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| Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The |
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  (7/10)
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Runtime: 118 |
| Public Rating: 0.00 (0 votes) |
Director: John Ford |
MPAA Rating:  |
| Genre: Western |
Year: 1962 |
| Writer(s): James Warner Bellah, Willis Goldbeck, and Dorothy M. Johnson |
| Reviewed by: Friday and Saturday Night Critic |
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Starring James Stewart, John Wayne, Vera Miles, and Lee Marvin
IMDb sez: “A senator, who became famous for killing a notorious outlaw, returns to a funeral of a homeless man and tells the truth about his deed.”
John Ford makes a Frank Capra movie, complete with Jimmy Stewart (both directors are very interested in what makes America). Ford is the hero to my heroes (Scorsese, Kurosawa, etc.), but why can’t I get into his movies? Why does John Ford hate me? “Liberty Valance” is a film I admire for what it says, not how it says it. I only intermittently enjoyed watching it but I’m glad to have seen.
I like the messages Ford is getting at about the crazy mixture of hypocrisy and violence that gave birth to America – but the movie is so corny, like every character is the low comic relief in an outdoor production of Shakespeare, booming for the back row. They’re cartoonish and soooo broad. Ford’s direction, for all he’s raved about, hits me as club-footed much of the time, although there are a handful of great shots when it’s not plotting time.
“Liberty’s” script is full of great questions about America and is even better for how infrequently the ideas are expressed outright. Instead, they come at us under the table. But the script is also relentlessly full of vaudeville – you almost expect Borscht Belt comedians in the old West. The movie also dialogue-heavy to the point that you could close your eyes and enjoy it like a radio show. Movies ought to work the other way around – you should plug your ears and still know what’s going on.
Like everyone in the film, Jimmy Stewart is louder than normal, but he sells lines sincerely that no one else could sell at all (except Cary Grant sarcastically). Stewart’s such a great actor that he functions in this cartoon universe. John Wayne does what he does best, as does Lee Marvin. All else is caricature, and maybe it’s these caricatures that tend to keep me on the outside of John Ford movies.
Finished Friday, December 15, 2006
Copyright © 2006 Friday & Saturday Night
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