Review of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) by Jon P — 07 Jul 2014

Beautifully played and tremendously influential, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is one of the very finest of the John Ford Westerns, bathed in a profound, pungent air of pessimism. James Stewart reprises his typecast doe-eyed Everyman to empathetic perfection and John Wayne is a commanding presence to behold.

For the most part, it's simply a good story well told and performed, with a fistful of showstopping scenes and a delicate balance between character, narrative and comic relief. And, even if it is at times freighted by gaudy political undertones, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance remains, in all, it's a shimmering genre classic.