One Paragraph Movie Review: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

Three hundred and fifty-second film: The Man Who shot Liberty Valance, a classic Western from 1962. Another manly film with the word ‘Man’ in the title, this thing amplifies the testicular theme by starring the Y-chromosome triple-threat of John Wayne, James Stewart, and Lee Marvin, three manly men. Set in the masculine town of Shinbone, the basic story follows a pacifist lawyer trying to make his mark in a town more used to solving things by shooting at them, and even though he technically succeeds by getting voted into the Senate, he does so because everybody thinks he shot the local villain. It seems the basic premise is that shooting people will get you where you want to go if you’re James Stewart, but leads to a basic, no-frills casket if you’re anyone else. Hammy, sentimental, and the movie that John Wayne says ‘pilgirm’ a lot in, it’s a reasonably good time but I am pretty much done with westerns now thank you. Two and three-quarter gigantic plates of steak and potatoes out of five.