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 w
hich 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.
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.
ReplyDeleteTom 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 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.
ReplyDeleteMatheson's characterization of these three roles seems to be right on. Doniphan's character is in line with the classic clean cut alpha male cowboy Matheson describes. Valance represents the classic villain Matheson describes with a grimy face and dirty clothes, and lastly her description of a "dandy" is in tune with Stoddard's eastern educated character.