'The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance' is both optimistic and pessimistic. It is unsatisfactory to call the film plain optimistic, which it was in the middle of the movie, as the beginning but more so the end was pessimistic. The middle of the film was optimistic because it showed the joyous personalities of the people and about ten minutes from the end of Ransom Stoddard's flashback, film reached it's climax when Liberty Valance was killed. On the pessimistic side of the film however, is what has become of Shinbone after Liberty's death. When Liberty died, so too did every body living his way, which included the film's unsung hero, Tom Doniphon. When Stoddard came back to Shinbone, the town was definitely less lively, due to modern inventions such as the telegraph, the steam trains and possibly the telephone. This is
the cost that Shinbone had to pay for modernizing - liveliness.
In conclusion I'd like to point out that this film is one that is filled to the brim with key issues and so on, and it is difficult to absorb all these in the one viewing. From what I've heard, nearly all of the movies directed by John Ford are relevant to American History, and this one is no different. He shows how someone's life can be built up on a lie. Take the lie out that it is built up on, and then the rest of the building comes crashing down. The film is both optimistic and pessimistic and it sways between the two more often than other films like it, and as a result is unpredictable and enjoyable to viewer.
The movie came down to liberty and violence verses law, order and freedom of speech, in which the latter prevailed, the latter be
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