As if explaining away the beautiful evasions and downright lies of his earlier Westerns, The Man Who Shot Liberty Vallance finds John Ford concluding that if the legend is better than the truth, then you should "print the legend." Lawyer Ransom Stoddard (James Stewart) poaches the credit for ridding the territory of a subhuman outlaw (Lee Marvin) and riding on to political success in the 20th century while the real man who shot Liberty Vallance (John Wayne) dies broke and drunk. There's further irony in the ultimate Western hero is here a back shooter who plugs Liberty from the shadows while the supposedly unmanly politico stands suicidally in the open playing it fair.
Shot in black and white on a sound stage to avoid the lyricism of Ford's Monument Valley epics, this revisits the "cleaning up the town" theme of My Darling Clementine (1946) with a cynical insight into the whole process of civilizing the wilderness. Wayne, like Stewart too old for his role, but nevertheless perfect, represents the cowboy heroism and integrity that Stewart's lawyer-teacher-congressman will whittle away as he comes to run the West.
Quote of the Day - Maxwell Scott - "This is the west, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend."
Tomorrow: The Searchers (1956)
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