The Man Who Shot Liberty Of Valance: Film Analysis

Ford’s film, “The Man Who Shot Liberty of Valance” is a depiction of an inevitable transition whereby the society is transformed from an old social order to a modern one. In this film, Ford brings to perspective the society that he created in the past and how it died as a result of the new transition in form of modernization. In this film, the western frontier ideals are brought to light with the transition from an old social order characterized by lawlessness embodied by the gunslingers into a modern society that is governed by law and order (Ebert). The inevitable transition represents a death of the old social order which then paves way for a new and modern society. In Old Shinbone, before the transition that was affected by the coming of the railroad, there was no formally enforced law and order. The old town is portrayed as one which is complete with a drunken doctor, only two saloons, a cowardly marshal and assorted cowboy and farmers. In the film, Tom Doniphon laments the following "Out here a man settles his own problems." From this statement, it is …show more content…
The death of characters such as Liberty Valance depicts the sacrifice of men or heroes for the purposes of realizing the needs of a growing society. The transition from old ideals into new ideals of modernization is also evidenced when Haile refers to the old Shinbone as wilderness and the newly modernized one as a garden (Beck). This is one among many Ford films that portray a world diffused by time, memory, folklore, myth and nostalgia. It is also evidence enough that society is accustomed to dynamisms that embraces change. Through the lens offered by the film “Liberty Valance”, the viewer comes into contact with a turning point in the West when the rule of force was replaced by the rule law and it was at this time when literacy began to gain a