SVS: “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance”

Today’s Streaming Video Suggestion (SVS) is going to be a bit of an R&R (Recommend-And-Run), because my Fridays keep getting away from me.

So…I’m linking to John Ford’s masterful The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance on NETFLIX INSTANT and AMAZON INSTANT($) and YOUTUBE($) and SOME OTHERS($) and calling it a day.

 A senator (Jimmy Stewart) who became famous for killing the notorious outlaw, Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin) returns for the funeral of an old friend (John Wayne) and finally tells the truth about that fateful night.

I have a hard time digesting Valance as a single course, because I tend to consider it a book-end to Ford’s equally-masterful Stagecoach (which is available for free-with-commericals on HULU). Watch ’em back-to-back, if you get the chance, because the contrast between the Mythological West and the Realistic, Historical West — perfectly personified in Wayne’s Ringo Kid (from Stagecoach) and Tom Doniphon (from Valance) — is wonderful and thought-provoking.

I wrote a bit about that dichotomy once:

The insurmountable conflict between Stoddard and Doniphon and the impending demise of the “Western Way” are omnipresent themes in the film, so I suppose their presence in this vital moment comes as no surprise. Still, it’s a reminder that our increasingly technophilic culture ignores at its peril: progress is not an unadulterated good. The very trends that set The West a’learnin’ buried the noble Doniphons beneath them as they advanced, and that’s something to regret.

Everyone loves an irrigated garden, but the cactus rose has an entirely different (and incalculable) beauty to offer. Let’s not force ourselves to pick just one.

When I was in Cinematography class years ago, this film was used as an example of why one sometimes makes unrealistic lighting decisions for the sake of the story. (In other words, lighting a scene in a way that makes no sense in real life in order to emphasize things about your characters and their emotions. The scene where Doniphon brings the whipped Stoddard to Hallie’s diner is a text-book example of this; it’s all over the place in terms of lighting, but the emotional impact is perfect.)

What I love most about this film’s visual style, though, are all the careful, careful compositions. Ford does a masterful job of fitting a significant number his characters into single shots — often with triangles, à la Kurosawa (or is it really the other way ’round?) — and the result is really effective. (And also really fun to watch for, if you’re a bit of a compulsive. Like me.)

“This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.”

Attribution(s): All posters, publicity images, and stills are the property of Paramount Pictures and other respective production studios and distributors.