Jimmy Stewart returns to the West to bury John Wayne’s tragic figure, Tom Doniphon, in this 1962 dramatic Western by director John Ford. There, he recounts the story of Doniphon, their mutual love interest (Vera Miles), his feud with outlaw Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin) and his personal rise from hot-headed lawyer to the US senate. In an extremely industrious career spanning six decades, this is Ford’s last noted classic and his fourth to last film.
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.
Full reviewFord's purest and most sustained expression of the familiar themes of the passing of the Old West, the conflict between the untamed wilderness and the cultivated garden, and the power of myth.
Full reviewA basically honest, rugged and mature saga has been sapped of a great deal of effect by an obvious, overlong and garrulous anticlimax.
Full review
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.
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