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 two alpha males cowboys 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.
ReplyDeleteHowever, 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.