The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance - Mark Miller

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is a very interesting movie, as it has two rival alpha male cowboys, Tom Doniphon and Liberty Valance, and a man who is essentially an anti-cowboy, Ransom Stoddard. Matheson would characterize the two alpha male cowboys, Tom Doniphon and Liberty Valance, as sociopaths. It is easy to see how Matheson’s assessment would apply to Liberty Valance ,as he is the “typical” villain that she describes in her article, The West-Hardboiled: Adaptations of Film Noir Elements Existentialism, and Ethics in John Wayne’s Westerns, as Valance attempts to shoot at every problem he encounters before trying to solve it by other means, and at the same time, pushing away every person away that has every been close, or at least attempted to be, to him (except his ‘gang’). Matheson’s assessment toward Tom Doniphon would be the same as it is for all her hero cowboys, a sociopath misfit due to the profession that he has chosen. Sue Matheson often criticizes the protagonist of famous Western films, but in this case it is different as Sue Matheson would not be able to criticize Ransom Stoddard as he stands for everything that Matheson wishes the cowboy would become; dedicated to his family and always trying to solve problems in a non-violent way (mostly through law), rather than looking to shoot it, with the only thing consistent and faithful in a cowboy’s life, his gun.