John Fords The man who shot Liberty ValanceThe name of John Ford is almost synonymous with the western movies; in his carrier as film director he won four Academy Awards of MeritforAchievement in Directing and his awards are unmatched: The Informer (1936), The Grapes of Wrath (1941), How Green Was My Valley (1942), The Quiet Man (1953). In the late Sixties and early seventies, there was a revisionist movement in Hollywood. This revision of genres included the western genre. In this essay, I will analyze the differences between the classic Western, and the revisionist westerns.The movie that contains all the features of the western genre and it is John Fords masterpiece is The man who shot Liberty Valance (1962); this movie is included in the revisionist Westerns category for because it starts to question the ideals and style of the traditional Western and for the way in which the characters are represented (the women have stronger roles) and the changes of perspective regarding the atmosphere (realism is stronger than romanticism).The classic western was a story of a hero (usually a white male), who in the end always prevailed over the anti-hero; the main character most likely possessed an exceptional ability with a gun and would use this ability to fight for a good/ moral purpose in order to help the weaker individuals of society defend themselves and their land from the villains (so, the hero is brave, honorable, and valiant). More, the viewer understand the idea that the violence was a large theme in the classic western and the only way to solve conflict in these movies was to out-shoot the enemy. Gunfights were not exactly realistic and always the hero came out on top. Women in the classical westerns were depicted as weak individuals who were second to the men in society; so, rarely was a woman a main character in the films (she was shown to be weak, holding the man back, trying to tie the man down). The ending of the classic westerns was simple: the hero would defeat the villains, and move on, leaving society to help others, or joining society, giving up his special status as hero. The revisionist western was very much an inversion of these themes, as it was already mentioned. The essay will focus on the way in which are presented men and women, the relationship between them and the connection with different elements that helps to create their portrait in The man who shot Liberty Valance. The plot ofThe Man Who Shot Liberty Valanceconcerns the end of the Old West/ the society of a small rural town located in the West (in this movie, Shinbone) and its transitions towards becoming part of a federal state. So, the theme of the political change implicates other themes and other contests: it suggests the potential disenchantment of the individual and the end of rugged heroism, the moment of civil emancipation in different aspects of life.

Senator Ransom Stoddard (Stewart) and his wife Hallie (Vera Miles) arrive in Shinbone with the train. They are there for the funeral of a local named Tom Doniphon, a character without importance for the town in its present days. The editor of the local newspaper, theShinbone Star, asserts his right for information (Who was Tom Doniphon? and the reason for which the senator and his wife are present). It is Stoddards response a story (the film is presented in continuous flashbacks) about events which took place several decades before. At the beginning of his story, Stoddard presents himself as a young man that ended the law school having a bag full of law books and his father gold watch; the young Stoddard journeys to Shinbone on stagecoach and the coach is stopped by a group of outlaws, who beat Stoddard when he attempts to prevent a woman losing the broach given to her by her dead husband. The leader of the group, Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin), ransacks Stoddards bags and finds his books and he promises to Ransom to teach him the Western law (violence) and he brutally whips him. The scene establishes one of the main characters (Stoddard) and the anti-hero (Liberty Valance) and one role of the man in society: to protect the helpless woman (the widow).Stoddard is recovered by a rancher named Tom Doniphon (Wayne) and he is taken to the local eating establishment - the home of Hallie and her Swedish parents, Peter and Nora Ericson; when Stoddard revives weak, he wants to arrest Valance and his men, but Doniphon (he is calling Stoddard Pilgrim) gives to Stoddard a new lesson: in this place, the law has no importance, each man settles his problems (usually by gunfight). This section is important because it presents the first identified revision of the genre: the fact that the film presents no hero, Stoddard and Doniphon are both main character and, somehow, heroes; more, the law represented by the sheriff is weak, almost inexistent; this two characters represent different attitudes towards life in the West: one of them believes that the change is possible and the other is unable to see that things are already changing. Stoddard recuperates and settles in to live in Shinbone: he stays with Hallie and with her parents, he works washing dishes and waiting tables in their eatery; later on, he establishes a daily school to teach the locals, including Hallie, how to read and write. Valance continues to menace the town. So, the male is the agent of progress and of a better future and the woman is the individual that needs to be helped to grow from an intellectual point of view. The woman contemplates the achievements of the husband (the mother of Hallie is proud of her man because he is an American citizen and he is able to vote) and she helps the family through domestic activities or to have a business.Doniphon and Hallie have a simmering relationship: the Ericsons and the people of the town initially consider a marriage proposal only a matter of time, but he is waiting for the right moment (or he believes that none it is able to get married with his girl or her to chose somebody else), Doniphon proves slow to act. Meanwhile, Stoddard and Hallie grow increasingly close and, at the end, they will get married. Regarding the status of a woman in a relationship, the viewer sees two attitudes: as in the traditional Western, the woman has no power or ability to choose her husband (Hallie in relationship with Doniphon), but the revision of this theme presents the woman in the moment when she starts to be a partner for her lover (Hallie in relation with Stoddard, the relation of her parents). The viewer distinguishes a world of men, where the women are, generally, decorative elements (Hallie and her mother are the only women strongly presented in the movie). Stoddard befriends Dutton Peabody (Edmond OBrien), the founder and sole writer of theShinbone Star. A growing population means that Shinbone is required to send two delegates to a territorial convention for statehood and while the townspeople are initially wary, Peabody and Stoddard succeed in explaining the benefits statehood would bring the town. An article Peabody writes for the Starhighlights the attempts of cattle barons to keep the area an open range; Peabody argues that this is borne of vicious self-interest, and would endanger smaller homesteads. He speaks before the town votes for their two delegates and explains that the statehood means progress in the future and a better life. Liberty Valance whose group of men has grown, backed by the cattle barons who seek to prevent a fair vote arrives and attempts intimidation, but Stoddard and Peabody are voted as the towns two delegates. Soon after, in revenge, Valance and his men assault Peabody and, because of that, Stoddard silently determines to act: he takes a gun and waits for Valance in the street; when Valance emerges from the towns bar, the two stalk each other, with Valance shooting Stoddards right arm and forcing him to retrieve his gun. Somehow, Stoddard triumphs and Valance is shot dead (the viewer finds out, later on, the fact that Doniphon is the real killer of Liberty). So, the old law of the West triumphs in this section because the fight is between two men of the same world (Ransom is not a part of the Old West) and Ransom is able not to betrayal his moral principles. At the convention for statehood, the gathered delegates must vote for one man to represent the region at Congress in Washington and Peabody boldly nominates Stoddard. The objections to his candidacy centre on his shooting of Valance: should a Congressman be one who takes the law into his own hands and these protestations cause Stoddard to leave the delegation in distress and uncertainty. He is halted by Doniphon, who reveals that it was he shot and killed Valance in cold blood because he knew it would make Hallie happy and he tells Stoddard that Hallie is his girl now. More, this two ways of life are able to communicate because the main characters of the story understand themselves even though Doniphon (the Old West) is unable to change. Thus Stoddard concludes his recollection and we return to the present day. You know the rest of it, he tells the youngStarjournalists: he went to Washington and statehood was achieved; he became a very well known politician (the states first Governor, serving for three terms, he served two terms in the Senate, he was ambassador to the United Kingdom and returned for one more term in the Senate; and now stands on the threshold of becoming Vice President). Stoddard and Hallie take their leave with the train and on the way back to Washington, Stoddard suggests leaving political life and returning to live in Shinbone Hallie responds enthusiastically and she mention the importance of her husband activity: he helped to transform the wilderness in a garden. So, the film presents some important moments in the history of the United States of America, such as: the transition from wilderness to civilization (the railway), from a lack of institutions to a governmental system created to help the people, the improving of womens life and , also, old themes, such as the main activities of men (farmers).The death of Doniphon is the death of the Old West and of its values. More, a mise en abyme of the story is the garden: the wilderness became a garden and Hallies garden has nothing special now, the people of the Old West connects in an incomprehensible way for the strangers (the cactus rose has no importance for Stoddard).The Man Who Shot Liberty Valancewas based on a short story by Dorothy M. Johnson, published in her 1953 collectionIndian Country. There, Doniphon and Stoddard share a closer relationship, Doniphon proactively mentoring the younger and less experienced man. The screenplay adapted for Ford by James Warner Bellah and Willis Goldbeck has the effect of placing the two men in contrast; but it also makes the character of Doniphon more ambiguous, and less sympathetic. Despite the lack of scenery, the film is still evocative of a past time, but it cannot be reduced to an easy allegory asserting the wilderness over civilization, or even the individual over society. More, to view Doniphon as a forsaken hero, Stoddard as an impostor, is to limit the films scope; it would be for us to accept the legends of the West, and to some degree of Wayne and Ford, rather than facing the films particular set of facts. It would, in a word, render us guilty of printing a narrow legend.It remains to appreciateThe Man Who Shot Liberty Valancethrough its complexities: its demonstrating of the irreconcilability of different truths; the inevitability of chance; and the nuanced, small but decisive ways in which societies and personal relations run their course.

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