The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
1962, NR, 123 min.
D: John Ford; with James Stewart, John Wayne, Vera Miles, Lee Marvin.

Arguably,the best John Ford film ever, certainly one the very best, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is an American classic. This is the movie that uses the now-famous line: “When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.” Ford addresses the complexity of heroism in a poetic manner.

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Marjorie Baumgarten is a film critic and contributing writer at The Austin Chronicle, where she has worked in many capacities since the paper's founding in 1981. She served as the Chronicle's Film Reviews editor for 25 years.