Close-up on the COWBOY

The Cowboy as the American Hero: a study through The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance by John Ford (1962)

He is the good guy, brave and tough, who plays by the rules of the West and believes in "natural" justice (an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth), as opposed to laws and institutional justice with trials and lawyers, etc... like Tom Doniphon, played by John Wayne, who even wears all the artefacts (costume: hat, guns, boots and spurs). The very same cowboy we meet again in Toy Story, one might add, paired up with another symbolic American hero, the astronaut!

We are talking about cowboys in classical westerns, a hero and a MYTH, a person who probably never really existed since we know that real life cowboys were hired hands on farms, did a job not many people wanted to do and probably led a difficult life, but hardly a heroic one...

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) by John Ford, starring James Stewart and John Wayne

extract 1 - Ransom Stoddard, Attorney at Law: extract1

extract 2 - the Shooting: extract2

extract 3 - Print the Legend: extract3

More than a cowboy, Liberty Valance, the villain, is an outlaw, a renegade and a character who does not play by the rules since he has none. He is Doniphon's nemesis until Doniphon finally kills him, though not in a heroic way, which triggers his downfall as the hero... until his own death, lonely and forgotten. Tom's death is the metaphorical death of the cowboy as the American hero.

They both belong to the Old West, like two sides of the same coin, whereas Stoddard comes from the East. Ransom Stoddard may not have actually killed Liberty Valance, but he has killed the cowboy as a hero figure and buried the Wild West.

Spaghetti Westerns, examples:

extract 1 - Once Upon A Time In the West (1968) by Sergio Leone: OpeningScene

extract 2 - The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) - spoiler!!!: ThreeWayStandoff

extract 3 - The Good, etc... - "When you have to shoot, shoot": shoot

The other cowboy we are used to, a kind of anti-hero, the good guy deep inside but with many flaws, who can cheat and rob and lie to get to his goal, is the one who appeared later thanks to European cinema and Spaghetti Westerns, and more often than not played by Clint Eastwood in Sergio Leone's films.

Ms Lacombe

A QUIZ about the New York Times' critic's video on The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.

You need to watch the video first:

a- VIDEO: NYTcritics

b- QUIZ: QuizNYTcritics