The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance - HMB

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance has three strong male characters, Tom Doniphon (John Wayne), Ransom "Rance" Stoddard (James Stewart), and Liberty Valance (Lee Martin). Doniphon and Valance can be considered to be the two alpha male cowboys of the storyline while Stoddard is the civilized man thrown into the mix.

Matheson describes Libery Valance as a "severely disabled psychopath" someone is is "manipulative, callous, remorseless..." (Matheson 892). This assement of Valance seems dead on. In the movie he shows his manipulation everytime he shows up in town, even the shariff doesn't dare confront this man. Valance's lack of remorse is apparent on several occasions throughout the movie. On two accounts he is whipping a defenseless man and would not have ceased to stop besides for the fact that one of his sidekicks pulls him away. During his final scene Valance is shown mocking Doniphon before he attempts to murder him. Valance is never seen showing regret in any fashion throughout the movie.

"There is very little difference between Doniphon and Liberty Valance" (Matheson 896) claims Matheson. That actually Doniphon is his own "moral center" because he can "live with the fact that he cold-bloodedly murdred another human being" (Matheson 896). Matheson even goes as far as to describe Doniphon with the same characteristics that make Valance a psychopath. I disagree with this assesment. Although Doniphon is his own moral center, doing what he believes is right and acting as someone above the law, he doesn't feel unremorseful. His place catching fire is symbolic of his remorse, and the regret he feels about his hand in the death of Valance. Whether he burns down the house because he knows he lost the girl or because he feels guilty about taking a life in cold blood, his remorse is still there. And that feeling is exactly what sets him apart from Valance.

Stoddard ends up placing himself on the other side of the law, just like the two alpha male cowboys. He has the morals of the law holding him back to a point, but at the end of the day he gets a gun in order to "settle his problem with Valance like 'a man'" (Matheson 896). Showing that the west way of thinking corrupts even those who started out with civilized values.