The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance-C. Phelps

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance has two alpha male cowboys (Tom Doniphon and Liberty Valance) and a lawyer from the East (Ransom Stoddard). Liberty Valance is a"psychopath" in Sue Matheson's eyes. His "behavior is beastly" (Matheson, The West-Hardboiled, 2005, 4). I agree with this analysis. But, I do not agree with her analysis of Tom Doniphon. She compares Doniphon to Valance as if they are the same: "there really is very little difference between Doniphon and Liberty Valance" (Matheson, The West-Hardboiled, 2005, 5). I think this movie represents three levels of moral conduct. Valance is a psychopath, Doniphon is amoral and Stoddard immoral. I can see her point about Doniphon not being concerned with being a cold-blooded killer, but he was defending another. In one scene, Valance rides off shooting his gun randomly at the Shinbone citizens. Doniphon would not do that. In his own moral world, that would be wrong. As with Stoddard, he knows that allowing people to think he shot Liberty Valance is wrong but can justify it. He is making the "world" a better place. I think there is a moral difference between all three characters. When it comes down to it, they all used a gun to solve their problems, but in very different ways.