Tag Archives: Lee Marvin

Retro Movie Review: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)

The street is quiet in the uneasy way only a frontier town can be. Lamps glow faintly through the windows of Shinbone’s storefronts, and the townspeople line the boardwalk in tense silence. In the center of the dirt street stands a thin young lawyer clutching a revolver he barely knows how to use. Across from him, lounging with casual cruelty, is a man who lives for moments like this. Liberty Valance flicks his whip against his boot and smiles. The lawyer’s hands tremble. Someone whispers a prayer. Then the gunfire cracks through the night, echoing down the empty street as a legend is born.

Continue reading

Leave a comment

Filed under Steven Doyle

Retro Movie Review: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)

Few westerns mix myth, memory, and morality like The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Directed by John Ford in 1962, the film is shot in stark black and white, giving it the look of an old photograph that refuses to fade away. The story begins with U.S. Senator Ransom “Ranse” Stoddard returning to the frontier town of Shinbone for a funeral. What seems like a simple trip down memory lane quickly turns into a confession of how legends are born—and what truths get buried along the way.

Continue reading

Leave a comment

Filed under Steven Doyle