64 Years Later, John Wayne's Masterpiece Still Has The Most Powerful Ending Quote In Movie History

John Wayne starred in many classic Westerns throughout his career, and one of his masterpieces has not only one of the best ending quotes in movie history but also serves as a true example of the revisionist Western. Wayne starred in more successful Westerns than most iconic actors from his era, including several by auteur John Ford.

One of these movies came out in 1962, when John Ford cast John Wayne and James Stewart as the co-leads in the film, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. The movie had Wayne starring as a rancher named Tom Doniphon, while James Stewart played a young lawyer. It was Stewart who responded to one of the best ending lines in film history.

John Wayne's The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance Remains A Masterpiece

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance was a Western with a message that was rare for a John Wayne movie. The film opened with U.S. Senator Ransom Stoddard, who returned to a small Western town to attend the funeral of a rancher named Tom Doniphon. When asked why, he told a reporter his story.

Stewart played a meek but honest and hardworking young attorney who found himself in the crosshairs of an infamous outlaw named Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin). Ransom wants to bring Liberty Valance to justice, but everyone knows this means he will likely end up dead before that happens.

This is where Tom Doniphon comes into the picture. Tom warns Ransom about what he can expect from Liberty Valance, and when Liberty humiliates the young lawyer, Ransom stands up to the outlaw. This impresses Tom, who agrees to help teach Ransom how to shoot a gun to defend himself.

The entire movie is about Ransom preparing for his climactic standoff with Liberty Valance, something he has no chance of winning without help. However, when the two men face off, Ransom is able to draw his gun, fire it, and Liberty Valance falls dead on the spot. However, there was more to the story than that.

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance Ends On A Perfect Quote

After Liberty Valance's death, Ransom became a celebrity for killing the dangerous outlaw, and it helped him rise in the political ranks. When he was nominated as a delegate to the territorial convention, he said he wouldn't accept because he didn't want to be a politician based on having murdered a man, feeling guilty even though he was defending himself.

That is when Tom showed up and told him the truth. Yes, Ransom fired his gun, but it came nowhere close to Liberty Valance. Tom knew that Ransom wouldn't hit the outlaw, and he had fired from the shadows at the same time that Ransom fired his shot. It was Tom Doniphon who killed Liberty Valance.

However, Tom asked Ransom to hide this fact because he was needed in politics. He wanted Ransom to take the credit, and he didn't mind staying in the background, even if he would die as a forgotten rancher years later. Ransom did so, but in the movie's present day, he told the reporter the truth and said to do with it what he wanted.

However, the editor refuses to print the story, saying, "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend." Then, in one of the best ending lines in movie history, as Ransom is leaving town and gets on the train, the conductor says, "Nothing's too good for the man who shot Liberty Valance."

This Brilliant Quote Signifies The Revisionist Western Genre

These two quotes go hand-in-hand and tell the real story behind the movie, which is a perfect look at what the revisionist Western genre lives and dies on. In most Westerns, there is a hero or an antihero who comes in and saves the day. They are then rewarded for their efforts, and the movie ends with their exploits celebrated.

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance turned that entire idea on its head. Ransom was never the hero. He was a victim who would have died if Tom hadn't fired the shot that killed Liberty Valance. Yet Ransom became a beloved hero, and Tom died a forgotten rancher whom no one knew anything about. The real hero died without a legacy.

When the editor said, "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend," that is the exact description of most John Wayne Westerns. The Native Americans were killers, the settlers were all good men, and the Wild West was a glamorous location where white men thrived. That is far from the truth.

Later in Wayne's career, he began to drift from that. In The Searchers, he played a man with a dark heart who lived with intense racial hatred. By the film's end, he was shut out from his family. In The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, a man took credit for something he didn't do, committing stolen valor, and became a success because of it.

Clint Eastwood began to change things even more when he arrived on the scene, which rubbed John Wayne the wrong way. However, when looking at Eastwood's Westerns, it was easy to see how John Wayne was beginning to do the same thing, even if he didn't see it himself.

The final line, "Nothing's too good for the man who shot Liberty Valance," drove it home to Ransom. He knew that he had an unearned reputation, and Tom sacrificed his future to keep it a secret. Like the best revisionist Westerns, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is about half-truths and the mythology of the Old West.