The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

For the trope formerly named The Man Who Shot Liberty Vance, see Framed for Heroism.

"When the legend becomes fact, print the legend."

—Maxwell Scott

That single quote, uttered by newspaperman Maxwell Scott (Carlton Young), encapsulates the primary theme of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Truth is only accepted as long as it agrees with what the public wants to hear. The public needs heroes! So when heroes don't exist, it is necessary to invent them. And, never let the facts get in the way of a good story.

The film opens with the return of Senator Ransom Stoddard (James Stewart) and his wife, Hallie (Vera Miles), to the small frontier town of Shinbone. Stoddard is an influential and well-liked political figure, but nowhere is he more revered than in Shinbone, the place where his career started. On this sad day, however, Ransom has returned to pay tribute to an old friend, Tom Doniphon (John Wayne), who has died. Initially, he intends to slip in and out of Shinbone with little fanfare, but, when a newspaper reporter corners him, he decides to reveal the true story about how his life in politics began, and why his most famous appellation, "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance," was not really true.

We see in flashback when years earlier, Ransom arrives in Shinbone broken, bruised, and bloodied after being robbed and beaten by the notorious outlaw, Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin, dripping malice and paranoia). With the help of Hallie and her parents, he recovers his health and vows to bring Valance to justice. For Ransom, a book-learned attorney with little knowledge of the real world, "justice" means "arrest and jail." But in Shinbone, where the marshal (Andy Devine) is completely spineless and almost everyone else is afraid of Liberty, justice is a bullet. This is the lesson that Tom tries to impress upon Ransom, that in Shinbone, enforcing the Law requires a gun, not a book. Tom is one of the most respected men in Shinbone because of his prowess with a gun and because he is the only one who can, and will, stand up to Liberty and make him back down. The two become rivals for Hallie's affections, but each earns the other's grudging respect.

In the film's pivotal scene, Ransom is forced to confront Liberty in a duel, and seemingly kills the outlaw. Shortly thereafter, Ransom is elected territorial representative, the first step on his long and successful political career.

Now we return to the beginning of the film as Stoddard tells the reporter the true story. We learn that the man who really shot Liberty Valance was Tom Doniphon! Hallie went to find him and Tom showed up in the opposite alleyway. Watching the encounter from that secluded spot, Tom used a rifle to shoot Valance before the outlaw could kill Ransom. By timing his own accurate shot to coincide with Ransom's wild one, Tom was able to create the illusion that Ransom had done it. He accepts no glory then or later, recognizing that Ransom can do better with the reputation than he could, and when he dies, only a handful of people know the secret. When Ransom finishes disclosing the truth to newspaper reporter Scott, the reporter lists all of Ransom's accomplishments -- getting statehood, governing with honor -- and declines to print the truth... insisting instead to print the legend.

Tropes used in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance include:

The Alcoholic:
- What happens to Tom. In the flashback, Tom had given up the demon drink to stay sober for Hallie's sake. When he loses her...
- Ransom's flashbacks reveal half the civic leaders of Shinbone -- Newspaperman Peabody, Doc Willoughby for examples -- were drunk most of the time too.
Based on a Great Big Lie: the whole point of the movie.
Beam Me Up, Scotty: This is the movie where Wayne uses the sarcastic nickname of "Pilgrim" for his friend/rival Ransom.
Bittersweet Ending: Tom, the real hero, dies drunk and alone. Ransom hasn't gotten over his guilt that Tom never got his credit, and that he took Tom's happiness away when Hallie fell for him. Worse, the legend that Ransom killed Liberty Valance -- a total lie -- remains. The only good thing at the end is that Ransom lived up to Tom's hopes of using that lie to give Hallie -- and the residents of Shinbone and the West -- a better life.
The Cameo: John Carradine shows up as an ex-Confederate orator representing the cattle barons during the convention for statehood.
Clear My Name
You're Cute When You're Angry: Tom to Hallie at least twice.
Darker and Edgier: This is one of the harshest Westerns John Ford ever made. It mocks his earlier works like My Darling Clementine, which wholeheartedly embraced the need for heroes. Only The Searchers can top this film's dark mood.
- This film does echo Fort Apache with the theme of needing our heroes more than the truth. But where the earlier film ended on an uplifting note, the later film holds no such illusions.
Dawson Casting: Played with. Wayne, Stewart and most of the others are playing characters well younger than the actors, but it's justified by most of the movie being a flashback.
Dead Man's Hand: The titular character Liberty draws this hand right before being shot.
Eagle Land: Played with. The movie suggests that our Manifest Destiny of moving Westward was not as clean and heroic as the school books want us to think.
Exactly What It Says on the Tin: The title.
Faux Symbolism: The movie plays out the entire theme of The American West: The coming of civilization to tame the wilderness. Peabody's Rousing Speech for statehood towards the end of the film underlines the whole story.
- It can also be read, should you wish, as a treatise on America's love affair with the Gun: while the progressive politics of Ransom Stoddard have made the real changes, what is remembered -- perhaps even pined for -- is the myth of a single well-placed bullet making all things right.
Flower Motif: the cactus blossom that Hallie places on Tom's coffin. Saguaro blossom is the state wildflower of Arizona, hinting at which territory the film depicts.
Foregone Conclusion: Liberty Valance is going to get shot. By a man.
- The plot twist is that the man who got the credit did not do it.
Foreshadowing: Liberty is playing poker when Ransom calls him out for his lynching of the newspaper editor Peabody. He tosses down Aces and Eights -- The infamous "Dead Man's Hand". John Ford uses this often.
Framed for Heroism
The Gunslinger: Both Liberty and Tom are feared gunmen. Tom is the only one Liberty fears.
- Ransom averts this for the most part because he wants to do things by the book, and doesn't enjoy Tom urging him to learn how to shoot -- pronto -- as Liberty is literally gunning for Ransom.
Ham-to-Ham Combat: Every major character is chewing the scenery like nobody's business. And the one-scene cameo by John Carradine tops them all in the Large Ham category. It's amazing by film's end that the soundstage they filmed on is left standing.
The Hero: Left open to interpretation.
Heroic BSOD: Played straight, both ways. Ransom feels guilty enough about shooting a man, even if it was a monster like Liberty Valance. Tom doesn't feel guilty about really shooting Liberty, but his life falls apart anyway when Hallie switches her affection to Ransom, whom Tom despises AND respects.
Heroic Sacrifice: Tom refuses to take credit for killing Liberty Valance because Hallie loves Ransom now, and because Tom knows that Ransom can do better - and provide for Hallie better - with that reputation than Tom can.
Hey, It's That Guy!: Lee Van Cleef as the sane lackey in Liberty Valance's control.
- Tom's sidekick/servant/Black Best Friend (heck, only friend) Pompey is Woody Strode (from Spartacus, Sgt Rutledge etc..
Hypocritical Humor: The orator arguing for the cattle barons' desire that the territory remains a territory (that they can control) denounces the settlers' attempt to promote Ransom as the Congressional representative to get them statehood. He argues -- while wearing the Confederate officer's uniform no less -- they shouldn't send the man who killed Liberty Valance to the same place where Abraham Lincoln died like a saint.
Ironic Echo: "Nothing's too good for the man who shot Liberty Valance!"
Knight in Sour Armor: Tom Doniphon is a much better man than he'd like to be, and does he ever pay the price for it.
Karma Houdini: Subverted. Ransom gets a heroic reputation for killing a man, and that reputation can propel him into the White House if he wants. He didn't commit the killing in the first place. He gets rewarded for something he didn't do.
Love Triangle
The Obi-Wan: Peabody, to Ransom. Although Peabody is too drunk too often, he helps Ransom start a law office and eventually grows enough of a spine to denounce Liberty Valance in print. Liberty's violent reprisal is what drives Ransom to get his gun...
Rancher: Tom Doniphon had a small ranch. He was going to marry his sweetheart and grow ~~roses~~ cactus blossoms. She falls in love with Ransom instead.
Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: One of the leads is Jimmy Stewart, the other is John Wayne. Take a guess who is who.
Technical Pacifist
Tempting Fate: When Doc Willoughby works up the nerve to denounce Liberty for all the harm he's done, and notes how happy he'll be when the day comes for him to perform his physician's duty of declaring the gunman dead, Valance laughs and tosses a stolen gold coin at the doctor: "Payment in advance!"
Throwing Out the Script: Subverted. The pro-rancher candidate claims to do this. However, when the "notes" he so dramatically screwed up and threw away are examined they turn out to be blank paper. The "words from his heart" was the speech he had memorised all along.
Trailers Always Spoil: While the title gives us a hint that Liberty won't make it to the final credits, and we see him being shot in the trailer -- the left half of the screen is blacked out, so you can't see who's firing the shot.
- Which is actually misleading, because when the scene comes, and Rance shoots him, we find out that Tom was standing in an alley across the street and he fired the fatal shot. Although, to be fair, it looks like they both nailed him. So really, the title should be "The Men Who Shot Liberty Valance"...
The So-Called Coward: It's not that Ransom isn't brave, he just doesn't think a steak is worth dying for.
The Western: Deconstructed. A man's heroic deeds in taming the West, which involve killing a killer, prove to be a sham, and worst of all when he finally tells the truth about how it happened, the people he tells it to refuse to accept the truth.
Whole-Episode Flashback