Which 1962 film starring John Wayne and James Stewart is set in the Old West?

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is the 1962 Western starring John Wayne and James Stewart. Directed by John Ford, it follows lawyer Ransom “Ranse” Stoddard, who arrives in the frontier town of Shinbone and confronts the violent outlaw Liberty Valance.

The film is structured around a flashback: an older Stoddard returns for the funeral of rancher Tom Doniphon and recounts how his public reputation was shaped by the famous gunfight. Wayne plays Doniphon, while Stewart plays Stoddard; Lee Marvin portrays the title villain. Their pairing is sometimes confused with other Wayne Westerns such as Rio Bravo or El Dorado, but neither features Stewart in this central role.

Unlike a straightforward action Western, the film examines how communities create legends and how political progress can depend on stories that are only partly true. It was shot in black and white, adapted from a 1953 short story by Dorothy M. Johnson, and was selected for the National Film Registry in 2007.