What is the significance of the election in "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance"?

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What is the significance of the election in "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance"? Why were the rich ranchers so excited about the territory's independence that they were hiring outlaws to influence the vote?

How was sending a representative to Washington DC affecting their business?



Best Answer

The election in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance represented the change from men like Tom (John Wayne) who dealt with problems with his hands or his guns and the future where men such as Jimmy Stewart (the protagonist) an attorney represented the future "legal" changes that were going occur in the West.

Why the wealthy ranchers and businessmen were so eager to "steal" the election is that was how they were going to be able to hold on to their gains. In America's Wild West, many people became wealthy through using corrupt methods such stealing land claims and cheating the rightful owners out of their stakes. To change from doing these things to stealing elections weren't seen as being major steps by those same men.




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What is the message in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance?

That single quote, uttered by newspaperman Maxwell Scott (Carlton Young), encapsulates the primary theme of John Ford's last great Western, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Truth is only meaningful as long as it agrees with what the public wants to hear. When heroes don't exist, it is necessary to invent them.

Why was The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance in black and white?

It has also been suggested that since both John Wayne and James Stewart were playing characters 30 years younger than their actual age (Wayne was 54 when the movie was filmed in the autumn of 1961 and Stewart was 53), the movie needed to be in black and white because they would never have gotten away with it in color.

What year does The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance take place?

In 1910, Sen. Ranse Stoddard and his wife, Hallie, arrive in the small town of Shinbone to attend the funeral of Tom Doniphon.

What happened to Tom Doniphon in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance?

By killing Liberty Valance, facilitating Stoddard's rise to political prominence and the progressive modernization of the West, Doniphon destroys himself. Hallie, once Tom's girl, has fallen in love with Stoddard, and in sparing him, Doniphon loses her.



The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance speech




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