The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance rating: IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic

IMDb8.1/10· 88K votes

Rotten Tomatoes95%

Metacritic94%

TMDb7.825/10· 1K votes

With 95% on Rotten Tomatoes, backed by 8.1/10 on IMDb and 94/100 on Metacritic, critical reception of this film has been very positive.

About The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

Questions arise when Senator Stoddard attends the funeral of a local man named Tom Doniphon in a small Western town. Flashing back, we learn Doniphon saved Stoddard, then a lawyer, when he was roughed up by a crew of outlaws terrorizing the town, led by Liberty Valance. As the territory's safety hung in the balance, Doniphon and Stoddard, two of the only people standing up to him, proved to be very important, but different, foes to Valance.

Cast of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

• 

  John Wayne

  as Tom Doniphon

• 

  James Stewart

  as Ransom Stoddard

• 

  Vera Miles

  as Hallie Stoddard

• 

  Lee Marvin

  as Liberty Valance

• 

  Edmond O'Brien

  as Dutton Peabody

• 

  Andy Devine

  as Link Appleyard

• 

  Ken Murray

  as Doc Willoughby

• 

  John Carradine

  as Cassius Starbuckle

• 

  Jeanette Nolan

  as Nora Ericson

• 

  John Qualen

  as Peter Ericson

• 

  Willis Bouchey

  as Jason Tully

• 

  Carleton Young

  as Maxwell Scott

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance facts

Budget

$3.2M

Box office

$8M

Our take on The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

John Ford's 1962 western unpacks a legend in flashback: how a tenderfoot lawyer became famous for killing a brutal outlaw, and the truth behind the myth. Elegiac and quietly subversive, it's a meditation on civilisation, courage and the stories the West tells about itself. If its mournful grandeur and moral nuance gripped you, seek out classic westerns that interrogate heroism rather than simply celebrate it.