“One of Ford’s least typical westerns- a film of darkness and interiors…probably more close-ups in Liberty Valance than in all of Ford’s 1940s westerns combined.”
-Joseph McBride
NARRATIVE CONSIDERATIONS:
-“This is the West…When the legend becomes fact, print the legend!
Wilderness / Garden?
Fact / Legend ? Savagery/ Civilization?
Cactus / Rose?
-The stock company revisited (half the Jorgensons; Buck and Hatfield, etc.)
STYLISTIC CONSIDERATIONS:
-Some lighting gems recalling My Darling Clementine’s sun rising at the OK Corral:
-Peabody turning on lamp at office and revealing Valance and his minions
-Match lighting and match-cutting
-Iron Horse opening and closing shots
-Affectatious acting and B-movie exterior sets?
Pining for Monument Valley – the true “garden”Sample Solution