The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

In the flashback, Tom Doniphon tells Stoddard that he killed Liberty Valance, it is Stoddard who shoots first, than Doniphon.

But since we've been shown that Stoddard can't hit the broad side of a barn (and in fact, his aim is wild), Doniphon's probably right.

Ransom Stoddard, at the school scene, makes a reference to "truck farmer.

" This phrase refers not to the motorized vehicle, but to the much older use of "truck" meaning barter or commerce.

In the reverse shot during the climactic political rally, the opposing parties switch sides.

When we see Liberty Valance shot the first time in the film, he stands up with his left leg stepping on the boardwalk and then brings his right leg over his left leg, stepping actually on the boardwalk.

On the "replay," Valance swings his right leg over his left, steps right into the street, and falls slightly forward without touching the boardwalk with his right leg at all.

During the statehood/territory political rally, when Peabody completes his nomination of Stoddard for Congress, Doc Willoughby alternates between standing on the floor and on a chair between shots.

When Ransom Stoddard is found and brought to the Swedish innkeepers, Nora makes him drink "Swedish aquavit", but in fact she offers him "Rød Aalborg" (translatesRed Aalborg) which is a Danish aquavit.

Dutton Peabody was a little lax in his typesetting.

The SHINEBONE STAR newspaper Rance Stoddard complimented Peabody on ("Cattlemen Fight Statehood") was VOL XXX, No.

Then many weeks (or months) later at the election of delegates Liberty Valance picks up a newspaper ("Two Homesteaders Killed By Liberty Valance and Gang") which also carries the same VOL.

XXX, No 42.

In front of the Tom's coffin, Marshal Link's hat appears and disappears between shots on the box which he holds.

When Tom Doniphon enters the room that the territorial convention is held, we can see several women watching the convention from outside the room.

However, later when Tom and Ransom Stoddard leave the room (and when Ransom re-enters the room), the women are gone.

When Stoddard is setting the paint cans on the fence posts, they make a tinny sound that clearly indicates they're empty.

Yet when shot by Doniphon, they discharge a great amount of paint.

In the last scene on the train, as Stewart is returning to Washington with his wife, the scenery outside the train repeats two and a half times.

Including a painted crosswalk which is unlikely to have existed at that time in a rural area.

Toward the end when the Stoddards are back to pay respects to Tom Doniphon, Rance snaps his watch cover shut and puts it in his vest pocket.

He then enters the room and is snapping it shut and putting it in his vest pocket again.

After Doniphan shoots the paint cans, the amount and patterns of the paint on Ranse's jacket changes.

As Hallie tends to Ranse's bullet wound from Valance, the position and cleanliness of Ranse's hand changes.

One of the songs being played in the saloon was "Hot Time In The Old Town Tonight," but the song was written in 1896 by Theodore Metz, several years after the time the story is set in.

In the closing scenes as Stewart and Miles ride home on the train, they have a conversation; there is no noise from the train in the background whatsoever.

Another song played at the Convention is "Hail, Hail, the Gang's All Here" from the song "Alabama Jubilee," written in 1915 and based on the chorus of "With Cat-Like Tread," ("Come Friends Who Plough The Sea") from Gilbert and Sullivan's 'Pirates of Penzance', written in 1879.

Since the "Pirates" chorus would not have been played in a convention, this references a "Hail! Hail!" usage when the piece was written later than the action of the film.

When Tom enters the kitchen as Hallie is tending to Rance's wound and when he starts getting drunk his shirt is dark (probably Wayne's favorite blue, if the movie were in color).

When he arrives at his ranch, the shirt is now much lighter (possibly red if in color.

) When Tom arrives drunk at the dream house and staggers in, his shirt is light gray.

Once he's inside and lights the lantern, his shirt is black.

Then in the scene where Pompey rescues Tom from the burning house, when he first lays Tom on the buckboard, Tom's shirt is light gray again.

When Tom tells Pompey to get the horses, it's clearly light gray.

Then after Pompey frees the horses and the camera cuts back to Tom in the back of the buckboard, his shirt is clean and black once again.

In the school scene, Ransom talks about the "law of the land" (US Constitution) and mentions changing or amending it.

He continues the lesson but refers to it as the Declaration of Independence instead of the US Constitution.

In the school scene, Ransom asks his students about the Constitution of the United States.

He is pleased when Pompey recites from memory "We hold these truths to be self-evident.

" and finishes the quote for him ".

That all men are created equal.

" But the quote is from the Declaration of Independence, not the Constitution.

During the train ride back with Stoddard and his wife, the scenery is going by so fast that it is hardly recognizable, however the conductor states that they'll be there in no time because they'll be going 25mph.

At 25 mph you could easily view the countryside.

Additionally, as the conductor was talking with Stoddad he was perfectly still, no swaying back and forth, as anyone would've done on a train in the 1800s.

When Liberty Valance is beating Mr.

Peabody, Floyd (Strother Martin) is yelling several times at Mr.

Peabody to "Eat It".

However, while his teeth are clinched, he never actually says anything.

In the gunfight between Stoddard and Valance, Valance's hat falls off and lands in the dirt.

During the flashback scene, the hat lands on the boardwalk.

When Valance is shot originally, only one shot is heard.

In the "replay", two shots are clearly heard, a split second apart.

The Western in cinema, although it is ostensibly nothing more a category of movie set in a certain time and place, has grown to become something far grander than that an unofficial reminiscence of a lost era of manliness and the law of the tough. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is perhaps the most knowing and self-aware statement of those themes.

James Stewart and John Wayne had already made their mark on Hollywood long before this was released and it seemed as if their careers would stop. However they proved them dead wrong.

During the last couple of years I've watched several John Ford Westerns and found all of them vastly overrated. I find The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence an improvement though still light years short of George Stevens' Shane for example (perhaps significantly Stevens, unlike Ford, was not known for making westerns).

John Ford directs this western story that opens with Senator Ransom Stoddard(played by Jimmy Stewart) arriving by train in the town of Shinbone, to attend the funeral of old friend Tom Doniphon(John Wayne). He tells a local newspaper reporter about his first arrival in Shinbone by stagecoach, where it is robbed by a bullying ruffian named Liberty Valance(Lee Marvin, well cast) As a young lawyer left only with his law books, he gets a job in a local restaurant as a dishwasher, only to run afoul of Valance again, who is being used by local landowners who oppose proposed statehood.

There's not a thing about The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance that I don't love.John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart play perfect opposites.

... but, that aside, he manages to play his screen persona to aplomb here, just as he did in every one of his movies by playing himself, without cause for change.

How about the extras? as well as the video?

We debated about this film when I was working on the assembly line at TECHNICOLOR, a video-tape factory. Some young guy in his enthusiasm asked a few of us during our break what we thought was the greatest film of all time.

Ransom Stoddard (James Stewart) is a book smart lawyer. On the way into town, his stagecoach is robbed by local ruffian Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin) and Ransom is whipped savagely.