Rating: 
Summary: OK, I'm biased
Review: But anything with The Duke is wonderful. Add Jimmy Stewart, and you can't go wrong. This is a wonderful movie I can watch time and again.
Rating:
Summary: This could get worse than the sheep wars!!!
Review: The 'man' who shot Liberty Valance indeed. A man who lived a lie and reaped all the benefits and esteem, much like Bill Clinton and the Kennedy family. The great John Wayne lost the girl, his ranch, and his manhood by allowing a nerdy little Jimmy Stewart to survive a shotout with dead shot Lee Marvin. Jimmy plays the geek to the max. "You were gonna shoot him! And you were going to shoot him! Over one measly steak! I'll pick it up!!" He's just a gangly lanky lawyer boy from back east who's convinced he can conquer the West single handedly with a law book and a fancy law degree. The fat sheriff is a pathetic John Madden lookalike. I feel so sorry for him. His buffoonery and incompetance drips all over him like the sweat pouring out of his fat head and belly. The chick is pretty hot. She works at the restaurant where her Swedish parents spend their days filling the ranch hand bellies full of steak. Of course the fat sherriff get's his 'off the cuff'. The true star and hero of this movie is of course Lee Marvin. All he wanted to do was make the West a better place for big ranches and rich landowners. So what if he had to kill, rob, and steal in the street. He was only trying to make a living. He wanted to run as a representative for the territory, but the town wouldn't allow him to follow his dreams of public service. I say God Bless Liberty Valance. He was a good man, a strong man, a man who didn't deserve to die in the street, and have Jimmy take the credit. .....and remember, this could get worse than the sheep wars!!!!!
Rating:
Summary: an elegy for the western
Review: It's hard to know where to begin with a movie as great as this. After watching the first time, I remember experiencing a deep sadness, which of course, is what Ford intended. I'm sure that some reviewers have panned the almost claustrophobic settings, but that is exactly what Ford intended -- there was no more room for a traditional western with expansive backdrops and the accompanying sense of boundlessness. This film was, in my mind, the western that announced the end of westerns. Just as John Wayne's character, however heroic and admirable, had no place in what would become civilized society, the western was also beginning to lose its appeal simply because it didn't make as much sense in a world that was changing. I think a lot of John Wayne fans forget that Ford was trying to point out that Tom Doniphon was the person who most resembled Liberty Valance (not to mention the cattlmen) in that both were figures who relied on force, not law, not language. And of course, Doniphon's shooting of Liberty was essentially murder, which is why Doniphon goes into a drunken rage. Some viewers think that Doniphon behaves as he does because he realizes that he has lost Hallie. Actually, he knows that because of what he has done, he cannot live with himself, much less the woman he loves. This is only half the story, though. Ford makes quite clear that the origins of society depend very much on men like Doniphon, and that in a different age, his way was absolutely essential. If Doniphon's/Wayne's way of life had to go for the sake progress, then we cannot help but feel the loss of such nobility, however dangerous. Honestly, I'm not a John Wayne fan, because sometimes the "rugged individualist" role became a stereotype that trapped him as a actor/character. But in "Liberty," Wayne exceeds all stereotypes and against the backdrop of his own obsolescence, emerges triumphantly human.
Rating: 
Summary: The pen is mightier than the pistol
Review: John Ford is to the American Western what Akira Kurosawa is to the Japanese Samurai flick. He takes a genre ripe with stereotypes and cheap melodrama and turns it inside out. He does not do this so much by challenging the stereotypes, but instead by finding their soul. "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" deals a traditional duel, the intellectual versus the strong man. This duel is fought on multiple levels, not just between Ransom Stoddard and Liberty Valance, but also between Ransom Stoddard and Tom Doniphon. Brain vs. Brawn, who will save the town? Who will win the girl? The answers are surprising. This is a fairly bare-bones DVD. The black and white is crisp. Sound is available in original Mono or an updated 5.1 Stereo. For the price, I would have liked a more robust presentation. This classic film certainly deserves it. Minus a star for the DVD, otherwise "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" is one of the best entries in the Western genre.
Rating:
Summary: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
Review: If you are a fan of the "Duke" then this movie is a must for your collection! It's a black and white but it is one of the best with a cast that the younger generation won't know who unless they were told. It's a regular hero cowboy vs. the bad cowboy with a strange twist. Think everybody should see this one in their life....John Wayne!!
Rating:
Summary: Tragedy John Ford Style
Review: My favorite Western. An endlessly fascinating and tragic look at the American West, the evolution of legends, the nature of courage, the nature of love plus John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart too. Not to mention a snarling Lee Marvin as the villian Libery Valance When this movie came out, some critics complained that Wayne and Stewart were too old for their roles. Critics also complained that the film looked studio bound. Later critics made much of the cynical newspaper publisher at the end of the movie who says "This is the west, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend." Through the lens of 60's anti-heroism, these critics saw Ford's film as being about the debunking of all heroic American legends. Director John Ford knew exactly what he was doing. He eschewed the grand expanses of Monument Valley for the cramped back lot. He chose Wayne and Stewart because they were icons of the brave action hero and the law abiding community leader. He made these choices because he was making a stylized dirge to a frontier west where the code of facing your rival directly with a Colt .45 had given way to the complications of lawyers and lawbooks. After countless viewings of this movie, I am not so sure Ford was being all that cynical, either. At least not in the way the debunkers want to make him out to be. To me, the heart of this movie is an ultimate act of tragic romantic heroism and not cold political cynicism. The critics who focus on lawyer Stewart's physical confrontation with the villian, Libery Valance, and Stewart's later rise to political fame shortchange the second major conflict in the film. Can a cowardly act ever be courageous? For Liberty Valance also tells the story of a man of honor who loves a woman very, very much. And then, one day, she asks him to do that one thing that goes against his own moral code. He thought he was strong enough to live with it.
Rating:
Summary: Clearly Coequal to The Searchers
Review: Among the many John Ford/John Wayne collaborations, this unassuming gem has had such staying power that it should be placed on the same Western altar as the more widely regarded The Searchers. Of note, Wayne's character is in almost a supporting role to Stewart's (the latter at least 10 years too old for the part), who gets both the girl and the fame as TMWSLV. Not known for either irony or understatement, Ford crafts a tale in which the more heroic character dies an obscure death in old age, and people with modern talents actually carry the day by winning an election. The movie seems mockishly premodern - black and white and with production values that look like they are from a '50s teleplay. Without the starpower, this might be mistaken for an episode of Death Valley Days. But, what an episode!
Rating:
Summary: A Union of Giant Talents
Review: Director John Ford and John Wayne teamed up in "Stagecoach" and "The Searchers" with western classics resulting in each case. Not only did Ford and Wayne team up in "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance"; gigantic film talent Jimmy Stewart joined the team as well. Stewart is the new man in town, and as such he is called "Pilgrim" by Wayne. Despite teasing the city slicker newcomer trying to blend into a tough western town, Wayne obviously admires Stewart for his book learning and ambition. After one teasing session prompts Stewart to sock his new friend, Wayne gets up off the ground, rubs his jaw, and compliments "Pilgrim" for possessing a good punch. When it comes time to hold a local election Wayne has the newcomer preside. Hard-drinking localite Ken Murray grumbles over the bar being closed for the election process, but endures it nonetheless as Wayne announces the bar's close for civic duties, then its reopening afterwards. Eventually Stewart will go on to obtain a law degree and become a United States Senator, but one event sticks in his mind, causing him grief. Stewart believes that he killed town bully Lee Marvin in a duel, a culmination of a longstanding grudge Marvin has for the well educated city man, someone he taunts until Stewart agrees to meet him in a duel. Wayne, Stewart's faithful friend, while lauding Pilgrim's courage in attempting to learn quickly how to use a gun, realizes he is at a tragic disadvantage going up against a veteran gunslinger like Marvin. As a result Wayne, standing in the distance, actually kills Marvin before he can get a clear shot at Stewart. Andy Devine is hilarious in the role of the sheriff, someone who seeks to placate Marvin through gentle persuasion. Ken Murray is also hilarious as a serious bar patron whose thirst is prodigious. This film blends the dramatic with the comedic in successful fashion.
Rating:
Summary: John Wayne and James Stewart made a good team
Review: Classic John Wayne. If you like John Wayne you will love the movie and I guess if you don't like him you won't like the movie. John Wayne was the "Man".
Rating:
Summary: My favorite western ever
Review: I don't care if this lacks the elements that some people associate with a classic "western", this is one of the most watchable and re-watchable movies ever made. Wayne, Stewart, and Marvin all give perfect performances, as well as the many fine supporting players. The themes of sacrifice and the bittersweet nature of victory in this movie are always moving. This is one of the very rare films that I can watch every couple of years all the way through, and enjoy it just as much every time.
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