Liberty Valance BG

Tom Doniphan and Liberty Valance hold similar traits in the movie The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Had they been on the same side of the law, they would have made quite the duo and their tales even more legendary. They may live in the West, agreeing on “the law of the gun” but it becomes evident throughout the movie that they are very different Alpha-Male characters.

Tom is dynamic, showing emotion and depth as a character. He changes outfits, and looks exceptionally stunning with his Saturday night outfit. As Matheson says “it becomes obvious that the duke specialized in playing destabilized, alienated figures, socially marginalized men caught in double binds- in short, the modern existential antihero.” His emotions run free as he feels threatened by Rance stealing Hallie’s heart, and rightfully so. He is complex enough, as an Alpha-Male, to understand the implications of killing Liberty Valance and the double bind that it puts him in. As a man of the West, Tom Doniphan exhibits antisocial characteristics of an Alpha-Male. Although he does participate in saloon activities, such as drinking, his life at home is clearly isolated, leaving us with only two short scenes of Tom at home. Even then, the viewer gets the impression, at best, it is Tom and Pompey at his ranch.

Valance is a static character, who doesn’t change at all throughout the film. His thoughts, actions and reactions, remain constant from beginning to end. As an Alpha-Male, Liberty has an established infamous reputation. We are introduced to Liberty as he terrorizes Rance in the beginning of his flashback. Liberty plays the typical static villain, his costume doesn’t change throughout the movie, contrasting with Tom.

Rance Stoddard is made fun of at multiple points in the movie by his comparatively “feminine” acts in the west, such as cleaning, cooking wearing an apron, and called a ‘waitress’ as an insult to his sidejob with Hallie. “Stoddard’s masculinity is dimished because he may be considered ‘naked’ without a gun.” When Rance is preparing himself for the occasion when he needs to face Liberty Valance, his practice isn’t improving his aim. This can be translated as a direct metaphor to show the difference between a man of the West and ‘civilized’ East.

Rance tries to “be a man of the West” with target practice with Tom, and then the duel with Liberty, he fails miserably. In the duel with Liberty, Rance unknowingly receives the lifesaving help of Tom Doniphan to defeat the villain. No matter how much he is poked fun at, Rance holds true to his beliefs in the written law, faith in the government, and education. These beliefs vastly contrast those of Doniphon who says that schooling is “a waste of time” when pulling Pompey out of the classroom. But by sticking to his beliefs and values, what makes him who he is, (and in my eyes this trait is what makes him a man) ultimately allows Rance to become the successful man that he aspires to be.

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance NC

In following how Matheson's assessment of the two alpha male characters as well as Stoddard, it must be emphasized the division between the alpha males and Stoddard. The first division begins in the naming conventions of the three. Tom Doniphan's name most likely derives from Alexander Doniphan. The reasoning behind this derives from Tompkins, as she mentions that the alpha males of the west essentially attempt to push Christianity away, and the real Alexander Doniphan arrested and sent away Christian leaders and preachers including Joseph Smith. "exchanging the cross for a gun (Tompkins)." Liberty Valance's name holds its meaning from the interaction between the two names, Valance meaning 'opposing.' Though the West is characterized for its freedom due to its inherent lawlessness, Liberty's presence affects all other characters in the movie to be at his mercy, all but Tom. Matheson directly mentions the impact of his presence in that his anti-social behavior prevents others from reaching their full potential, and gives Peabody's struggle to print as an example. Ransom Stoddard's name may be based on Solomon Stoddard, a colonial Christian preacher. The duality of Tom and Ransom's name symbolizes their connection; Tom's character refuses from certain attribute's that Ransom's has such as his weaknesses, but in the same token, protects Ransom. Alexander Doniphan also protected the Christians he sent away, even under orders to execute them.

Matheson writes strongly about the hardboiled nature of John Wayne's characters, and that his potential as Tom is not limited by Liberty's presence. The steak scene illustrates this when Tom rejects Liberty's attempt to dominate and stands his ground, resulting in somewhat of a standstill. Through each one's action, the audience continues to guess who ends up on top, but the real value is not in the victor but in the struggle. Wayne in this scene is protecting the feminine Stoddard, a character dressed as a woman of the times and unable to stand up to Liberty.

Matheson's article describes Liberty as a 'disabled psychopath,' due to his negative interactions and seeming inability to hold a conscious as a normal person would. Tom, however, is not perfect either. He serves as a dark knight and lives with the consequences. Though he is undeniably the strongest character in the film, he has no happy ending. The happy ending goes to Stoddard. Stoddard ends up with the woman that Tom wanted and takes the credit for the man that Tom had slain. Most of the film's action in the beginning centers on the action between Tom and Liberty, two alpha males that were in a Cold War-like stalemate most times. The excitement came from the tension, tension that was their's and not Stoddard's. Stoddard, feminine as he may be, held a desire to make a transition from the feminine to the masculine, but as is demonstrated, the alpha male masculinity is not something that someone can simply learn. This is best exemplified when Stoddard shoots the paint cans. The cans explode and cover Stoddard with paint, which is symbolism and foreshadowing of the shooting with Liberty Valance. In addition, the masculine symbolism (phallic as Tompkins says) of the gun and the fact that Ransom refuses from one, as mentioned by Matheson, "'naked' without a gun," shows that Stoddard effectively rejects from the masculine, and in attempting to attain it, the audience continually realizes that masculinity is a state of being and, like the gun, not something that someone can one day refuse from and another day try to master it, and another day test it against true, time-hardened masculinity (Valance).

The climax of the movie is not in this scene, but in Ransom realizing the true nature of their duel. Stoddard's attempt to be alpha is almost fruitless; Liberty treats him like a woman, while Stoddard is dressed like a woman, and shoots his right hand. Among wolves, it is characteristic for an alpha wolf to place his paw on a beta's paw to show dominance, and Liberty is doing this here. Liberty takes things a step further and tells Stoddard to use his left hand, and in doing so, Stoddard appears to have killed Liberty. Tom's character, however, must protect the women. This can be interpreted as either following Hallie's wishes to protect him OR in that Stoddard himself was the main female role of the film. In the audience realizing the truth about the duel, the audience also realizes the brokenness of Tom, that by protecting Stoddard he himself may have rejected from the masculine by killing Liberty in a 'dirty' way, and Tom's reflection to Stoddard expresses his recognition that he "killed a man in cold blood, but...can live with it." Stoddard, in contrast, can never 'live with it,' his emotions further express his feminine nature and cannot live in tarnish; shown when he picks up the steak, when he hits Tom about the paint, and when he decides to fight Liberty.

The man who shot liberty Valance BD

The two alpha males in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Tom Doniphon and Liberty Valance, are very different people but can also be seen as having many of the same characteristics. Sue Matheson states, in her article “The West-Hardboiled: Adaptations of Film Noir Elements, Existentialism, and Ethics in John Wayne’s Westerns,” that “there really is very little difference between Doniphon and Liberty Valance. Both men settle their problems in the same fashion” (Matheson 896). Both men are hardened, dark men that can be described as hardboiled. They live by the law of the gun and will do whatever it takes to get them on to the next point in their lives. Neither man is destined to be living inside of the town of Shinbone and would prefer to be out in the wilderness.

However, Matheson makes a claim that “Characters who appear to be civilized men may actually be savages” (Matheson 895). This claim does not hold weight in Liberty Valance because the other lead character, Rance Stoddard, is a clean-cut man who dresses with a nice suit and has all of the appearances that Matheson believe to be the most corrupt people in westerns. Stoddard is actually the character that has his morals intact and wants people to live by the law of the country, not by the law that people make for themselves on the frontier.

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance DG

In Jon Ford's, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, we are presented with 3 males leads with very different roles. Tom Doniphan is the hard boiled John Wayne alpha male cowboy we have seen in other films, but with a different twist to the character toward the end of this movie. Liberty Valance is the stereotypical bad guy in the film and also carries himself as the alpha male cowboy, but one without a moral code or regard for the law. Lastly we have Ransom Stoddard. Stoddard represents the "dandy" east coast pilgrim, as Doniphan likes to call him. Connecting the ideas from Matheson's article to this film show just how each character is generally portrayed in Western film.

Tom Doniphan is a character we can closely relate to the stereotypical John Wayne alpha male cowboy. He is clean cut and never seen dirty, just as Matheson talks about. The way he carries himself at the beginning of the film as a gentlemen in front of Hallie shows the respect an alpha male cowboy would have for their woman. Also when Valance trips Stoddard and spills his steak, Doniphan remains calm and controls the situation using the fear already instilled into the people of the room to show his superiority and rugged individualist way of handling the situation as the alpha male cowboy.
Liberty Valance is the other alpha male cowboy we see in the film. He is slightly different considering his brutality and barbaric lifestyle. Valance twice is pulled off of a victim of his attacks even by his own men because he clearly was taking the attack to another level with his whip showing that his brutality is tough to be harnessed. As Matheson says Valance places himself "outside the law" (896). Valance is feared by the people of Shinbone, even Marshel so when he walks into the saloon everything seems to be in his control and if it doesnt go his way someone is going to get hurt. When he finds that Peabody wrote an article in the paper against him he destroys his office and beats him senseless. Valance represents the unshaven dirty disshoveled bad guy that Matheson labels in the beginning of her article.

Ransom Stoddard is the third role in the film, and this character differs greatly from that of Valance and Doniphan. Rance comes from the east coast and brings with him the hope of spreading education and civilization into the town of Shinbone. Matheson refers to him as an "Eastern dandy" because his wardrobe is a "feminized nonfunctional wardrobe" (897). Stoddard is very gentlemen like and has good manners which don't fit the mold of the West. When he feels it is necessary to work off his room and board and help at the restaraunt he wears an apron and volunteers to help serve with Hallie. When he comes out to serve Valance sees him and even goes as far as identifying him as "the new waitress". Stoddards effort to bring take down Valance at the end of the film was in hope to prove to himself that he could crack the shell of his dandyism. But as we see in the end the alpha male cowboy always prevails and it turns out that Doniphan was in fact the one who shot Liberty Valance.

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“I’ll teach you the law – western law.” Liberty Valance beats Rance Stoddard senseless and gives him a lesson on the law of the west – the law of self. In The Man who shot Liberty Valance, John Ford presents us with existentialism via two alpha male characters, Liberty Valance and Tom Doniphon. Their existentialist ideals, while prevalent in many westerns, are not glorified in Liberty Valance but painted negatively. They are constantly contrasted by the symbol of civilization, a lawyer named Rance Stoddard, who comes out west to practice law.

Our villain, Liberty Valance, has taken existentialism to a sociopathic extreme. He lives by his own law, dictates it as he pleases, while spreading chaos and corruption through the town of shinbone. We learn his name when Stoddard mentions the decorated whip that was used to beat him with. After the beating, Valance walks into the town restaurant and the room goes silent. His silver studded vest and ornate shirt reek of capitalism while his unshaven, dirty face reeks of corruption. In her article, “The West – Hardboiled: Adaptations of Film Noir Elements, Existentialism, and Ethics in John Wayne’s Westerns,” Sue Matheson states that a character’s appearance gives the idea that the appearance of characters within westerns symbolizes their character, psychology, and can be used as a social critique. Speaking of Valance in particular, she says “Valance does not signal his bestial nature by dressing in an animal’s skins. He simply does not walk like a human being; the outlaw lumbers about like an ape with his silver-headed cat-o’-nine-tails while flouting all that “civilized” America holds dear: good posture, acceptable table manners, the sanctity of womanhood, law and order, freedom of speech, and most of all, the democratic process itself.” (895) He seems to have poisoned the whole town. The sheriff is rendered impotent and cowardly, the town doctor is a drunk, and the town newspaper printer is severely beaten, and made to eat his own newspaper – for printing something against Valance. When stopped before entering a nomination session for the town representative (because he is not from “south of the pickle wire”, he storms in anyways, and demands that he is elected – or else. He insists Stoddard step down as representative and that he leave town, or face him in a duel in the street. Valance’s law – the law of the west – is the law of the gun. For Valance, “Might is right.” (Matheson 895) His moral individualism is painted with disgust. His vicious beating and robbing, drinking, and harassment of the townspeople doesn’t portray strength, he never kills anyone. Although he tries, he does not actually kill Peabody. When facing Doniphon over the steak, although he is insulted by Tom he does not draw his gun. When he leaves he just creates chaos, throwing a bottle through a window and shooting his guns in the air. We feel like he is as he appears, dirty and dandy, and we give his moral individualism the same connotation.

Tom Doniphon, the man who actually shot Liberty Valance, also lives by his own law. His also blames his moral individualism on the land and calls it western law. Doniphon takes the law in his own hands, but to survive. He recognizes the futility of civilized law when he tells Stoddard “You’d better start packing a handgun, out here a man settles his own problems.” Our civilized Stoddard sees the similarity in corruption between the two men: “You’re saying exactly what Liberty Valance said!” Matheson argues that many of John Wayne’s characters resemble the anti-hero of film noir, living on the edge, at the center of their own morality, with a ‘hardboiled’ mentality. “The Duke specialized in playing destabilized, alienated figures, socially marginalized men caught in double binds – in short, the modern existential antihero.” (897) He smokes and drinks. He shows his destabilized character with the unemotional and blank stare given to Stoddard when he first drops him off, his lonely home in the desert, and his burning of that home. He threatens to shoot Valance over his steak. He is tough – “Liberty Valance is the toughest man south of the picket wire, except for me.” He tosses the hat off the sheriff, a sign for disrespect of the law. He disrupts reading and writing class, saying “why are you wasting your time in here for?” Putting his personal interests above recognition, he refuses the nomination for representative. He tells Stoddard again, “There are two ways to stay healthy, buy a gun or get out of the territory.” Doniphon is an alpha male, who takes the lead in the election meeting, and bosses both his friends and Hallie around. He tells Stoddard “Hallie’s my girl.” His double bind lies in the choice he makes when killing Valance. “Doniphon could have secured his relationship with Hallie by standing aside and letting Valance kill Stoddard, or by standing aside and allowing Stoddard to return to the east, but he does not. Instead Doniphon destroys his personal happiness by acting in good faith.” (Matheson 897) In Doniphon, we respect his choice (murder) because he was in fact sacrificing his own personal interests for the good of others. We recognize this sacrifice and although we do not condone murder, we accept it because Shinbone, Hallie, and Stoddard are better off for it. In this movie, we see Doniphon’s existentialism not glorified, but justified.

The positive push in Liberty Valance comes from James Stewart as Rance Stoddard. He comes from the east, from civilization, bringing the law of the land and the idea of moral deontology. Instead of taking the route of western law, Stoddard is set to punish Valance by the law. He is upstanding and civilized. Facing injury or death, Stoddard defends a widow in the opening scene of the flashback. He is chastised by Doniphon for being a ‘ladies man’ for protecting her. Coming from the outside, he is uncorrupted and has an objective view on western law. We see this from his quote to Doniphon about getting a handgun. Although Doniphon is contrasted against Stoddard, we feel more positive toward Stoddard. He recognizes the town’s ignorance as the source of its corruptibility, and seeks to educate the town’s people. We sympathize with his hopes of ending the town’s corruption through education and law. In his class, he tells the people that the basic law of the land is the constitution, which gives power to the people. This in turn gives them hope of ending the corruption. The quote on the board says “Education is the basis for law and order.” It is interesting, however, to see Stoddard slowly giving in to western law. We find out he has bought a gun, and has been practicing. Shinbone and Valance’s corruption has leaked into our symbol of civilization. The breaking point for Stoddard comes when basic law is violated – when free press is destroyed (Peabody) and law is shattered (the destruction of the 'attorney at law' sign. He then faces Valance under the law of the west, and fails. He cannot function under western law, is injured, and does not kill Valance. His giving in to the moral individualism of western law ends in his own double bind – knowing and living with the fact that he did not kill Liberty Valance. Doniphon saved his life, and killed Valance. However, the townspeople are freed from corruption, Stoddard gets Hallie, and is elected as a state politician, while forever living with the knowledge that he in fact does not deserve any of the credit. Matheson also sees this double bind. “Stoddard and Hallie in particular find themselves living in a double bind of their own fashioning; their outrageously successful lives are the results of acting in bad faith. By not revealing the extent of Doniphon’s self-sacrifice, Stoddard and Hallie allow the public to believe that Stoddard is the man for whom “nothing is too good… [because he] shot Liberty Valance. The final irony, of course, is that without Doniphon’s help, Stoddard would never have been the man who “with a snap of his fingers could become the next vice president of the United States.” (897)

Between the contrast of moral individualism and existentialism used in different ways, Liberty Valance shows us that even the best example of law and civilization are not immune to moral individualism and corruption.

EDITED POST:

“I’ll teach you the law – western law:” Liberty Valance beats Rance Stoddard senseless and gives him a lesson on the law of the west – the law of self. In The Man who shot Liberty Valance, John Ford presents us with existentialism via two alpha male characters, Liberty Valance and Tom Doniphon. Their existentialist ideals, while prevalent in many westerns, are not glorified in Liberty Valance but painted negatively. They are constantly contrasted by the symbol of civilization, a lawyer named Rance Stoddard, who comes out west to practice law.

Our villain, Liberty Valance, has taken existentialism to a sociopathic extreme. He lives by his own law, dictates it as he pleases, while spreading chaos and corruption through the town of shinbone. We learn his name when Stoddard mentions the decorated whip that was used to beat him with. After the beating, Valance walks into the town restaurant and the room goes silent. His silver studded vest and ornate shirt reek of capitalism while his unshaven, dirty face reeks of corruption. In her article, “The West – Hardboiled: Adaptations of Film Noir Elements, Existentialism, and Ethics in John Wayne’s Westerns,” Sue Matheson states that a character’s appearance gives the idea that the appearance of characters within westerns symbolizes their character, psychology, and can be used as a social critique. Speaking of Valance in particular, she says “Valance does not signal his bestial nature by dressing in an animal’s skins. He simply does not walk like a human being; the outlaw lumbers about like an ape with his silver-headed cat-o’-nine-tails while flouting all that “civilized” America holds dear: good posture, acceptable table manners, the sanctity of womanhood, law and order, freedom of speech, and most of all, the democratic process itself.” (895) He seems to have poisoned the whole town. The sheriff is rendered impotent and cowardly, the town doctor is a drunk, and the town newspaper printer is severely beaten, and made to eat his own newspaper – for printing something against Valance. When stopped before entering a nomination session for the town representative (because he is not from “south of the pickle wire”, he storms in anyways, and demands that he is elected – or else. He insists Stoddard step down as representative and that he leave town, or face him in a duel in the street. Valance’s law – the law of the west – is the law of the gun. For Valance, “Might is right.” (Matheson 895) His moral individualism is painted with disgust. His vicious beating and robbing, drinking, and harassment of the townspeople doesn’t portray strength, he never kills anyone. Although he tries, he does not actually kill Peabody. When facing Doniphon over the steak, though he is insulted by Tom he does not draw his gun. When he leaves he just creates chaos, throwing a bottle through a window and shooting his guns in the air. We feel like he is as he appears, dirty and dandy, and we give his moral individualism the same connotation.

Tom Doniphon, the man who actually shot Liberty Valance, also lives by his own law. His also blames his moral individualism on the land and calls it western law. Doniphon takes the law in his own hands, but to survive. He recognizes the futility of civilized law when he tells Stoddard “You’d better start packing a handgun, out here a man settles his own problems.” Our civilized Stoddard sees the similarity in corruption between the two men: “You’re saying exactly what Liberty Valance said!” Matheson argues that many of John Wayne’s characters resemble the anti-hero of film noir, living on the edge, at the center of their own morality, with a ‘hardboiled’ mentality. “The Duke specialized in playing destabilized, alienated figures, socially marginalized men caught in double binds – in short, the modern existential antihero.” (897) He smokes and drinks. He shows his destabilized character with the unemotional and blank stare given to Stoddard when he first drops him off, his lonely home in the desert, and his burning of that home. He threatens to shoot Valance over his steak. He is tough – “Liberty Valance is the toughest man south of the picket wire, except for me.” He tosses the hat off the sheriff, a sign for disrespect of the law. He disrupts reading and writing class, saying “why are you wasting your time in here for?” Putting his personal interests above recognition, he refuses the nomination for representative. He tells Stoddard again, “There are two ways to stay healthy, buy a gun or get out of the territory.” Doniphon is an alpha male, who takes the lead in the election meeting, and bosses both his friends and Hallie around. He tells Stoddard “Hallie’s my girl.” His double bind lies in the choice he makes when killing Valance. “Doniphon could have secured his relationship with Hallie by standing aside and letting Valance kill Stoddard, or by standing aside and allowing Stoddard to return to the east, but he does not. Instead Doniphon destroys his personal happiness by acting in good faith.” (Matheson 897) In Doniphon, we respect his choice (murder) because he was in fact sacrificing his own personal interests for the good of others. We recognize this sacrifice and although we do not condone murder, we accept it because Shinbone, Hallie, and Stoddard are better off for it. In this movie, we see Doniphon’s existentialism not glorified, but justified.

The positive push in Liberty Valance comes from James Stewart as Rance Stoddard. He comes from the east, from civilization, bringing the law of the land and the idea of moral deontology. Instead of taking the route of western law, Stoddard is set to punish Valance by the law. He is upstanding and civilized. Facing injury or death, Stoddard defends a widow in the opening scene of the flashback. He is chastised by Doniphon for being a ‘ladies man’ for protecting her. Coming from the outside, he is uncorrupted and has an objective view on western law. We see this from his quote to Doniphon about getting a handgun. Although Doniphon is contrasted against Stoddard, we feel more positive toward Stoddard. He recognizes the town’s ignorance as the source of its corruptibility, and seeks to educate the town’s people. We sympathize with his hopes of ending the town’s corruption through education and law. In his class, he tells the people that the basic law of the land is the constitution, which gives power to the people. This in turn gives them hope of ending the corruption. The quote on the board says “Education is the basis for law and order.” It is interesting, however, to see Stoddard slowly giving in to western law. We find out he has bought a gun, and has been practicing. Shinbone and Valance’s corruption has leaked into our symbol of civilization. The breaking point for Stoddard comes when basic law is violated – when free press is destroyed (Peabody) and law is shattered (the destruction of the 'attorney at law' sign. He then faces Valance under the law of the west, and fails. He cannot function under western law, is injured, and does not kill Valance. His giving in to the moral individualism of western law ends in his own double bind – knowing and living with the fact that he did not kill Liberty Valance. Doniphon saved his life, and killed Valance. However, the townspeople are freed from corruption, Stoddard gets Hallie, and is elected as a state politician, while forever living with the knowledge that he in fact does not deserve any of the credit. Matheson also sees this double bind. “Stoddard and Hallie in particular find themselves living in a double bind of their own fashioning; their outrageously successful lives are the results of acting in bad faith. By not revealing the extent of Doniphon’s self-sacrifice, Stoddard and Hallie allow the public to believe that Stoddard is the man for whom “nothing is too good… [because he] shot Liberty Valance. The final irony, of course, is that without Doniphon’s help, Stoddard would never have been the man who “with a snap of his fingers could become the next vice president of the United States.” (897)

Between the contrast of moral individualism and existentialism used in different ways, Liberty Valance shows us that even the best example of law and civilization are not immune to moral individualism and corruption.

The Man who shot Liberty Valance PG

In the Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, we find ourselves with three male leads, two of whom are unquestionably alpha male characters by Matheson’s definition of the term, and one who is an alpha male in a different way. Doniphon is absolutely an alpha male cowboy in every sense of the word. He is gruff, hardboiled, and so archetypically John Wayne that we even hear the word pilgrim strewn about. Likewise, Liberty Valance throws the word dude into conversation often enough that one starts to wonder if entrance into the alpha male cowboy club requires a password. Undoubtedly though, these two characters show a one track mind, determined to see through their paths of action, ignoring anything that gets in their way. Both follow the law of the gun, so used to solving their problems with violence that they physically cannot use words to make their point.

Stoddard on the other hand, can hardly be considered a man, at least not according to those criteria set for us by Matheson and the western genre. He requires words to function, placing an importance on reading and writing that Doniphon distains. At the beginning of the movie, he refuses to drink or carry a gun, two things that we consistently see as part of the identification of an alpha male cowboy. He is never alone, and is always talking about what he thinks or feels, to the point where he becomes less than a man, happily doing chores that even the women don’t think he should be doing.

In this movie, one of the most telling signs of the alpha male cowboy status amongst the three important male characters is their hats. It is from this accessory that we can tell what role they play in the movie. Not only do the alpha male cowboys wear hats at all times, they color code them according to wether they are a bad guy or a good guy, Valance wearing a black hat and Doniphon a white. Conversely, Stoddard wears no hat throughout the entire movie. Only after Valance dies ( losing his hat in the process) do we even see him with a hat in his possession, and even then he does not wear it. It is only after he has made a name for himself in politics that he wears a hat, many years down the line. In his own way, he becomes an alpha male. He is not a cowboy, but his legend portrays him as one, and it is enough to earn him the title. As the editor says at the end of the movie, “when the legend becomes fact, print the legend”

SP The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence

In The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence, Tom Doniphon and Liberty Valence are unmistakably the two alpha male cowboys, leaving Rance Stoddard in the role of not quite a “man.” In an assessment by Matheson, Tom and Liberty would be characterized as hardboiled, classic cowboys from the noir milieu of the West. They are corrupted individuals, independent of the “spectacle of the law,” as they refer to it in the film, and use their power of intimidation and quick-handedness to achieve high levels of respect in the western culture. This manner of asserting one’s alpha male rank is indicated by Matheson as the only way that men can survive in the West, since “only the fittest, the strongest, and the most ruthless survive in the noir frontier” (Matheson, 891). While Liberty Valence reigned as the most antisocial of them all, having no sense of morality and shooting people as if it were as natural as needing to breathe, Tom Doniphon surfaced as the antihero who stepped up to his obligation to follow the duty-based ethnics, which, according to Matheson, required Tom to give up his personal desires for the good of the town, thus immersing himself even more in the solitariness of Western cowboy life. Matheson would further more claim that Tom plays a “destabilized, alienated figure […], socially marginalized [man] caught in [a] double bind – in short, the modern existentialist antihero” (Matheson, 897). While Tom may be the character whom the audience is hoping will benefit from the events of the story, he does not possess very many admirable qualities, and may very much be considered as depraved a man as Liberty Valence. Ultimately, Matheson suggests that it is the difference in the outcomes that the actions of these two alpha males perform that determines whether they are the “good” guy or the “bad” guy.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, Rance Stoddard is nowhere near possibly being considered an alpha male because of his inability to function in the West as a man of the law. As Liberty Valence so explicitly demonstrates at the beginning of the film, the law is just bits of torn pages that have no influence over anyone when it comes to the free range of the West. Matheson illustrates in her article that men who cannot affirm their masculinity through a hardboiled persona are more or less considered feminine, since they are “’naked’ without a gun” (Matheson, 903). This suggestion is supported in the film by the attire that Stoddard must wear, such as an apron, and the fact that he can most easily interact with women, not men. Stoddard’s objective throughout the film – finding a just way to reprimand Liberty Valence for his unlawful behavior – is futile because, as Tom says, “out here a man settles his own problems,” and Stoddard is clearly incapable of having a fighting chance against Liberty if he relies only on his law book for support. Matheson emphasizes that Stoddard must first become a real man in the West, for “until he understands that out West he is his own moral center, he cannot be considered a real man” (Matheson, 903). Stoddard must become completely independent and face his problems exclusively as a man, which is what he is eventually pushed to do. While Stoddard did not actually perform the killing of Liberty Valence as it seemed he had, he was pushed to the point where he had to give into the ways of the West and break his beloved laws that had guided him throughout life until he had found himself in the Wild West.

In relation to the film The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence, Matheson’s assessment of such characters would be extremely accurate. Her article focuses on the role of the hardboiled cowboy, such as Tom Doniphon and Liberty Valence are, and the affects that not being in this role would have on characters that are not considered hardboiled. She makes a good point when addressing the character of Rance Stoddard and comparing his traits to those of a female, because it highlights the dramatic difference in power of behaving as a man one way to that of another way. Ultimately, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence is a typical example of the kind of hardboiled Western film that Matheson epitomizes in her article.

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance JY

In the movie The Man Who Shot Liberty Vance the two alpha male characters are John Wayne’s character Tom and Liberty Vance. They are both similar in the fact that they do not respect the law of the east but instead follow the law of the west, the law of the gun. Matheson relates these two by saying they are both “highly antisocial and have disordered personalities.” Matheson describes the male cowboy as only having friendships that are “professional friendships.” Liberty Vance has his goons that are just there to help him steal and Tom (John Wayne) has his sidekick Pompey. Both these relationships are purely professional.

Although both these characters are similar where they differ is that Tom Doniphan is the “mean carefully placed between the outlaw (Liberty Vance) and the law.” Without Tom, Liberty Vance would run wild on the town of Shinbone. Although it seems as though Tom protects the town and Ransom Stoddard, Matheson says that he does all this for his own personal interests. She says, “He kills Valance because Hallie wants Stoddard alive. He makes sure that Stoddard runs for office not for the public good, but because Hallie needs a man who can give her ‘something to read and write about.’ He refuses to accept Stoddard’s nomination for political appointment because serving the public would interfere with his personal interests.”

Matheson also analyzes Ransom Stoddard the other main character in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence. She describes Stoddard as being “feminine” and argues that his “masculinity is diminished because he may be considered naked without a gun.” I agree with this analysis because without a gun he can’t protect himself and in westerns males are expected to be able to protect themselves. Also Stoddard’s clothing according to Matheson makes him seem weak in the eyes of the west. Eventually Stoddard adapts to the western lifestyle and starts practicing with a gun to protect himself against Liberty Valance. The west had changed Stoddard from a man who “expected the west to be a place where civilized values are respected” to a man willing to kill Liberty Valance instead of leaving Shinbone.

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance CS

In the movie The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, there are two distinct alpha male cowboys. One of these cowboys was Tom Doniphon, who was played by John Wayne. Doniphon was the quintessential hardboiled cowboy as described by Sue Matheson, “an antisocial loner who functions in a world populated by sociopaths, a Hobbesian wilderness where life is brutish, nasty and short” (891). Doniphon lives a lonesome life in a home outside of town with only his sidekick Pompey and acts by the philosophy of “western law”, which is essentially the lack of any law and order, where men solve their own problems. His ambiguous morality also demonstrates characteristics of an alpha male. In the film, he tells Stoddard that he can do what Stoddard can’t, which is to kill a man in cold blood and live with it, which allows the audience to assume that murder is something that he has done before in his life. Doniphon’s physical appearance, which is not “stained or grimey, disheveled in the style of the rough unmannered villains…dusty but not dirty… [his] clothes worn but not greasy”, also follows suit with Matheson’s description of the cowboy (892). Doniphon constantly looked tough and worn with work, but he would never look unkempt.

The other alpha male in the film, Liberty Valance, would be described as the “disheveled, unmannered villain” and sociopath, that appears to be the opposite from Tom Doniphon. Valance is a “manipulative, remorseless, parasitic, pathological liar with poor behavioral control” (892). Unlike Doniphon, who shows depth of character in his love for Hallie and kills Valance in an act of good faith, Valance is a static villain. He does not show any sense of morality or emotion. Much like his lack of vibrancy and emotion internally, Valance’s external appearance is just the same. He is shown wearing the same costume the entire film, his face is constantly filthy and his actions and manners are considered “beastly”. Although Valance and Doniphon have their differences, they both settle their problems in the same way. Both men live by the law of the gun, where men are the law and solve their own problems.

Besides the two alpha male cowboys, there is a third important character in the film, Ransom Stoddard. Stoddard arrives in Shinbone as an educated young lawyer from the East, and has a firm belief in living by the written law. After he is brutally attacked by Liberty Valance, the only advice he is given is to start carrying a gun, which to him sounds barbaric. Stoddard is often portrayed as feminine in the film, as he is seen washing dishes, serving food and wearing an apron over his perfectly manicured clothes, all characteristics of a woman. But later in the film, Stoddard finds that he has to leave behind his law-by-the books philosophy and begins carrying a gun, exemplifying that “in noir films…decent, normally law abiding citizens tend to find themselves enmeshed in situations that require them to become criminals” (896). He found that the only way to defeat Valance was to beat him in his own game, which is what Doniphon had been telling him the whole film. Ironically, Stoddard receives the fame and recognition as the one to kill Valance, even though it was Doniphon who actually did the glorious deed.

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, NH

In Sue Matheson's The West-Hardboiled: Adaptations of Film Noir Elements, Existentialism, and Ethics in John Wayne's Westerns, Matheson presents the character of Liberty Valance as a horrible unappealing man who is heartless. A typical description of a classic western villain. "He simply does not walk like a human being; the outlaw lumbers about like an ape with his silver headed cat-o'-nine-tails while flouting all that "civilized" America holds dear(895)." The way that the character of Valance walks, dresses and speaks are all a part of the "hardboiled" western film. These characteristics of Valance fit perfectly into the character which he portrays as he is an arrogant jerk who runs things in the west that way that he sees fit and at the same time the laws just do not apply to him. "I'll teach you law-Western law" This concept of the western law does not just pertain to Valance as it also pertains to Doniphan. They both believe that a man deals with things himself and in his own way or as Matheson states "In the west, might is right(895)." The difference between Doniphan and Valance is that Valance uses the law to his advantage and he sees the west as his territory to thrive and be the big bad bully. Doniphan displays his greater moral belief when he shoots Valance and does not want any vredit for it, he only wants Stoddard to do great things for the West and make it a better place. This act of selflessness is very uncommon for the alpha-male cowboy as we dont often see John Wayne's characters looking out for everybody else. Usually it is just people close to him or a certain mission he is on. In this particular circumstance he decides to leave the fate of the West in Stoddard's hands.

Matheson refers to the character of Liberty Valance as a beast because of the way that he walks, talks and acts. At the same time he walks around in everyday normal American male clothing which does not relate very well to the way that he behaves. You would expect a man who acts in such a horrible way to look dirty and his clothing to be worn and ugly. This is a case where we see the personality of a character hidden by his appearance. At first sight Liberty Valance would look like a normal man but in reality he was the complete opposite.

The three alpha males in this film, Valance, Doniphan and Stoddard are all completely different characters. Valance and Doniphan are alpha-males through their agressive behavior and their ways of the west. Although Valance is a much more cold-hearted alpha-male than Doniphan, that does not separate the two that much. Doniphan is still a man who lived by the rules of the west and the land and he also lives a life of hardships in the west. Stoddard on the other hand is a completely different type of alpha-male. He shows that he is a strong man multiple times in the movie including when he stands up for the woman that Valance is attempting to ron and also the fact that he isnt scared to come back to a town which he left behind him with a difficult past many years prior. Out of the all three of the men, in the end Stoddard is the one who is left standing and has become very successfull. Throughout all of this it is important to keep in mind that without the help of Doniphan, his life may never have been.

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance MR

In Sue Matheson’s article The West – Hardboiled: Adaptions of Film Noir Elements, Existentialism, and Ethics in John Wayne’s Westerns, Matheson assesses Tom Doniphan and Liberty Valance as characters with very similar qualities and beliefs but go about their business in very different ways. As Matheson notes in her article, “Doniphan destroys his personal happiness by acting in good faith.” (Matheson, 897) This clearly states that Doniphan has done committed a selfless act on the behalf of someone else, something that a selfish outlaw like Liberty Valance would never do. However, as Matheson says, “Doniphon…like Valance…exhibits a highly antisocial and disordered personality.” (Matheson, 896) This point is confirmed in the film during Tom’s first interaction with Rance when he calls Rance a “tenderfoot” for refusing to carry a gun even after being robbed of all his worldly possessions before arriving in Shinbone. Clearly, while the morals, or lacks thereof, of Doniphan and Valance are much different, the ways they feel about the law are very similar. They both believe that “Out here a man settles his own problems.”

Although the characters of Valance and Doniphan are considered to be the alpha male cowboys of this film, I think that Matheson would argue that Rance Stoddard grows into an even greater alpha male cowboy than either of the other two. While Rance starts the movie as someone with a fear of carrying a gun, he develops into someone who will do what needs to be done at any time. Sure, he doesn’t have the marksman skills of Valance or Doniphan, but there is another thing that he doesn’t have that they do: Fear. Rance first displays a kernel of fearlessness when he stands up to Valance near the beginning of the movie when he is threatening a woman in the same car as he. Later, he displays that same courage during the gunfight with Valance, a fight in which he knows he will more than likely die. Finally, Rance is about to return to the east when he is nominated to Congress, not out of fear, but because he feels he does not belong there. He returns once Doniphan comes and makes him come to his senses. Liberty on the other hand shows that he fears death very much when he and his two lackeys back down from Doniphan and Pompey on multiple occasions. He is too afraid that he will lose try his luck against two other men, a fight in which the odds are on his side. Though Doniphan is not afraid of death, he is fearful of something else. He is too afraid to ask Hallie to marry him. He says throughout the movie that she is “his girl” to other people but never directly mentions it to her. This can only lead one to believe that he is afraid of what will happen if he expresses his feelings towards her. Thus, Ransom Stoddard overtakes Tom Doniphan as both the alpha male cowboy of Shinbone and of Hallie’s heart.

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance AP

In The Man who Shot Liberty Valance, both Tom Doniphon and Liberty Valance are the main alpha male cowboys. According to Matheson, they incorporated the characteristics of the villain and the hero. This movie was a perfect example of the alpha male cowboy type and even Matheson uses many scenes from the movie as examples in her article. Rance Stoddard is also mentioned in Matheson's article, when she talks about double binds and what men have to do to survive in the West.

Tom Doniphon is the alpha male cowboy, who is like the hero in this movie. From the very beginning, we can see that he has a mysterious past to him, this whole antihero apect that Matheson talks so greatly about. He is not perfect, he can be morally questionable, but nonetheless he is the hero. He is the one who saves Stoddard and essentially, all of the townspeople from Valance's terrorizing nature. Matheson would argue, however, that Doniphon really isn't much different from the villain, Liberty Valance. He is hardboiled, ready to take the law into his own hands. As he says to Stoddard, "Out here a man settles his own problems". As Matheson mentions, Doniphon is actually not too bad because he gives up his "personal happiness by acting in good faith".

Now, Liberty Valance is a perfect example of what Matheson refers to as a sociopath. He is the alpha male cowboy who dresses like a civilized American, but who acts like a beast. This is when one can see that clothes can sometimes conceal a person's true identity. Liberty Valance isn't even regarded as a "man", because he just goes around killing and hurting people. He is the alpha male cowboy who everyone wants to lose. But in order for Valance to be put to justice, another man, in this case Doniphon, has to put himself outside the law.

Lastly, one must not forget about Rance Stoddard, who isn't an alpha male cowboy but a very important man in this movie. Since he does not have this "hardboiled" look to him, Stoddard is almost always feminized in the movie. As Matheson argues, Stoddard looks like a "comical figure" when battling Valance in the street. He is not really considered a man, because he does not know how to live by the law of the gun. He is seeing in most of the movie, wearing an apron and washing dishes, while Doniphon is a masculine rancher who is dressed like a real Western man. Both Doniphon and Stoddard are caught in double binds in this movie, but Stoddard's bind is different. He has to live with the fact that everyone thinks that he is "The man who shot Liberty Valance". Stoddard really didn't kill Valance, but he placed himself outside the law to do so, but his Eastern ways just didn't help him learn the law of the gun.

These three men are supposed to be very different from each other, but Matheson points out, that they actually have some similarities. The villain, the hero and the lawyer from the East, place themselves outside the law in order to settle their problems. Nevertheless, Valance is the alpha male cowboy who deserves to be brought to justice, and that is what the other alpha male cowboy does.

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance JL

In The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Rance Stoddard come into Shinbone being the oddball. Tom Doniphon and Liberty Valance have already established their positions in the town. Where was Stoddard going to fit in?

Doniphon would be classified as hard boiled. He is not the ideal hero, he has some questionable morals, and he tends to isolate himself. He lives on a farm outside of town with Pompy, an African American, who is by his side almost always. Matheson comments that “Doniphon is callous, remorseless, and manipulative.” (896-897). She also says that both Valance and Doniphon solve their problems in the same manner (896). I do agree with this to some extenet. Valance goes looking for trouble while Doniphon tends to stay in the back drop and only acts when necessary. Doniphon doesn’t kill for the thrill of it, Valance does. However, Doniphon tends to stray away from the alpha male cowboy stereotype when Hallie comes into play. He lets the audience know his feelings for Hallie when we see that he is building onto his house for her. Hallie is Doniphon’s soft spot. Even though he has a soft spot, Matheson says that he “destroys his personal happiness by acting in good faith.” (897) This goes along with the duty-based ethics Matheson also makes reference too. Doniphon knows that Stoddard will lose to Valance yet the reason he kills Valance is the keep Hallie happy. Even though he doesn’t end up with her, he feels like it is his duty to protect her happiness.

Matheson says on page 892 “the dirtier their faces, the darker their hearts.” This is extremely true in Liberty Valance’s case. He was extremely grungy looking. Matheson makes a direct reference to Liberty Valance in her article on page 892. She says that he is “manipulatice, callous, remorseless, parasitic, pathological, liars with poor behavioral controls. I think that she hit the nail on the head with this one. When Liberty jumps Rance Stoddard in the beginning on the movie, he becomes so caught up in whipping Rance that his two sidekicks have to pull him away to stop him. This behavior is demonstrated when Liberty kill Peabody. He once again has to be dragged away from the body to stop whipping him. On 896 Matheson says “The individual does not enforce the law; he is the law.” Liberty Valance is the law in Shinbone. He has instilled a fear in everyone in the town so he can do whatever he wants. He has no morals or ethics.

When he first came to town, Rance Stoddard was all about the law. He would not be classified as hard boiled. He was the ideal Eastern American man. He was educated and was about the only man in town whom didn’t know how to shot a gun. Matheson says that “normal law-abiding citizens tend to find themselves enmeshed in situations that require them to become criminals.” (896) This is precisely what happened to Stoddard. At first he tried to convert the culture of the West into that of the East. He set up a school and let anyone who wanted to learn come in. Liberty Valance told him that when the sign he made came down, he would be leaving town. Stoddard tried to stay as true to him as he could. He put up with Valance’s banter and threats. He observed the inferiority that the marshal felt, seeing him run away from the restaurant as soon as he heard Valance’s voice. However, he realized that his way was not working in Shinbone. He decided to take up target practice. When push came to shove, Stoddard gave into the ways of Shinbone and Valance and put “himself outside the law.” (896) and “shot” Valance in cold blood. He succumbed to the ways he was preaching against.

SP Matheson

In her article, “The West Hardboiled,” Sue Matheson specifically addresses the characteristics of film noir, the hardboiled detective, and expressionism as it relates to the Western movies in which John Wayne stars. Matheson claims that throughout all of the Westerns in which Wayne plays the image of the “ideal American male” is portrayed in a unique way – an antihero in contrast to a traditional hero, who possesses dark characteristics while at the same time standing for respectable values. Tom Doniphan, in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence, “exhibits a highly antisocial and disordered personality” just as the antagonist Liberty Valence does (Matheson, 896); however, the only thing that separates Tom from being a villain is his ability to balance the degree to which he commits unethical deeds, in accordance with virtue ethics. Tom shoots people when he deems it necessary, and likewise, the audience agrees with the actions that he must take, honoring him as a hero who must work outside the law to do what is right. Matheson continues with this idea in her detailed use of the term “hardboiled” when depicting the many characters Wayne has played. In Wayne’s westerns, the alpha male cowboy rarely has any room in his heart to feel emotion, for he is tough from his thick exterior to his dense core. Matheson uses this comparison to a hardboiled egg to show that the tough-guy image each Western alpha male represents is an actual “reflect[ion of] the psychological conditions of the protagonist” (Matheson, 890). Lastly, Matheson’s incorporation of existentialist ideas coincides with the theme of film noir, supporting the notion that “the world is ultimately corrupt and corrupting,” which causes “normally law-abiding citizens […] to find themselves enmeshed in situations that require them to become criminals” (Matheson, 896). Ultimately, Matheson suggests that an overlaying theme carries through all of Wayne’s westerns, which is that the typical alpha male, cowboy hero is corrupted and forced to play on the level of the villain, but still manages to be the most popular American icon for men for years past and years to come.

Blog #2 Matheson BD

In her article “the West-Hardboiled: Adaptations of Film Noir Elements, Existentialism, and Ethics in John Wayne’s Westerns,” Sue Matheson makes it very clear that there are two different types: traditional westerns and Wayne’s Westerns. In Wayne’s Western, the main character is that of an alpha male. He is the one to lead, to look up to, and too handle the dangerous business himself. However, this alpha male is also what is referred to as a hardboiled character; one who is dark, disturbed, showing little outside emotion and being callous and cold. The character that Wayne plays displays this hardboiled mentality with such conviction that it has influenced men of all stature to idolize him and, in some cases, even imitate him.

Another main point brought up by Matheson is that the films in which John Wayne appears are considered to be film noir, which adds a dark element to the film as a whole, not just the character. They contain “claustrophobic rooms, labyrinthine alleyways, and dripping, dank cities act as metaphors that reflect the psychological conditions of their protagonists” (Matheson 890). These films are portrayed this way in order to make a point about the society at the time in which they were filmed. Since these films are made post-World War II and during the height of the cold war, they effectively show that society no longer has any of its innocence and that everything in it is corrupt. Man has become more savage in this time and is less concerned with domesticating nature into a more civilized manner.

As well as John Wayne’s characters, Matheson details what the other characters in the westerns are represented by. The characters in Wayne’s Westerns are not considered ethical by any means or any time. These people follow no laws and create their own justice. The characters are described as the dirtier and grimier they are, the few morals they have. But there is also another side of that being that the fancier and better dressed a character is the more corrupt and unethical the character is.

Existentialism is also a theme that is prevalent in Wayne’s westerns. The main character is trying to benefit him and make life better. However, being that these are darker westerns, the character must go about it in a more unethical fashion.

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Sue Matheson has some very opinionated views concerning the connection between the alpha male cowboy and the western, and the film noir genre. While I do not necessarily agree with all of her conclusions, she does bring up some very interesting points regarding the role of the alpha male cowboy in film, and in our lives as viewers. For her, John Wayne, the epitome of the alpha male cowboy, still lives on, relevant even today, perhaps larger than life in some ways. And in some ways, she is correct. The ideals that were held by his characters are ideals we wish to have today. Although some have no place in our society, such as the concept of might is right, and the idea of living outside of and above the law, she is right in saying that the world, whether experienced through our own eyes or those of the characters on screen, is not an easy place to live. The setting of the western shows us the inner workings of the alpha male cowboy. He is placed in the harshest of environments because that is where he is most suited, much like the dark alleys of the film noir genre suit the grizzled detective. Likewise, the cowboy often finds himself in the double bind which is so characteristic of film noir.

Matheson makes the alpha male cowboy into something more than just a settler, or a cowboy. He is our expectations for ourselves, to be wild without losing that which attracts others to us. He can turn his vices into virtues, allowing things like abandoning family or lying to become something which is somehow not only acceptable, but good. He has a sense of purpose, one that cannot be held back by those things that the viewer has to go back to at the end of the film.