“The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” contains many of the ideas that we have discussed about the American Frontier and the role it has played in shaping America. The movie illustrates the idea from Turner’s Frontier Thesis that as Americans settled past the frontier and into the “savage” west, society had to start over and go through the process of rebuilding itself. The movie’s plot depicts the death of the “Wild West” caused by Rance’s influence in the town. At the start of the movie, Ranse Stoddard arrives in the West, from the already developed Northeast, hopeful and nieve with the belief that he can make change with his law books. Quickly he learns from Liberty Valance and Tom Doniphon that guns are the laws of the West. Rance is part of
