icons in the stereotypes they have become in the mind of the general public. Vera Miles returns from Hitchcock land (ironically she was supposed to have starred with Stewart in Hitchcock's Vertigo) and gives a nice performance as the love interest of both men. It's Lee Marvin that brings pure evil to the screen as Liberty Valance. His performance ranks up there with some of the other classic western villains as he destroys everything in his path. He probably has the greatest gang backing him up as well, with Strother Martin playing a looney stooge while Lee Van Cleef shows us a glimpse of the quiet and dangerous force he would unleash when he went to Italy.
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is a classic western that ranks as one of John Ford's best. The use of black and white is almost a way for Ford to bring the film back to simpler times. Unlike other Ford epics, the backgrounds do not overshadow the actors in the foregrounds. A great western.
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