The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and El Dorado
2009, Paramount Centennial Collection, two disks each, $24.99 each.
These classic 1960s Westerns share a larger-than-life John Wayne. In The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), the Duke plays Tom Doniphon, the toughest hombre around, who serves as the fast gun behind Ransom Stoddard (Jimmy Stewart), the man most everyone thinks actually shot villain Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin). In El Dorado (1967), Wayne plays Cole Thornton, again the toughest man around, who comes to the aid of alcoholic sheriff J.P. Harrah (Robert Mitchum). Wayne fans will love both pictures. He’s far more intriguing as Doniphon but more colorful and typically himself as Thornton.
Two of the great Western directors are behind these pictures. John Ford is at his finest with The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, ranked the third best Western of all time in the recent Weider History Group special publication 100 Greatest Westerns. Shot in black and white, the picture is a bittersweet look at the Wild West era. It features perhaps the most quoted line from any Western: “This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.” Facts, myths and legends intermingle in this winning-and-losing-of the-West masterpiece.
Director Howard Hawks, known for the great Red River (1948), also had a hit in El Dorado, which shares many similarities with his earlier film Rio Bravo (1959), featuring Wayne as the sheriff and costarring Dean Martin, Walter Brennan and Ricky Nelson. Critics seem to prefer Rio Bravo, though each movie entertains with welcome touches of humor. It largely comes down to who you would rather spend a couple of hours with—Martin or Mitchum —since you get a large dose of Wayne in both. Certainly El Dorado is pure gold compared to Rio Lobo (1970), the third film in Hawks’ town sheriff trilogy.
Originally published in the August 2009 issue of Wild West. To subscribe, click here.
