Delayed Reaction: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

The Pitch: John Ford wants to make another western. Someone call John Wayne. And let's see if Jimmy Stewart is busy.

How I Came Into It: The number of old westerns, John Wayne movies, Jimmy Stewart movies, or John Ford movies I've seen is pathetic. I went looking for The Searchers* and found this instead. I've heard great things about both.

*Thanks, Disney's The Great Movie Ride.

Why I Saw It: I love what this has to say about building a myth. I have to believe the line that inspired the rest of the movie was "when legend becomes fact, print the legend". Not everything about this has aged well, but the core still works very well. Sadly, I had the twist spoiled for me beforehand. That didn't change the effectiveness of it though. The movie even finds a way to make voting for representatives interesting.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: I won't say that it has pacing issues, but it's definitely hard to adapt to the pace of it all. Mostly, I wish I would've kept a tally of the number of times John Waynes says "pilgrim".

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend