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The Third Man (Criterion Blu-ray)
This title in particular has been the subject of a good deal of controversy on Elsewhere (among other sites), message boards, and email lists across the web. No one seems to talk about much aside from the "Grain Issue." Since the grain (or overabundance thereof) is the obvious elephant in the room, I'm going to address it before getting on to the additional content on display here, of which there is much to see and thoroughly enjoy. (continued)

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"Valance" at the Wilder

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Director Curtis Hanson hosted an L.A. Film Festival screening last night at the Armand Hammer Museum's Billy Wilder theatre of John Ford's The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. I slipped into the theatre right after the exploitation films panel around 8:30 and caught the last 25 or 30 minutes, and then I sat through the post-screening discussion between Hanson and L.A. Weekly critic Scott Foundas. Variety critic Robert Koehler was also in attendance.

The scratch-free 35mm print was from John Wayne's private collection, Hanson said. It looked great, although it didn't seem to have that super-silvery sheen and needle-sharp focus that I've gotten off viewings of the Paramount Home Video DVD.

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance was critically dismissed for the most part when it opened in April 1962. N.Y. Times critic Bosley Crowther called it "creaky" and declared it proof that "the western, ravaged by repetition and television, has begun to show signs of age...[a] basically honest, rugged and mature saga has been sapped of a great deal of effect by an obvious, overlong and garrulous anticlimax."

It didn't make very much money either, and the reasons weren't hard to figure. Ford shot Valance in black and white, and most of it on a somewhat echo-y sound stage. It's very talky for a western. James Stewart and John Wayne are both 20 years too old to be playing their parts. And it's basically an old man's movie -- an elegy for bygone times and regrettably false legends.

But elite critics starting calling it an absolute classic about 30 years ago. Transformers fans will never, ever rent the DVD, but every serious film critic from Maine to San Diego will tell you it's one of Ford's very best -- his saddest and most personal film ever, and worthy of the highest respect.

I don't dispute this for a second. You can talk about this film for hours and never run out of new things to discover or re-review. I've seen Liberty Valance many, many times on the tube, and I absolutely love the transfer on the most recent DVD.

But the older I've gotten (and I've said this before), the more trouble I've had with Ford's sentimental cornball streak. The man's affection for actorly colorfulness among his supporting players seems to get worse every time I re-watch one of his films. Andy Devine's performance in Liberty Valance as a cowardly, squealy- voiced sheriff is, for me, 90% torture. (His one good scene is in the very beginning when he takes Vera Miles out to visit Wayne's burned-down ranch.) Edmond O'Brien's alcoholic newspaper editor is a problem performance also. The movie is littered with them.

As Newsweek critic Malcom Jones observed in March 2006, Ford's movies "are a little antique, a little prim."

The irony, of course, is that despite the irritating aspects, The Man Who Shot LIberty Valance becomes a greater and greater film with each re-viewing. Some- thing majestic and touching and compassionate seems to come out in greater and greater relief. Genius-level films always gain over the years, but to my surprise I was almost moved to tears last night -- and this stagey monochrome oater has never quite melted me before. Go figure.

Sunday morning verdict<< previous | next >>Roth shocking & awe-ing

Posted by Jeffrey Wells on July 1, 2007 at 9:37 AM

comment #1

erniesouchak says ...

I recognize its weak points but I have loved this movie for years. "Print the legend."

Posted by erniesouchak at July 1, 2007 11:13 AM

comment #2

dangovich says ...

Ford could be a more-than-a-little hokey at times, but he had the greatest sense of composition of any director I've seen.

Posted by dangovich at July 1, 2007 11:54 AM

comment #3

CambridgeCat says ...

One of my favorite moments in cinema is in this movie. It's the scene where Jimmy Stewart is serving steaks and Liberty is antagonizing him, going so far as to trip him while he tries to deliver a meal. John Wayne stands up and challenges Valance, who tells him to mind his own business to which Wayne says "It was my steak, Liberty." Classic.

Posted by CambridgeCat at July 1, 2007 12:16 PM

comment #4

LYTrules says ...

"Transformers fans will never, ever rent the DVD"

I liked Transformers, but the only reason I wouldn't rent the DVD of Liberty Valance is that I've already seen it -- and also, it's on cable quite a bit.

My DVD rentals tend to be things I haven't seen; I assume that's true for most people.

Posted by LYTrules at July 1, 2007 1:31 PM

comment #5

George Prager says ...

My DVD rentals are 50/50 movies I haven't seen and movies I haven't seen on DVD.

Now what I would really like to see is a screening (or a DVD) of Hanson's first movie SWEET KILL a.k.a. THE AROUSERS (which I saw on video once in 1993).

Posted by George Prager at July 1, 2007 1:42 PM

comment #6

jeffmcm says ...

I'm a Transformers fan (cartoon, not the new one) and I own the DVD of TMWSLV.

Posted by jeffmcm at July 1, 2007 1:59 PM

comment #7

Cadavra says ...

It's also one of Wayne's most underrated performances, moving from happy-go-lucky cowpoke to embittered drunk (and all stops in-between) in less than two hours.

Posted by Cadavra at July 1, 2007 3:36 PM

comment #8

lionsfan says ...

"Sentimental cornball streak?" What on earth is wrong with that? Especially when compared to the "hip" version of same, as seen in all of Soderbergh's "Ocean's..." movies but at its snide worst in "Ocean's Thirteen." One of John Ford's glories is that even as he moved to tell a story in crisp, linear fashion ("Sergeant Rutledge" is something of an exception, of course), he also took the time to give members of his road company little bits of business to do. To sort of justify their paychecks as for more than serving as his drinking buddies, I suppose, but also to flesh out their characters. But Soderbergh, by contrast, is too "cool" for character concerns, thus simply lets the 11 or 12 or 13 (who certainly constitute his own road company these days) collect paychecks for merely being pretty. Andy Garcia, for example, serves basically the same function as Grant Withers did in Ford's movies, and while he's prettier, he's not as good at it as Withers was. And Matt Damon, in this vein, reminds of a long line of Ford worthies from Pedro Armendariz on up through Ben Johnson, but at least all of them were, unlike Damon, believable in action movies.

So lay off the "sentimental streak" stuff. Properly applied, as it was by both Ford and Peckinpah, it was fine.

Posted by lionsfan at July 1, 2007 4:43 PM

comment #9

Doug Pratt says ...

Not to change the subject too much, but everything about Ford's The Grapes of Wrath suggests that it should be a total bore--Ford's sentimentality, Steinbeck's bleeding heart, and all that union stuff and suffering during the Depression and so on--and yet every time I watch it I am spellbound from the first frame to the last.

Posted by Doug Pratt at July 1, 2007 6:30 PM

comment #10

lipranzer says ...

I don't mind the sentiment in Liberty Valance, and I certainly think this ranks as one of Wayne's best performances, right behind The Searchers, Red River, and The Quiet Man. But I maintain James Stewart was not only too old for his part, but he had put a lot of distance between himself and that part thanks to his movies with Alfred Hitchcock and Anthony Mann. Had they made the film 15 years earlier with the same two leads, it would have been much better, IMHO.

Posted by lipranzer at July 1, 2007 7:41 PM

comment #11

BurmaShave says ...

Not a single thing lionsfan said made any sense. Clearly this modern world is really too much for him. He needs about five Ron Howard movies, stat!

Posted by BurmaShave at July 2, 2007 7:38 AM

comment #12

Filipe says ...

I know this a popular legend, but The Man Who shot Liberty Valance was not a flop. It grossed $3.25m domestic on 1962 which was pretty good for a moderate budget western in 1962, if below Wayne usual gross. The more careful research on Ford (for example Joseph McBride bio) always points that it actually did well with audience, but the press keep repeating the myth (BTW, The Searchers, which is also always described as a flop, was #13 in 1956 box-office).

Posted by Filipe at July 2, 2007 8:04 AM

comment #13

lionsfan says ...

I've seen quite a few Ron Howard movies, BurmaShave. All of them totally lacking in anything resembling genuine emotional resonance. If this is the modern world you prefer, you're also much welcome to it.

Worst of all movies by Howard? A tie between "The Da Vinci Code" and "The Missing," I think. Both are idiotic products, so shoddily set up and directed as to call into question little Ronnie's march into adulthood.

Posted by lionsfan at July 2, 2007 11:23 AM

comment #14