Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

Pros: Wonderful cast, smart story, and proves why those old westerns still last.
Cons: None that I can think of!

Late tonight, I found myself watching this old classic by John Ford. At first I was expecting a chee ...

Pros: shows how the west was really won
Cons: punctures the myth

When I first saw The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance in 1962 I don't recall that the 119-minute film was challenging the myth of the old west, in fact I didn't even know there was a myth of the old West.  To me it was just a cowboy movie.  As a ...

Pros: Every member of the cast is an icon; wonderful script; Ford's direction
Cons: Not your typical Ford Western and if that's what you're looking for...

There's a train that runs through the town of Shinbone. What used to be a desert — a Western outpost divorced from civilization and the boundaries of the law — has become a town. Not a city, or a metropolis, but a town, with roads and shop windows, and...

Pros: Great story, acting, direction, cinematography, and score
Cons: More people need to see this!

TThe Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) “Think you can make it, Pilgrim?” Tom Doniphon Director John Ford's The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance marks a milestone in the Western genre - an essay on the passing of the Wild West and the ...

Pros: The acting, the story, the tone, the direction, the ideas involved
Cons: There are no smiles or laughs to be found here.

In the Old West, in the small frontier town of Shinbone, many things happened that changed the course of that area's history. This film is the story of one character, many years later, retelling the tale of a tremendous collision of three powerful ...

Pros: Amazing movie! Great script, direction, acting!
Cons: Not a one.

Director John Ford's talent is incredible. Perhaps no movie showcases that talent as well as "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" It is not overstating the facts to say that this movie is one of the most important movies of the Western genre ever made ...

Pros: Beautifully written, directed, and acted
Cons: ahead of its time

Some movies come before their time. It doesn't happen often, but on occaision a film will be so far ahead of the curve that audiences and critics alike miss out. Sometimes it takes years for these films to be recognized for what they are: masterpieces....

Pros: Excellent Western classic with outstanding performances by cast and crew...
Cons: Why don't they make 'em like they used to?

There's something about Lee Marvin flicks that give movie buffs the feeling that the behind-the-scenes story might have been just as good as the flick's plot. Marvin (remember Michael Madsen's tribute in Reservoir Dogs?) has always been known as a...

Pros: cast, sets, story
Cons: lengthy, stock characters

When I was a kid I would hear the "The Man who Shot Liberty Valance" on the radio. The song that is, which was a hit for mawkish singer Gene Pitney. There were lyrics somewhat like "When Liberty Valance strode the town, the folks would...

Pros: Story, cinematography, cast
Cons: None

No one made films about the old west like John Ford could. And no one showed the coming demise of the old west better than Ford did in this film.

When Ford made Fort Apache, he showed a west where the white man was the intruder in Indian...

Pros: good acting
Cons: plot gets boring

When I was watching this film, I struggled with a conflict. Who am I supposed to like: Tom or Ransom? In the end I was leaned toward Ransom, however I wasn’t totally convinced that either character outdid the other for my sympathy. I began to wonder why...

Pros: good storyline, the two greatest american actors ever together on screen
Cons: bad jokes, don't read the back of the box or it'll spoil the surprise

Like Unforgiven, The Searchers, and The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, this is a Western about Westerns. The movie portrays the conflict between the law of the gun and the law of the book, and the mystery is to figure out which one really created order in...