A tremendously important film and John Ford's last masterpiece. A film about the dying of the old west, about equality, freedom of the press, of law and order and the passing of the old ways. James Stewart plays Senator Ransom Stoddard, who arrives unexpectedly in the small western town of Shinbone with his wife to attend the funeral of an old man that few in the town even knew existed. His arrival sparks the interest of the local newspaper editor who demands a story. The town is now a civilised one but thirty years earlier it was a lawless frontier town. Stoddard recounts the story from his arrival as a greenhorn lawyer, his relationship with the deceased man, Tom and his immediate run-ins with the sadistic gunfighter Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin), a story that culminates in Valance's death and the legendary circumstances behind it. Shot in black & white at a time when westerns were being made in glorious technicolour and normally filmed using the huge vistas of the American West this was also mostly filmed on a sound stage. As a result this film was considered a minor work but it's brilliance has subsequently been recognised. And rightly so, this is a film that highlights the containment of the west as civilisation takes a firm grasp. It should really be Ford's swansong in that it effectively deconstructs the western mythologies he had spent a career making film about. John Wayne plays Tom, a true westerner who's role is to ignite the new west by his own destruction. It's a fine performance from Wayne, full of ambiguity and restrained anger - one of his best. The film also boasts the magnificent Edmond O'Brien in a scene stealing performance as a drunken journalist. This is one of the finest American films you could ever wish to see so if it's passed you by try and get a copy and enjoy this masterpiece. It deserves a modern audience.
1962 b&w film - interesting because I'd never seen it. Classic John Wayne role, and classic Jimmy Stewart role - the man of honour who gets the girl. Rather violent. Did NOT endear me to Lee Marvin.