Viewed in
2012
Formats
HDTV
Premise
James Stewart plays a lawyer in the Wild Wild West trying to uphold justice through the letter of the law, while his friend, John Wayne upholds it with violence.
Liked
Awesome star power, strong acting, themes of law in a lawless world.
Hated
The title, Marshall Appleyard.
Thoughts
Overall, a pretty cool and brainy old-fashioned Western.
Having two of the biggest stars of that era, each from a different genre, definitely made it very intriguing. My expectations skyrocketed into the stratosphere, and thankfully they delivered. Wayne was his usual bad-ass self. Stewart proved that he could still do what he did best, even in a roughneck cowboy setting. Believe it or not, this was my first time watching Lee Marvin on screen, and he delivered the goods as the juicy antagonist. As a fan of The Good, The Bad and the Ugly, I was delighted to see a clean-shaven Lee Van Cleef as one of Marvin's thugs.
The centerpiece of the story was this battle between two different mindsets about taming the West, one led by Wayne, the other by Stewart. I found the debates between the two philosophies to be rather rich and complex. In addition, the film also thoughtfully explored themes of education, violence, racism, law and order, justice, power of the press, statehood, and American democracy. Even the love subplot was handled with caring sadness.
Aside from having one of the worst titles ever, there were some flaws in the execution. There was a bit too much pontificating, on-the-nose dialog, and obvious symbolism. Clearly, I needed to give it some leeway for its old school dialog and acting. But Andy Devine as the bumbling marshall came off as more irritating than comedy relief.
I highly recommend The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, not simply for its star power, but also because it had heart and brains to go with the interesting story.
