I was all ready to be uninterested in this movie. Yesterday's was a noir that didn't climb its way past my biases, and today was a western. However, this one turned out to be amazing. The story is thoroughly compelling, making me pay close attention the whole way through. The characters are charming and well-written. It framed the story of this western town in a way that really looked at some interesting questions about character, and I loved it. I think this is one of James Stewart's very best roles, and John Wayne doesn't do too bad a job either. This goes onto that rare list of westerns that I enjoyed. 4 stars.
Flickchart: #291, below The Neverending Story and above In the Bedroom.
2 comments:
I'm glad you enjoyed this one! It's one of my favorites, too. I've always been a lot more like Rance Stoddard (James Stewart) than I ever was a Tom Doniphan (John Wayne), so this story's study of gender norms and masculinity really resonated with me. That scene where Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin) trips Rance, causing him to drop Tom's steak causes my chest to tighten every time.
A few years ago, I finally read Dorothy M. Johnson's original short story. It was devoid of almost all the personality of the film. Not only that, but the thrust of her story basically is that Rance Stoddard had to man up and that was the moral of the story, whereas the film sides much more clearly with Rance that that way of living and handling problems is something best outgrown and left behind.
Oh, ew to the short story version. Heh. I'm glad it was changed for the movie. I would have been really annoyed if that had been how it ended. I think the primary reason this movie worked for me *was* that Rance was so different from most western movie archetypes. He was mild-mannered, educated, and compassionate. I finally felt like I had someone to connect with.
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