Post by Mike Sullivan on Jun 20, 2006 5:58:02 GMT
Alright. Another AndersonVision assignment. Hope you all enjoy.
www.andersonvision.com/modules.php?name=Reviews&rop=showcontent&id=128
United States, 1962
U.S. Release Date: 4/22/62
Theatrical Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
MPAA Classification: Not Rated
Runtime: 123 min.
Cast: James Stewart, John Wayne, Vera Miles, Lee Marvin, Edmond O’Brien, Andy Devin, Ken Murray
Director: John Ford
Screenplay: James Warner Bellah
Cinematography: William H. Clothier
Original Score: Cyril Mockridge
Studio: Paramount Studios
“This is the west, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.”
This is perhaps the last great “classic” film to come from Hollywood’s golden age. Within a year or less, the great studio system which dominated filmdom for almost forty years would be dead. In Europe, men like Fellini and Bergman were revolutionizing cinema in their own manner and a cultural upheaval was about to take place in America so it is truly amazing that such a great film would come out at the time.
Told in a flashback by elderly Senator Ransom Stodard (James Stewart) to newspaper reporters in his hometown, the film recounts Stodard’s days as a young lawyer in the town; the days where bandits rules and civilization relied on the gun, not due process, for justice. Stodard encounters a fierce hired gun named Liberty Valence (Lee Marvin) and finds himself having to face not only Marvin but the ways of the west which stand in contrast to those of his better nature. It stands to Tom Doniphan, to help the young Stodard as the inevitable gun-battle with Valence looms close.
All of the principals cast in the film perform magnificently. Stewart playing Stodard is just great. You can see how committed he is to his conception law and order. Stewart always was perfect playing the idealist and he himself represent civilization coming to the rural west; marking the close of the days of men like Valence and Doniphan. Lee Marvin is a pleasure to watch on-screen and truly shows us one of the most ruthless characters in western film history. And Wayne is the typical Wayne throughout the film but becoming quite more layered as the film plays out and as he succumbs to alcoholism as his very way of life collapses before his eyes.
One of the most striking things about the film is director John Ford’s sparse shooting style. Not a sprawling epic with the majestic shots of Monument Valley about it like “The Searchers”, “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence” is a quite sparse movie shot on the Paramount back lot in black and white with a relatively low budget. The direction is typical Ford; quick, efficient and pitch perfect for the western. This is no doubt a man who knows what he is doing. There are no gimmicks either. He doesn’t need music and he doesn’t need expensive camera effects for the final encounter between Valence and Stodard. It’s quick and real and perfectly paced. Yet in Ford’s way, he also allows a romanticism to lie about the film as seen in John Wayne’s character.
It is fair to say that it was not only a man who died during the gun-battle between Stodard and Valence. As Valence’s corpse falls, so does Doniphan himself and yet something rises. The legend about the man who shot liberty Valence, and so the film changes from a mere build-up to a gun battle to an account of how the west was built and the very nature of what a legend is and how it is formed.
It is a sad film throughout. There is nothing upbeat about it. It is showing you the death of old American Chivalry with men like Doniphan. It is the elegy to the old fashioned western and as the train rides off into the horizon and we here the line “Nothing is too good for the man who shot Liberty Valence”, we, now more than ever, live with the realization of that fact. And even more than that, we live with the realization and the satisfaction that we’ve just been able to see one of the greatest westerns ever made.
www.andersonvision.com/modules.php?name=Reviews&rop=showcontent&id=128
United States, 1962
U.S. Release Date: 4/22/62
Theatrical Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
MPAA Classification: Not Rated
Runtime: 123 min.
Cast: James Stewart, John Wayne, Vera Miles, Lee Marvin, Edmond O’Brien, Andy Devin, Ken Murray
Director: John Ford
Screenplay: James Warner Bellah
Cinematography: William H. Clothier
Original Score: Cyril Mockridge
Studio: Paramount Studios
“This is the west, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.”
This is perhaps the last great “classic” film to come from Hollywood’s golden age. Within a year or less, the great studio system which dominated filmdom for almost forty years would be dead. In Europe, men like Fellini and Bergman were revolutionizing cinema in their own manner and a cultural upheaval was about to take place in America so it is truly amazing that such a great film would come out at the time.
Told in a flashback by elderly Senator Ransom Stodard (James Stewart) to newspaper reporters in his hometown, the film recounts Stodard’s days as a young lawyer in the town; the days where bandits rules and civilization relied on the gun, not due process, for justice. Stodard encounters a fierce hired gun named Liberty Valence (Lee Marvin) and finds himself having to face not only Marvin but the ways of the west which stand in contrast to those of his better nature. It stands to Tom Doniphan, to help the young Stodard as the inevitable gun-battle with Valence looms close.
All of the principals cast in the film perform magnificently. Stewart playing Stodard is just great. You can see how committed he is to his conception law and order. Stewart always was perfect playing the idealist and he himself represent civilization coming to the rural west; marking the close of the days of men like Valence and Doniphan. Lee Marvin is a pleasure to watch on-screen and truly shows us one of the most ruthless characters in western film history. And Wayne is the typical Wayne throughout the film but becoming quite more layered as the film plays out and as he succumbs to alcoholism as his very way of life collapses before his eyes.
One of the most striking things about the film is director John Ford’s sparse shooting style. Not a sprawling epic with the majestic shots of Monument Valley about it like “The Searchers”, “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence” is a quite sparse movie shot on the Paramount back lot in black and white with a relatively low budget. The direction is typical Ford; quick, efficient and pitch perfect for the western. This is no doubt a man who knows what he is doing. There are no gimmicks either. He doesn’t need music and he doesn’t need expensive camera effects for the final encounter between Valence and Stodard. It’s quick and real and perfectly paced. Yet in Ford’s way, he also allows a romanticism to lie about the film as seen in John Wayne’s character.
It is fair to say that it was not only a man who died during the gun-battle between Stodard and Valence. As Valence’s corpse falls, so does Doniphan himself and yet something rises. The legend about the man who shot liberty Valence, and so the film changes from a mere build-up to a gun battle to an account of how the west was built and the very nature of what a legend is and how it is formed.
It is a sad film throughout. There is nothing upbeat about it. It is showing you the death of old American Chivalry with men like Doniphan. It is the elegy to the old fashioned western and as the train rides off into the horizon and we here the line “Nothing is too good for the man who shot Liberty Valence”, we, now more than ever, live with the realization of that fact. And even more than that, we live with the realization and the satisfaction that we’ve just been able to see one of the greatest westerns ever made.
