John Wayne and James Stewart worked on a handful of Western movies together, but their best collaboration was also their first. Both John Wayne and James Stewart are legends of Hollywood, and they were at the height of their popularity in the early 1960s. Some of the movies that defined John Wayne’s career came in that decade, as did some of James Stewart’s best films. Since they were so popular, it seemed almost inevitable that Wayne and Stewart would work together, and they finally got their chance in 1962.
In total, John Wayne and James Stewart starred in three films together. Wayne and Stewart worked with Henry Fonda in the three-hour epic How the West Was Won, and they also co-starred in Wayne’s final film, The Shootist. Both of those movies were tremendous, but they weren’t the best work the two actors did together. That honor goes to their first collaboration, which also happened to be one of the least typical Westerns they made. John Wayne and James Stewart’s best film together was none other than The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance Was Wayne & Stewart’s First Western Team-Up – What It’s About
The first time James Stewart and John Wayne co-starred in a Western together was in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance in 1962. Stewart played Ransom Stoddard, a former lawyer who became a U.S. Senator, while Wayne played Tom Doniphon, a rancher who was handy with a gun. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance starts with Ransom returning to the town of Shinbone for Tom’s funeral, but most of the movie is a flashback to when the two met. Back then, Ransom was just a young lawyer looking to begin his practice, and Tom helped him out after he was mugged by the local outlaw: Liberty Valance.
As the title suggests, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is about answering the question of who actually shot the outlaw: Tom or Ransom. Such a simple question, however, got very complicated over the course of the film. By the twist ending of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, it seemed Ransom had killed the outlaw, but it turned out that Tom actually pulled the trigger. Though he didn’t actually kill the man, Ransom was the one who benefited, as he stole Tom’s girlfriend, Hallie, and became a Senator, while Tom fell into a depression and died poor and alone.
Who Else Was In The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
While Wayne and Stewart were the main attraction, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance had a very deep cast of talented actors. Lee Marvin, who is now most known for his war movies like The Dirty Dozen and The Professionals, played the titular outlaw, Liberty Valance. He gave a great performance as the local bully and villain, and it was one of his first major movies before his true breakout role in Cat Ballou. Vera Miles, the star of Psycho, also starred in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, where she played Hallie, the former girlfriend of Tom and present-day wife of Ransom.
Why The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance Is John Wayne & James Stewart’s Best Western Together
Though The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance was John Wayne and James Stewart’s first time working together on a Western, it was also their best outing. Wayne and Stewart went on to do two more Westerns together: How the West Was Won and The Shootist. While those are both great films, they pale in comparison to The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Wayne and Stewart’s first collaboration was far from an action-packed Western shooter like their other films, but it was probably their most complex, deep, and morally intriguing film together.
It’s hard to boil down what makes The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance so good simply because it did so many things tremendously well.
It’s hard to boil down what makes The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance so good simply because it did so many things tremendously well. Both Wayne and Stewart’s characters were exactly in their wheelhouse as actors, and they were both at their absolute best in playing them. The titular mystery of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is also such a compelling hook for a film, and it raises so many intriguing questions. It’s a study of things like stolen valor and the price of making a noble choice, and that twist made the film’s already compelling characters into endlessly deep questions to ponder.
In essence, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is just a Western that fires on all cylinders at all times. If it wasn’t, there’s no way it could have become the best collaboration between legends as big as James Stewart and John Wayne. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is well worth a watch, if for no other reason than to see where the legendary pairing of John Wayne and James Stewart began, and where it peaked.