The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
94%RT Audience Score: 92%
Awards & Nominations: Nominated for 1 Oscar
4 wins & 4 nominations total
Featuring a trio of classic leading men and a rich story captured by a director at the peak of his craft, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is one of the finest Westerns ever filmed.
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is the ultimate Western movie that will make you feel like you’re riding a horse through the Wild West. John Ford’s direction is so good that you’ll feel like you’re right there in the middle of the action. The cast is amazing, and the story is both romantic and political. It’s a classic that will never get old, and it’s definitely worth watching again and again. So grab some popcorn, sit back, and enjoy the ride!
Production Company(ies)
John Ford Productions,
Distributor
CIC-Taft Home Video, Paramount Pictures
Release Type
Theatrical
Filming Location(s)
Janss Conejo Ranch, Thousand Oaks, California, USA
MPAA / Certificate
Approved
Year of Release
1962
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Color:Color
Black and White -
Sound mix:Dolby
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Aspect ratio:1.85 : 1
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Runtime:2h 2m
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Language(s):English
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Country of origin:United States
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Release date:Release Date (Theaters): Apr 22, 1962 Wide
Release Date (Streaming): May 19, 2009
Genre(s)
Western
Keyword(s)
Western, John Ford, James Stewart, John Wayne, Lee Marvin, Vera Miles, Edmond O’Brien, Andy Devine, Willis Goldbeck, James Warner Bellah, Dorothy M Johnson, CIC-Taft Home Video, Paramount Pictures, Mono, Flat (1.37:1), 1962, 2h 2m, $2.99, $3.99, Senator Stoddard, Tom Doniphon, Hallie Stoddard, Liberty Valance, Dutton Peabody, Marshal Link Appleyard, reviewed by Jake Cole, Richard Brody, Roger Ebert, Variety Staff, Dave Kehr, Steven D Greydanus, Carey-Ann Pawsey, Danielle Solzman, Matt Brunson, Ernesto Diezmartinez, MPAA rating, revisionist western, classic leading men, rich story, director at the peak of his craft, finest Westerns ever filmed, bleak, romantic, American political movie, classical composition, power dynamics, nuanced take, defining Western, demythologize the west, black and white, interiors
Worldwide gross: NA
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): NA
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): NA
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): NA
US/Canada gross: NA
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): NA
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): NA
US/Canada opening weekend:
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): NA
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): NA
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): NA
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): NA
Production budget ranking: NA
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): NA
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): NA
ROI to date (est.): NA
ROI ranking: NA
John Wayne – Tom Doniphon
Vera Miles – Hallie Stoddard
Lee Marvin – Liberty Valance
Edmond O’Brien – Dutton Peabody
Andy Devine – Marshal Link Appleyard
Director(s)
John Ford
Writer(s)
James Warner Bellah, Willis Goldbeck, Dorothy M. Johnson
Producer(s)
Willis Goldbeck, John Ford
Film Festivals
Cannes
Awards & Nominations
Nominated for 1 Oscar
4 wins & 4 nominations total
Academy Awards
All Critics (51) | Top Critics (11) | Fresh (48) | Rotten (3)
John Ford regularly made such clear-eyed, unsentimental assessments of the Old West and the lies that forged its mythology that one may wonder how the concept of a “revisionist western” ever took root when the original was already so bleak.
May 16, 2022
Jake Cole
Slant Magazine
TOP CRITIC
There’s much to say about it; the simplest is that it’s both the most romantic of Westerns and the greatest American political movie.
April 29, 2013
Richard Brody
New Yorker
TOP CRITIC
There is a purity to the John Ford style. His composition is classical. He arranges his characters within the frame to reflect power dynamics — or sometimes to suggest a balance is changing.
December 30, 2011 | Rating: 4/4
Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
TOP CRITIC
John Ford and the writers have somewhat overplayed their hands. They have taken a disarmingly simple and affecting premise, developed it with craft and skill to a natural point of conclusion, and then have proceeded to run it into the ground.
July 7, 2010
Variety Staff
Variety
TOP CRITIC
A great film, rich in thought and feeling, composed in rhythms that vary from the elegiac to the spontaneous.
April 24, 2009
Dave Kehr
Chicago Reader
TOP CRITIC
A remarkably complex and nuanced take on the Western.
October 29, 2008 | Rating: A-
Steven D. Greydanus
Decent Films
TOP CRITIC
One of the most beloved Westerns ever made. This is due to many reasons – story, cast, direction, etc.
May 29, 2022 | Rating: 4/5
Carey-Ann Pawsey
Orca Sound
As The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance marks its 60th anniversary, it is a defining Western and the best of John Ford’s later career.
May 17, 2022 | Rating: 4.5/5
Danielle Solzman
Solzy at the Movies
Merely one of the greatest Westerns ever made.
May 30, 2021 | Rating: 4/4
Matt Brunson
Film Frenzy
“A masterpiece”. [Full review in Spanish]
December 31, 2020 | Rating: 4/4
Ernesto Diezmartinez
Letras Libres
Long before Watergate-era cynicism about the media set in, we were told with a wink by perhaps the West’s principal mythologist to be skeptical about everything we had been told.
July 23, 2020
Kyle Smith
National Review
Hence, contrary to expectations of realist films, this western stands out for how comprehensive a town and a world it manages to build around its central event.
July 1, 2020
CJ Sheu
Review Film Review…
Plot
When Senator Ransom Stoddard returns home to Shinbone for the funeral of Tom Doniphon, he recounts to a local newspaper editor the story behind it all. He had come to town many years before, a lawyer by profession. The stage was robbed on its way in by the local ruffian, Liberty Valance, and Stoddard has nothing to his name left save a few law books. He gets a job in the kitchen at the Ericson’s restaurant and there meets his future wife, Hallie. The territory is vying for Statehood and Stoddard is selected as a representative over Valance, who continues terrorizing the town. When he destroys the local newspaper office and attacks the editor, Stoddard calls him out, though the conclusion is not quite as straightforward as legend would have it.
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
John Wayne and James Stewart, two of Hollywood’s most iconic leading men, star in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.
John-Ford.jpg
