Review of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) by Kenneth K — 27 Jan 2008

You kno, I never liked westerns until I watched Liberty. I loved it. The message, the acting, the framing, and the editing all worked together. This film was one of those black and white westerns. Good guys in the white hats, bad guys in the black hats.

Of course I love John Wayne. I like John Ford, too. But I like him because i've seen some of his other films and they were very well done. I loved Grapes of Wrath with Henry Fonda. Thought the lighting in that was really good.

Also that point of view shot when they are going into the workers camp. But back to Liberty. I think I liked it so much because Lee Marvin was a great bad guy. Although he played the villian in many a western, I liked him in this.

He was pure evil. Nothing good at all in him. I felt ok about Jimmy Stewarts character. Much more fond of John Waynes. I think that watching Dead Man, which was directed by Jim Jarmisch (spelling?) and starred Johnny Depp contrasted well with Valence.

Alex, you should watch them both to see two severly different westerns. And I guess you could watch 3:10 to Yuma, but I would too so we could discuss it.