JM "The Man Who Killed Liberty Valance"

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence by John Ford is a classic western in the sense that its main characters display the main qualities of classic cowboys as defined by Sue Matheson in her “The West-Hardboiled”. The movie also is a prime example of the difference between the rule of law, and the rule by law. This idea is present throughout the movie as the east coast lawyer named Stoddard, who believes in the judicial system, struggles to accept the lawless nature of the west. In the opening scene when the notorious Liberty Valence holds up Stoddard’s stagecoach, Stoddard threatens Valence with legal action, to which Valence responds to Stoddard with a vicious beating and the comment “I’ll show you law”. As Matheson says on page 896, “A rather naïve and gullible idealist, what Westerners would term a greenhorn, Stoddard expects the West to be a place where “civilized” values are respected”. This opening scene shows the contrasting differences between the civilized approach to the rule of law, against the animalistic and free for all approach of rule by law. The two characters continue to clash through the movie reflecting the opposite ends of the spectrum that the each represents.

John Wayne’s character Tom Doniphon is the third primary character in the movie. Doniphon represents the antihero of the story, because all though he defends both Stoddard and the town from Liberty Valence, he does so for his own unspoken personal agenda, rather than for the good of the community. There are many interesting similarities between Doniphon and Valence which makes one question what it is that puts the two rough, masculine cowboy figures on opposing sides. Both Stoddard and Valence live by the law of the gun, and find Stoddard’s faith in a legal system of books and procedures to be laughable. The two cowboys are separated only by their own versions of a moral center; Liberty Valence’s being the less moral of the two. Matheson points out that, “Doniphon may wear a white hat in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence, but like Valence, he too exhibits a highly antisocial and disordered personality” (p.896). This becomes especially clear from the lack of remorse or care that Doniphon shows after killing Liberty, where as when he was under the impression he killed Liberty, Stoddard questioned if he had done the right thing. This difference in conscious goes a long way to portray the difference in mental toughness between these two characters. For these reasons, although he has some qualities of a hero, Doniphon can only be the antihero, leaving Stoddard to be the stories main hero, which is ironic seeing that he is the least aggressive and least similar to Matheson’s definition of a cowboy.

When dealing with Matheson’s evaluation of the characters, I believe she did a fair job of assessing the importance and significance of each character. The three male characters all represent the typical masculine male figures who take on the burden to be leaders in their own way. While Liberty chooses to be the rough and rugged lawless cowboy who commands a group of scoundrels and misfits, Stoddard and Doniphon take charge of protecting what they believe to be right.