The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Another Great Movie

This is another good film from veteran director, John Ford. While dating to 1962, the film covered a major issue still being debated to this day, the role of force in law; more specifically, the need and use of guns to enforce the law. In the case of the movie, one of the main characters is a lawyer who was born, raised and educated in the eastern part of the country, who sees the written law as being most important, while the other main character is a western born and raised rancher, who is used to defending himself and others by force.

The basic story is about a highly respected U.S. senator, Ranse Stoddard, played by James Stewart, who returns to his western state* from Washington, D.C. for a funeral few people know anything about. He gives an interview to some newspaper men about his life and the life changing event from 25 years before; the killing of Liberty Valance, played by Lee Marvin, a brutal, gun slinging, whip brandishing leader of a band of outlaws, who controlled the town. This event propelled Stoddard to his eventual position in the U.S. Senate. Ranse and Liberty meet early on, as Valance and his outlaws rob the stage carrying Stoddard, and Valance severely beats the attorney, who is making his first trip out west. Stoddard vows to use the law to see Liberty Valance punished, but he finds the marshal, played by Andy Devine, is totally unable to enforce the law against such a ruthless man as Valance, as the marshal is merely a token of law who loves to eat. In fact, the marshal is TERRIFIED of Liberty Valance and his band. Only one man seems to have the respect of the outlaws, Tom Doniphon, played by John Wayne, a rancher who is a gunslinger in his own right. During the story, Doniphon is preparing to ask a waitress at the local restaurant, Hallie, played by Vera Miles, to marry him, but when Doniphon brings in the badly injured Stoddard, Hallie tends to the lawyer's wounds, and a connection begins to develop between the two.

As events proceed, the state is about to hold a convention dealing with statehood and the town's people select Stoddard as one of their two representatives to support the statehood effort. Many big ranchers don't want statehood and they hire Liberty Valance to intimidate the town and to force himself in as a convention delegate to vote against statehood. Valance humiliates Stoddard in a confrontation in the restaurant, and though he himself is then humiliated by Doniphon, the stage is set for some major confrontation between Valance and Stoddard, who eventually sees he needs to take up a gun to deal with Valance; that written law itself is not enough. While he practices firing a gun, and is also helped by Doniphon, Stoddard is woefully ill prepared to take on Liberty Valance in a gunfight.

Meanwhile, the publisher of the town's newspaper, Mr. Peabody, played by Edmund O'Brien, and the town's other pro-statehood delegate to the convention, publishes a front page story at great risk to himself about Liberty Valance's lawlessness, something Valance retaliates over, and this sets up the major confrontation between Valance and Stoddard. So as not to spoil the story for those who haven't seen the movie before, I will stop here, but this is a movie well worth seeing.

* The state's name is never given, nor is the state of his birth, only "back east."

Photo is from the 2009 Paramount Home Entertainment DVD

Word History:
Shoot-Like its close relative "shot," this word goes back to Indo European "skeud," with the notion "to project, to throw, to thrust outward, to move quickly." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "skeutanan," with the same general meanings. This then gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "sceotan," with the meaning, "hurl an object, cause an object to thrust outward, to move quickly," and also "to make a payment," likely from the notion of "handing over (projecting) money or goods to someone." This then became "shoten," before the modern form. The noun meaning, "a young plant," came from the verb in the 1400s, again with the notion of "thrusting up through the soil." The other Germanic languages have: German "schießen," Low German Saxon "scheten," Dutch "schieten," West Frisian "sjitte," Danish "skyde," Icelandic "skjóta," Norwegian "skyte" and Swedish "skjuta." Danish, Icelandic, Norwegian and Swedish have all kept the "k" sound, while the other Germanic languages have all softened the beginning of the word.