Wordiezett So much average

Rosie Searle It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Janis One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Logan By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

txemi-27770 You could watch this film a hundred times and you will enjoy it as the first time

darbski It's all been discussed, and I'm just too lazy to wade through 273 reviews. I'm just gonna say this. If any of you actually watched this movie, the only actor that was truly outstanding was Edmund O'Brien who played Mr. Dutton Peabody, the newspaper editor. Oh, sure, there were some other good actors, but O'Brien's performance in this movie is fantastic. I read the actors who were nominated for this Oscar; and okay, fine, they were great; Just NOT AS GREAT as Edmund. He's one of the ones who always turned in a fine performance, even when you hate him, you're recognizing the fact that it's his acting that makes it possible. R.I.P., and Thank you, Mr. O'Brien ...

jacobs-greenwood It was directed by John Ford, and it features a screenplay by James Warner Bellah and Willis Goldbeck that was based on the story by Dorothy M. Johnson. The titled story is told in flashback by James Stewart's character, Ransom Stoddard, who's now a United States Senator that has returned home to Shinbone to attend the funeral of his old friend Tom Doniphon, played (in flashback) by John Wayne. Woody Strode plays Tom's dependable ranch hand Pompey.While answering questions from reporters, the Senator recalls the day he met his future wife Hallie (Vera Miles), in attendance, and how he became known as "the man who shot Liberty Valance", a notorious outlaw played (in flashback) by Lee Marvin.However, once the truth is revealed - that Ransom had been an educated nonviolent man ("a fish out of water") in the untamed West, capable of standing up to the bully when it finally had to be done but incapable of stopping Valance, even after the outlaw had been drinking (it was Tom that had done the deed from a side alley, initially unbeknownst to Ransom, to protect his friend, and he had lost his girl Hallie, sympathetic to the future Senator, in the process), which was contrary to the "facts" as they were known - Carleton Young's character speaks the famous quote: "This is the west, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend."The cast includes so many (Western) movie veterans that it's a virtual "who's who" of character actors: Edmond O'Brien as a newspaper editor, Andy Devine and his insufferable creaky voice, John Carradine, John Qualen, Willis Bouchey, Young, Denver Pyle, Strother Martin, and Lee Van Cleef (among others).It is incomprehensible to me that such a masterpiece as this only received one Academy Award nomination (Edith Head's B&W Costume Design was Oscar nominated)!Added to the National Film Registry in 2007.

sharky_55 Is there a more emblematic way of signalling the death of the old west than the death of John Wayne himself? Of course, we don't see his actual body, but we are made aware of what sort of person he was through the reminiscing and the dialogue - Jimmy Stewart's indignation that such a great man could ever be buried without his boots or his gun belt. There are no wide, sweeping shots of the town or of the iconic Monument Valley. Anyone who is at least a little familiar with the Western will recognise that it has become a relic here. Sometimes the steam engine brought the hero's last hurrah - here it brings not a gunslinger, but a politician and his wife. The sheriff is a plump, gone to seed kind of fellow...ah, but he was always like that. Sometimes the law must stand aside for a while for these conflicts to boil. So we have two opposing perspectives; Ranse, the young hotshot lawyer who has grand visions of his practice and schooling being able to restore this lowly frontier town, and the pragmatist, Tom, who prefers brute force and seems to be the only one who can stand up to Liberty Valance. And in between, as always, the woman. Westerns have always been imbued with a sense of their own logic, their own rules. There are clear power balances that are established; three guns, for examples, outnumbers two. We can almost certainly tell who has the upper hand just by looking the eyes. They tell us so much...and of course the fingers, inching towards the holster. Leone was very good at this, but of course he learned from the master. Ford subverts these structures in this film because it was the last of his westerns with Wayne and even he knew that the west was dying. Tom and Valance exchange death-stares in the restaurant, with Pompey ever present with his shotgun, and conventionally, we expect a slow, agonisingly tense retreat, but we would also be relishing the battle later on. Here, Ranse rudely interrupts them with some common sense. Who would die over a measly steak?, he exclaims incredulously. But as he goes into the kitchen the bravado cracks and we can see his is visibly shaken, and on the verge of tears. Stewart was not often asked to be one of the weaker of the cast, but here he does very well. Is it enough for Vera Miles' Hallie, who is the aforementioned woman the two leads are fighting over? She flirts harmlessly with Tom every time he comes around for his dinner, but the younger and newer lawyer seems to have caught her eye. Ranse offers something that no one else in this town can offer, not even the hardy Tom, and that is the hope that comes with his knowledge of the law and his passion to educate the townsfolk. She is clearly taken by this little glimmer of inspiration; how long has it been since someone didn't treat Liberty Valance's brutish invasions as normal affair? Notice that Ford doesn't ever lean on those sappy, inevitable moments to signify the romance. He suggests through their actions and reactions. The most telling scene of the film is when Hallie confronts Ranse after his 'showdown' with Vance. This is what she wanted for him, is it not? For him to stick close to his principles and to stand up for what he has been proclaiming to the townsfolk all this time. No more being bullied by the bigger men. And yet, one look at the 'hero' and Hallie immediately knows that she cannot admire what has clearly scarred him. Without a single word we know that her priorities have shifted - that she now values his wellbeing and safety more than any high-minded lawyer talk. But it is Tom that we are admiring at beginning at end. He is a character that has a distinct awareness of his own use-by date, but nevertheless chugs on, perhaps because without him Shinbone would be left free for Liberty Vance to terrorise as he pleased. We sense that he has been waiting for someone younger and more idealistic like Ranse to arrive and relieve him of his duty. John Wayne has been required in many of his roles to have that masculine aura of invincibility, the rugged wanderer, to always have the answers (often a physical one). It is why instead of weeping or talking he instead beats Vance's thugs, and then in an act of silent rage, destroys his house and possessions. But here in this film he is also required to know that this persona is not enough, and that his time has come. He realised this in The Searchers too, and gave us one of the great all time film endings. Much more admirable is the hero who knows when to back down and admit they are out of their element. He adds a parting gift - a coward shot, from the darkness, for a man who must be protected in order for Shinbone to flourish (Steward spends much of his time wearing an apron and in the kitchen - the symbolism is clear enough). With this, he has fired his last bullet, his own personal code of honour marred, but he has ensured the building blocks for the future. Tom Doniphon is the hero of this story. He was the man who shot Liberty Valance.