In the American West at the end of the 19th century, cowboys and Indians, the law of the gun where trouble was settled in a dusty street by two men, at high noon, by whoever could draw their Colt six-shooter the fastest. Fearful townspeople, hired gunslingers, marauding gangs of outlaws waylaying stagecoaches and trains, the lone sheriff with his tin star standing firm, the hanging tree. All of these images are deeply embedded in the American psyche when thinking about “how the West was won,” placed there by the uniquely American art form, the Western movie. In the film The Man Who Shot LibertyValance, these images form the backdrop of a film that is much more nuanced. This is not a movie about good vs. evil as so many Westerns are; it is about life, the inherent unfairness of it all, and how stories, real or imagined, become more important than the objective truth.
