The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

So now I’m on a movie kick. These things happen. TiVo needs a Wishlist option based on star ratings, so I would always have 10 ***+ movies sitting around for me to watch. Much better than reruns. I find I can’t really stand Jimmy Stewart when he’s doing the Jimmy Stewart voice, but I really … Continue reading “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance”

So now I’m on a movie kick. These things happen. TiVo needs a Wishlist option based on star ratings, so I would always have 10 ***+ movies sitting around for me to watch. Much better than reruns.

I find I can’t really stand Jimmy Stewart when he’s doing the Jimmy Stewart voice, but I really liked the other leads and even the bit characters seemed good. It’s not like it was just the obvious people – Liberty Valance was great till his end and Dutton Peabody’s speech at the territory convention was by far his best moment.

You could see the swerve coming, but I don’t think it’s as much expected that sort of things nowadays, because they clearly wanted the audience to wonder about the specifics of it for the twenty minutes before it’s confirmed. Even at the end, you’re left to decide for yourself if Hallie knew what really happened that day, though thinking back at the pre-flashback portions of the show, it now seems pretty obvious that she did.

The school scene was probably the slowest part of the movie, but just as much for how they got there as anything; the movie skipping three weeks ahead was jarring, especially since the movie doesn’t let you know it happened until the tail end of the scene. It was almost worth it for the “a lot of people forget that part of it” line.

The metaphors they were making were so obvious, I think I got them. Who names their kid Ransom, anyway?

My TiVo’s got High Noon, The Searches, and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon waiting for me, an odd collection of movies I haven’t seen. Instead, I’ll likely be watching AAA Lucha Libre (or football) tomorrow. Don’t be like me.

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