Mr. Ranse Goes to Washington

Every good child of the Information Age needs a good media-related scandal, so here's mine: I've never seen a John Ford western.

(Well, I have vague memories from my pre-school days of being in the same room as someone who was watching My Darling Clementine, but I don't need to tell you that doesn't count.)

One good scandal deserves another: I've never seen a John Wayne western. I've seen The Green Berets, and North to Alaska - I could sing you the theme song from the latter - but have never seen him do what he's best remembered for.

So I figured, why not do something about that?

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) is a story of evil, ignorance, and the perpetual conflict between theory and practice. When freshly-barred lawyer Ransome Stoddard (James Stewart) is beaten and left for dead by bandits after his stagecoach is held up, he wakes up in the tiny town of Shinbone to learn that the locals know exactly who the perpetrator was - and that none of them plan to do a thing about it. Liberty (Lee Marvin) is one of those untouchable types, akin to a contemporary mob boss - his involvement in most of his crimes is hard to legally prove, and everyone who knows of him is terrified of what he'll do should they try to take him down or simply stand up to his bullying. Liberty Valance is so scary that he has Lee Van Cleef as a lackey. The local sherrif is a drunk, simpering joke whose main goals are mooching and self-preservation. Rancher Tom Doniphon (Wayne), who found Ranse in the desert, walks a strange line between wisdom and apathy (more on that below), and the townsfolk, including immigrant cafe owners Peter and Nora and their waitress, Hallie (Vera Miles), take the relatively safe stance of not rocking the boat. Unfortunately, Ranse is all about rocking the boat. Full of big ideas about law and order and the way things should be, and taking a shine to Hallie, he starts a school and begins educating the locals on rights, freedoms, and law, all the while trying to find a way to catch Liberty. Tom believes in escalation, and things certainly start to escalate after the titular shooting...but not in the obvious way.

There are some very interesting stories contained in this film. The most interesting, and significant, is the conflict between Ransome and Tom, and what it begets. Ranse is idealism and possibilities; Tom is pragmatism and known facts. Ranse is the new way of life in the States, full of order, and governance, and systems; Tom is the old way, full of a very different concept of order, governance, and systems. Both men are justified in their beliefs. Ranse isn't some ridiculous, flight-of-fancy idealist - the theories he's bringing to Shinbone are ones he's seen put into successful practice in the major cities of the North. And Tom is no thoughtless hardhead - he's lived in the desert his entire life, and knows how life works there, and what it takes to survive. The conflict comes not because the men are opposites, but because both have a complete lack of respect for the other's ideas and way of life, and the result of this disrespect is, ultimately, the catalyst of the film, and its consequences are disastrous. There's also a fascinating parallel between Liberty and Tom. Liberty Valance is a penultimate bully; his tools are terror, control, and an unwavering self-confidence. Tom is also a bully, his tools being contempt, dismissal, and arrogance. He and Ranse are interested in the same girl, but the audience isn't given a reason to root for Tom in this, as we see him employing those tools while hitting on Hallie.

Other great points of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance include the filming, direction, and costume design. Though made in the early sixties, when colour film had been a U.S. stable for over a decade, it was shot in black and white. Speculated reasons for this include budget issues, and the fact that Stewart and Wayne were supposed to be playing characters thirty years younger than they were, and how they would have looked even more implausible in colour. Whatever the case, using black and white film stock didn't mean they used cheap old stock. It's the richest, most beautiful black and white film I've ever seen, the only one I know that really looks right. Just gorgeous. On the subject of direction, it's evident that John Ford was one of those rare filmmakers who actually knew how to use visuals to help tell his story. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is full of pauses in dialogue which, through the most subtle of body language, contribute as much information to the story as words would - sometimes, more. On the subject of costume design, I refer you to Liberty himself. His costume includes the pants from a pinstripe suit, a classic rich brocade Mexican-style vest, and a belt knife sheathed at the small of his back instead of at the customary hip. It's a brilliant, perfect costume for a character who's become rich in the manner Liberty has, and makes him all the more frightening.

Yes, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is one of the greatest westerns ever made - that is, until Liberty is shot. After that, well, the parlance of our times might describe it as a hot mess, and there's an hour or so of disconnected, overblown, dullness. The original archived Variety review says it best: "They [Ford and the writers] have taken a disarmingly simple and affecting premise, developed it with craft and skill to a natural point of conclusion, and then have proceeded to run it into the ground, destroying the simplicity and intimacy for which they have striven." Letting a Shakespearean actor run amok for the course of several unnecessary speeches didn't help either, and is perhaps the single most annoying aspect of the film, even above its equally unnecessary runtime.

So...I don't really know what to say, in the end. It starts as a masterpiece and ends as a train wreck. That masterpiece, though, is worth every second of it. Watch at your own risk? I did, and I don't regret it.