All Quiet on the Western Front

SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed. 

All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) on the Oscar for Best Motion Picture. It remains one of the best dramatic depictions of the horror of war. The opening note states the film is trying “to tell of a generation of men, even though they may have escaped its shells, were destroyed by the war.”

The film begins in Germany. It is interesting that the perspective is from the enemy of the allies. It creates understanding that war is horrible to the youth of any country. Here, there is a feeling of patriotism as soldiers march through the streets with cheers from the populace. Professor Kantorek (Arnold Lucy) exhorts his students to be patriotic and wishes that they would enlist to fight for “the fatherland.” That paternal influence carries over as a student imagines coming home in a military uniform. The mother is frightened for her child, while the father smiles with pride. Thus, there is an immediate indictment of men as supporters of warfare. The voiceover from the professor says, “Are your mothers so weak that they cannot send a son to defend the land which gave them birth?” That statement is false, since it is the mother who gave birth, not the country. The film satirically shows the feeling at the time that weakness, not love and compassion, seem to define motherhood.

Other students picture being adored by women and received as heroes. Kantorek, abusing his position to manipulate innocent youths, goes on to say that he believes the war will be quick with not that many casualties. Boy, was he wrong about WWI. As to those that do fall in battle, he translates a Latin phrase that says, “Sweet and fitting it is to die for the fatherland.” The film suggests that kind of patriotism is just a rationalization to have young men sacrifice themselves. Although acknowledging that one young man there has the talent to become a great writer, Paul Baumer (Lew Ayres), the professor says that personal ambitions must be sacrificed for the country. And using that propaganda a country seduces many youths into sacrificing themselves for what in the end was no good reason. However, one student, Behn (Walter Rogers) cries, probably realizing the horror of confronting death in war.

The others see Paul as a leader and when he succumbs to the patriotic call, the others ride the wave of peer pressure, saying they will enlist. That pressure even convinces the reluctant Behn to join them. The empty classroom after they leave feels like a graveyard for lost possibilities.

In the barracks the young men are pumped up with adrenalin as they think about participating in battles to come, like school children wanting to play make-believe games. Himmelstoss (John Wray), who used to be the town postman, is now their commander, since he was in the reserves. He bullies the group as he puts them through degrading training. The story shows how power can warp the ego and convince a person that one’s self-importance overshadows all others. He says, “I’ll make soldiers out of you, or I’ll kill you!” The crawling through the mud during their exercises symbolizes how uncivilized one becomes to engage in the savagery of war. Even though the film was released in 1930, Himmelstoss’s regimentation and breaking down individuality are what we see in many films about boot camp (for example, Full Metal Jacket and An Officer and a Gentleman).

Ideas of war being glorious turn to feelings of horror. Bombs go off killing soldiers as Behn feels paralyzed next to the body of one of their fallen comrades. There is chaos as everyone scatters. The older, cynical soldiers laugh when Paul asks about getting some food, since they know it’s in short supply. They must pay for their food with supplies to eat portions of a pig that the forager, Kat Katczinsky (Louis Wolheim), stole from a field station. The film depicts a desperate situation where they must steal from each other to get by. Kat tells the new recruits he wonders what can make them want to enlist, but he is talking from experience.

On an assignment with Kat to set up barbed wire fencing, one of the new soldiers complains about the driving of the truck. Kat says if the soldier breaks his arm in an accident, he gets to go home which is better that getting a “hole in your gut.” Whistling bombs fall and the men duck in fear. The immersion in the reality of combat quashes their religious zeal for fighting.

As bombs fall, Behn sustains injuries. One soldier risks his life to get him to the trenches, but Behn dies. Kat says don’t risk your life for a lost cause, which is basically what war is for its victims. The constant bombing keeps them up at night. When one does sleep, he has a nightmare about the loss of Behn. A couple get hysterical as bombs get closer and Kat knocks them out so they don’t rush from their bunker. Franz Kemmerick (Ben Alexander) later does run outside and is wounded in the stomach. The men are experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder, which was called “shell shock” back then.

If glory hasn’t already been dispensed with, the bullet holes in a bucket carrying one loaf of bread to feed many and the infestation of rats help dispel ideas of glorious heroism. (Does the one load allude to the need for a miracle to feed a multitude?). The soldiers finally get the call to fight. What they witness is horrific. Bombs and gunfire wipe out soldiers. All that’s left of one soldier are his hands grasping barbed wire. Hand-to-hand combat depicts soldiers using bayonets on each other. Camera angles are from the ground to involve the audience in the horror. For 1930, this film is particularly gruesome showing the devastation of war.

When they get back behind the battle lines a soldier wipes blood off a loaf of bread. Even basic sustenance is contaminated by death. At their camp, because the cook prepared food for twice as many soldiers, but only half survived, there is irony in the fact that they get extra rations, darkly benefitting due to the death of their comrades.

The camera focuses on individual soldiers as they suffer and when they eat, showing them as unique people, not just an indistinct mass of weaponry. As they finish their meal, the men, who have had their fill of dead bodies and now food, finally question the whole existence of war. One says that the people of one country become offended by another. Tjaden (Slim Summerville) says he shouldn’t be there since he is not offended. He says if the Kaiser is back home, why shouldn’t he be? Another says he never met Englishmen before and yet he now is supposed to shoot them. He reasons that many have never met a German. The stress here is that those fighting the war most of the time don’t have any personal reasons for being there, and they were never asked their wishes. One soldier says the orders come from those rulers who want to be “famous. Why, that’s history.” One says, “manufacturers get rich.” Amother soldier sums up the driving force behind those that initiate war, which is selfishness. Kat says that the leaders should be the ones fighting each other, which implies that then there wouldn’t be the loss of so many lives that way.

While the comrades visit Franz, he experiences phantom pain in his foot, and realizes that doctors have amputated it. Mueller (Russell Gleason) asks if he can have Franz’s boots until he realizes how selfish (the force behind war) he is being. After the others leave, Paul tries to comfort the nineteen-year-old after the desensitized doctor says there is nothing to be done. Paul returns to the camp and says that he watched Franz die. His understandable defense mechanism was to run away and seek mental comfort thinking about being in open fields and wanting to be with girls.

Paul has Franz’s boots and Mueller puts them on. He says he doesn’t mind the war with such comfortable footwear. The camera focuses on the boots as Mueller marches with a smile on his face. That look is gone as he sustains wounds. There is no escape from the pain that war brings.

The soldiers have learned the hard way about what they have lost and now yearn for the lives they gave up, such as work, families, and the company of women. Himmelstoss shows up and his former recruits mock him now as self-importance has no place in the trenches. He is in the same boat as the rest of them now and he suffers the same fate on the front lines, getting killed by enemy fire, appropriately in a cemetery.

Paul gets attacked in a foxhole by a French soldier whom he stabs. They are in the ditch together all night, and that closeness to another human casualty makes the war intimate for Paul. He now tries to help the victim he was forced to harm. He says that if they didn’t have to wear the opposing uniforms they could be brothers. After the man dies, Paul seeks forgiveness for what he now considers not justified violence but a crime he was forced to commit.

There is some comic relief for these men (and for the audience) as they bring food and drink for local young women so they can spend time with them. Kat gets drunk, as he distracts an inebriated Tjaden so that Paul and his two fellow soldiers can have the three women to themselves. The film is pretty raunchy for its time as the men earlier bathed in the canal and their naked behinds can be seen. Later, there is a conversation offstage between Paul and the girl Suzanne who are obviously in bed together. Even though he will never see her again, she has helped him shed the horrors of war for the moment, a moment he says he will never forget, which unhappily will not be for long.

Back to harsh reality, Paul is wounded and the cruel facts of the hospital become evident. They move those who are dying or dead quickly to a room next to the morgue for convenience purposes. By doing so they open up a bed for the next victim. They must amputate the leg of Paul’s friend, Alfred Kropp (William Bakewell), and his phantom pain is an echo of what happened to Franz, which points to the awful repetition of war. Paul is discharged but as Alfred remains, he blots out the heads of himself and Paul in a picture, showing how the war has ended his life as he knew it.

As Paul walks in his hometown on furlough, there are images of heartbreak as we see one soldier using crutches to deal with an amputation and there is a boy with what might be his dead father’s uniform and weapons. Paul’s mother is ill which adds to the sadness of the homecoming. A butterfly collection in his home is just a memory that shows how peaceful life used to be. The movie is an early depiction (as we later see in many films, such as Coming Home, and The Hurt Locker) of how a returning soldier is alienated by the average lives of others who do not understand the impact of combat on soldiers. One man at the pub acts like the sacrifice of soldiers is needed and that the food is worse back home, saying there is only the best for the soldiers. He tells this misinformation to Paul who has suffered hunger on the front lines. Men at the pub pull out a map and tell Paul what must be done to claim victory. It is easy for them to plot strategy in the absence of what it is really like in the trenches.

Paul returns to Kantorek’s classroom where the professor still is exhorting youths to believe in the heroic mythology about how grand and patriotic it is to sign up to be soldiers. A reluctant Paul tells them the simple truth: “We live in the trenches out there. We fight. We try not to be killed, but sometimes we are. That’s all.” When the professor tells him not to dwell on the negative, Paul angrily says, “When it comes to dying for your country, it’s better not to die at all.” He says there are millions who die in war “and what good is it?” The point being made is that the cost of war renders nobody a winner. The students don’t want to listen to someone upsetting what they have heard and want to believe. They yell out “coward!” in their naïve ignorance. Paul says he wants to cut his leave short because the pain of seeing how warped are the views of the civilians is more disturbing than being at the front. At least there he knows where he stands, as do the other soldiers.

When Paul returns, he sees more youth there to replace those dying as the circle of death continues. He sees Kat and they speak the truth about how hopeless the war is. When a bomb goes off near them Kat says he broke his shin, but his wounds are worse than he lets on. Paul carries him back to the camp and finds out that Kat died. Kat said he would be the last to go, so his passing is an omen as to the state of the conflict. Paul said Kat was all he had left, so he is now empty of connection to anything.

In a trench, Paul sees a beautiful butterfly. He reaches for it, as if trying to capture some innocence and beauty that was in his childhood. However, death is on the battlefield and an enemy soldier shoots and kills Paul. His outstretched hand, which was seeking an escape. is stopped in the act. The last shot of the film is devastating as young soldiers march off to war with a cemetery and a sea of crosses appearing in the background as if to say that they are heading to their deaths. The thrust here is that it is only quiet on the western front for those in the graveyard.

Trainspotting

 SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

Trainspotting (1996), directed by Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire), depicts young Scottish men who prefer using heroin to living conformist lives under British rule. However, as the story unfolds, there is a change in the attitude of the main character which implies there may be no good choices for those like him. It is a raw, unsettling movie, but also a courageous one.

The title of the film may refer, according to Irvine Welsh, to taking drugs at a train station, or an obsessive hobby that only those participating in it understand. In that sense, it is an outsider lifestyle divorced from all others. The central character Renton (Ewan McGregor) states at the onset of the story that people can choose a “job,” “a family,” and electrical appliances and other material things that you put into a house with a “fixed interest mortgage.” But his opening monologue gets darker as he skewers the conformity of an average life where one is “sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing, spirit-crushing game shows … rotting away at the end of it all, pissing your last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish fucked up brats you spawned to replace yourselves.” For Renton, at this point, he denies that taking heroin is because of “misery and desperation and death.” He says, “it’s the pleasure of it. Otherwise, we wouldn’t do it. Afterall, we’re not fucking stupid. At least, we’re not that fucking stupid.” He says with drugs one doesn’t have to worry about all the concerns of everyday life, only “scoring.” Later, Renton does concede that their lives are miserable because they were colonized by the British who are all “wankers.” He says that he and his friends took all kinds of drugs and would have “injected Vitamin C if only they made it illegal.” That statement shows that the drug use for these men was an act of rebellion.

He says that his parents were always trying to set him on the so-called right path, but his mother took pills, so she was a user herself. One of his mates, Begbie (Robert Caryle), berates him about Renton’s use of hard drugs. But, Renton’s father drinks large amounts of alcohol and is a violent man. Renton says Begbie didn’t do drugs, “he just did people.” His drug was violence towards others, a much worse way to get high. (Actor Caryle believed that Begbie’s rage was due to being a closeted gay and his fear of being outed translated to an outward eruption).

Renton’s other friends are Sick Boy (Johnnie Lee Miller), Tommy (Kevin McKidd), and Spud (Ewen Bremner). Sick Boy and Spud, along with Renton, shoot up heroin at the place of their provider, Mother Superior Swanney (Peter Mulan), whose AKA is a reference to the Beatles song referring to drug use, “Happiness is a Warm Gun,” with the line, “Mother Superior jumped the gun.” The irony of mixing religious elements with drug use is obvious in the song and in the film.

After waking up after another mind-bending fix, Renton decides to quit his drug habit. He acquires opium suppositories to help him wean off the habit. What follows is a disgusting, surrealistic scene where Renton must find a spot to relieve himself immediately winding up in what he describes as the “worst toilet in Scotland.” The bathroom is revolting with feces wall-to-wall (which was really chocolate), and Renton, after relieving himself, realizes he ejected the suppositories. In a surreal, nightmarish act, he dives into the toilet after them. This scene, if no other, shows that choosing heroin was not a good choice, in contrast to Renton’s earlier manifesto.

Because his sex drive kicks in again after stopping his drug use, Renton zeroes in on a seductive girl at a club, Diane (Kelly MacDonald), and they have sex. He discovers later that she is only fifteen years old. Her innocence is a sham, and her schoolgirl clothes merely a costume. The film implies that the upright appearance of the world is a façade. Renton fears that if his intimacy with Diane is discovered, he will go to jail, although in comparison to the violence of Begbie, his transgressions would be unfairly punished.

Tommy starts to use heroin after his girlfriend breaks up with him. The film shows how drug use can be used as a way to escape any type of pain. However, that hard drug usage is a victimless crime is in question when Allison (Susan Vidler), who is a friend and fellow junkie, reports that her baby is dead, most likely out of neglect. The story implies that Sick Boy is the father. He is devastated, but not scared straight. Instead, maybe because of guilt, he puts himself in more danger. He, Renton, and Spud attempt stealing from a bookstore. Sick Boy escapes, but Spud and Renton are caught. Spud goes to jail because of past violations. Renton escapes incarceration because he undergoes a drug rehabilitation program, which turns out to be a failure. He is on methadone and when he takes heroin later the combination almost kills him. So, it starts to appear that there is no exit from the horrors of his world.

Renton’s parents lock him in his room and make him go cold turkey to quit the habit. In withdrawal, he hallucinates about Diane and Allison’s baby, possibly reflecting his guilt over his underage relationship with the young girl and inability to save the child. There is also the scary possibility of contracting HIV through IV drug use, but luckily, Renton tests negative.

Tommy does not escape that fate, as he contracts the virus after becoming heavily addicted to heroin, and later dies of toxoplasmosis. The now clean Renton saw how his friend was living in squalor and attempts to give his life direction by becoming a real estate agent. He saves money and keeps in touch with Diane, but he does not stay happy in a conventional life for long. Sick boy is a drug dealer, and Begbie is on the run because he committed armed robbery. They invade Renton’s flat, trash it, and steal from Renton. The suggestion here is how difficult it is to detach oneself from the destructiveness of an addictive life.

Spud is released from prison and joins Renton, Sick Boy, and Begbie in selling a large amount of heroin for a huge profit. They go to a pub to celebrate. Begbie gives in to his sociopathic ways, attacking a patron and destroying property. Given Sick Boy’s self-destructive actions and Begbie’s violent behavior, Renton tries to get Spud to join him in stealing the drug money. The timid Spud refuses. While the others sleep, Renton steals the cash and runs off.

In an ironic act at the end of the film, Renton says he will use the money derived from selling drugs to now choose those things he once rejected for a life on drugs.

My Darling Clementine

 SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

A neighbor of mine loves Hollywood Westerns and that inspired me to write a post on one of director John Ford’s most famous films, My Darling Clementine (1946).

The title of the movie refers to the character Clementine Carter (Cathy Downs). The song that shares the same title, and which plays in the film, is about loss, and that sets a tone of sadness for this story.

Wyatt Earp (Henry Fonda) is herding cattle to California with his brothers, Virgil (Tim Holt), Morgan (Ward Bond, who would star in the TV series Wagon Train), and James (Don Garner). Wyatt runs into the elderly Clanton (Walter Brennan, three-time supporting Oscar winner and later star of the TV show The Real McCoys) and his son Ike (Grant Withers). Clanton tries to buy the scrawny animals, but Wyatt doesn’t want to sell, although he acknowledges the roughness of the land that is depriving his herd of food. That dire observation fits in with the feel of the movie, and so does the name of the nearby town, Tombstone. Despite the welcoming comments by Clanton, the look on his face and that of his son are hostile as they watch the departing Wyatt.

Young James, who is to marry soon, stays with the herd as the other brothers go into Tombstone, which is quite rowdy in the evening. Wyatt goes to get a shave. The barber (Ben Hall) calls his place a “tonsorial parlor,” for which Wyatt needs a translation. When the barber lowers the back of the customer chair, Wyatt nearly topples backward, showing how he is in a precarious position since the chair is a newly acquired acquisition from metropolitan Chicago, an invader from the settled East. Later he is not sure about the city-slicker hair styling he gets and the cologne the barber sprays on him. He may be allowing himself a different look for his attempt to attract Clementine as the story progresses, but this social space is not an area in which he is adept at navigating.

The threatening nature of the locale becomes very immediate as random gunshots bring bullets into what is supposed to be a safe place for male grooming. Indeed, the town of Tombstone is still on the frontier with only a few civilized elements. Wyatt shouts, “What kind of town is this?” and that phrase is repeated by Wyatt when the marshal doesn’t want to confront the drunk man firing his weapon. Wyatt goes into the saloon, punches out the inebriated Native American and kicks him out of the place. The Mayor (Roy Roberts) offers Wyatt the job of Marshal, but Wyatt refuses. The people discover Wyatt’s name and realize he was the marshal of Dodge City, but Wyatt makes it clear that he left that life behind.

But, it appears that past life will not leave him. When the Earps return to their camp they find their cattle gone and their brother, James, dead, shot in a cowardly manner in the back. Wyatt visits the Mayor and says he will be Marshal as long as his brothers are his deputies. He learns from the Mayor that Doc Holliday (Victor Mature) runs the gambling and that Clanton and his sons deal with the cattle business. The film has set the stage for a battle between families, making the conflict very personal. The Clantons arrive in town and Wyatt confronts them, saying his cattle were stolen. Wyatt knows it was the Clantons who are guilty and tells them he is now Marshal. Clanton’s bemused attitude changes when he hears Wyatt’s name, and it’s obvious that Wyatt’s accomplished reputation has preceded him. The darkness of the time of the day and the pouring rain add to the feeling of gloom shrouding the events.

Alone at the grave of his eighteen-year-old brother, James, Wyatt says to his departed sibling that he will be staying there for a while, and “maybe when we leave this country young kids like you will be able to grow up and live safe.” Wyatt hopes that he can achieve that goal, but the filmmakers may be commenting that it is a futile wish since violence has continued into the future.

While at the saloon playing cards, Wyatt avoids the attentions of the saloon showgirl Chihuahua (Linda Darnell), who is the girlfriend of the currently absent Holliday. In retaliation, she sings lines from the title song, stressing the loss of cattle and money, while Wyatt, fittingly, throws in his winless cards. She has helped a gambler discover Wyatt’s hands. Wyatt realizes that, takes Chihuahua outside, and after she slaps him, he dumps her in the horse trowel. The scene shows that Wyatt is no fool and is smart enough to know that a pleasant surface may hide unethical intentions beneath.

Doc shows up and kicks the cheating gambler out of the saloon, which shows that he runs a straight-up game. Wyatt and Doc have a tense conversation which reveals they know about each other’s pasts. Wyatt mentions that Doc has left a trail of graveyards behind him. Doc counters with the observation that there is the largest one right there in Tombstone, and adds, “Marshalls and I get along much better when we understand that right away.” The implication is that there will not be any trouble if the law leaves Doc alone. Wyatt notes Doc has already broken the law by usurping Wyatt’s authority in the town. Doc says they are in “separate camps,” and pulls out his gun, showing how fast he is with the weapon. Wyatt points out his two deputized brothers who are already at the bar with their guns. Wyatt doesn’t arrest Doc, so, it seems there is an understanding, and they seal the deal with a celebratory drink of champagne. But beyond this agreement, Doc’s deadly tuberculosis (symbolically representing the corruption of his soul?), the highlighting of graveyards, and possibly the suggestion that west of the Rocky Mountains can be one huge graveyard, add to the atmosphere of death and loss looming over everything.

That stress on death continues when the visiting drunkard actor, Granville Thorndyke (Alan Mowbray), delivers the “To be, or not to be,” soliloquy from Hamlet. The words ponder the hardships of life, and the possibility of even suicide to escape them, along with the questions of what may follow the end of one’s life. One of the cowboys even addresses the actor as Yorick, Hamlet’s dead court jester, which points to the absurd combination of laughter and loss inherent in mortal life. Thorndyke can’t finish the speech, and the educated Doc completes Hamlet’s words, followed by a coughing fit, reminding us, as does Clint Eastwood’s character in Unforgiven, that “we’ve all got it coming.”

Wyatt is there to acquire the actor for the show at the theater, but the Clanton boys try to stop the Marshal. Wyatt cracks a bottle over the head of one and shoots the gun out of the hand of another. Clanton shows up, and after Wyatt leaves, he beats his boys, telling them if you pull a gun, then you better kill the other guy. There is always a threat to one’s life here.

Clementine arrives on the stagecoach. She is Doc’s former love interest, but he is out of town. The relaxing Wyatt jumps up from his porch chair when he sees Clementine, as if struck by a love lightening bolt. According to Tag Gallagher in his essay, he resides in a different “sphere” than Clementine. That separation is stressed at their first meeting, as he is on one side of a post and she stands behind a rail, the physical objects suggesting how they inhabit different worlds. Wyatt is in black since his road is a dark one that must combat evil. Ford’s heroes are passing through the places they visit, so Wyatt is a wanderer, because he can’t have the comfort of a settled existence as he fights his antagonists.

Gallagher says Ford stops the plot to let us soak in the images of the characters, how they use their eyes, how they walk. Wyatt escorts Clementine to a room opposite Doc’s. She enters the absent man’s place, and the scene is like a nostalgic trip. There is a picture of Doc with a mustache and there is a photo of her there, too. She asks if Wyatt thinks Doc is a good surgeon, but Wyatt says he wouldn’t know. It’s as if they are looking at a photo album of a life that no longer exists.

That idea flows into the scene where Clementine goes to see Doc when he is again in town. She searched for him for a long time after he left Boston. He is coughing and she believes he fled from her because of his ill health. But he says he is no longer the man she once knew. She thinks he is being self-destructive, and she appears to be right, as he is moving away from those who care about him and engaging in dangerous activity. He later looks in a mirror and then smashes it (once again I’ll mention that mirrors can reflect another part of ourselves, mostly negative). Doc goes to the bar and acts surly with Wyatt and the barkeeper, who tells him that drinking will kill him as he grabs a bottle from him. Doc rejects Chihuahua’s attempt to change his mood with a song and a kiss. He tells her to go away, further isolating himself.

Wyatt tells Doc he is a fool for rejecting someone as wonderful as Clementine, and his complimentary statements show that Wyatt is attracted to the young woman. Wyatt also points out Doc’s dangerous drinking habits given his TB. Doc pulls out his gun to indulge his self-destructive tendencies by challenging anyone who confronts him. Wyatt basically accuses him of attempting suicide by attracting those who would boast of killing the infamous Doc Holliday, which would, he says, be easy given his drunken state. Doc shoots down a candle chandelier which starts a small fire. Wyatt knocks Doc out, at least temporarily preventing his demise.

Later Doc is recuperating in bed, but still drinking, and seems to have changed his mind about Chihuahua, saying he’s going to Mexico for a while and is willing to have her come with him as his bride. He learns from her that Clementine is packing to leave and is most likely relieved that he will no longer inflict his current decrepit state on Clementine. The fact that he is willing to attach himself to Chihuahua shows he doesn’t have the same strong feelings toward her if he is willing to expose her to his decline.

Clementine is in the hotel lobby and Wyatt enters singing “My Darling Clementine.” The song is Wyatt’s “yearning,” for her, according to Gallagher, and his hopeless hope for an average prairie life. When he hears she is leaving he says she is giving up too quickly to get Doc back as her love interest. However, he most likely wants her to stick around for himself. He wasn’t planning on going to the church service, but he is happy when she asks him to go with her. (The church is in the process of being constructed, which may imply some hope for a peaceful life in the future). Wyatt tosses away his hat which symbolizes his discarding his detached lawman role, and dances with Clementine, to the surprise of his brothers. Wyatt even seems happy joining in on the supper that follows the church dedication, smiling while carving the meat. Doc interrupts Wyatt’s moment of social joy when Doc yells at Clementine, saying he told her that if she didn’t leave town, he would. Wyat, resuming his attachment to the law, confronts Doc, saying Doc doesn’t have the authority to run anybody out of town. Doc’s adversarial response is that Wyatt should start carrying his gun, which implies that Wyatt isn’t cut out for a peaceful social life. His words also imply the rivalry between the two concerning their feelings for Clementine. But they also remind Wyatt that he can’t escape his role as an agent of justice.

Doc leaves town in a hurry to escape his physical, and thus emotional, proximity to Clementine, throwing a bag of gold to Chihuahua as he darts by. She is devastated since she thought they would leave together after getting married. She runs off to confront Clementine, blaming her for Doc’s leaving. She doesn’t want to accept that Doc doesn’t really love her. As Chihuahua throws Clementine’s clothes out of the closet to ensure her departure, Wyatt arrives and realizes the medallion Chihuahua is wearing belonged to his dead brother James. She says Doc gave it to her.

 Wyatt leaves to confront Doc about his possible involvement in the death of the young Earp. It’s a furious chase as Doc’s extreme driving of the horses reveals his inner drive to escape his circumstances. The extended chase shows the large expanse of the western territory, the hugeness of the land that dwarfs the individuals trying to deal with it. Wyatt catches up with Doc, who refuses to return to the torment he feels in Tombstone. He draws his gun on Wyatt who shoots it out of his hand.

Wyatt and Doc go to confront Chihuahua, who has Billy Clanton ((John Ireland) in her room. After he slips outside, the other men enter, and Doc says he didn’t give her the jewelry that belonged to James Earp. Doc will be charged with James’s murder, so she is persuaded to say that Billy gave it to her after Doc left her lonely and vulnerable. After the divulging of his name, Billy shoots Chihuahua through the window. Wyatt urges Doc to operate on the woman. In a way, Doc is forced to try to revisit his past life before its decline, and is now called “Doctor,” referring to his profession, and not just as a nickname. After the surgery, Wyatt watches Clementine walking out of the saloon, and asks the bartender if he has ever been in love. Wyatt is, but he, like Doc, is clueless as to how to deal with that emotion.

Wyatt wounded Billy as he tried to escape, and he sent his brother, Virgil, to go after him. Virgil shoots Billy as they ride, and Billy dies just outside the Clanton ranch house. The Clantons bring Billy’s body inside and then invite Virgil in after he pulls up. Again, in a cowardly manner, Old Man Clanton shoots Virgil in the back, killing him.

The Clantons drop Virgil’s body in the town, and Clanton says to meet him and his boys at, you guessed it, the O.K. Corral (an ironic name given the situation). Although other townspeople are willing to help, Wyatt tells them, “This is strictly a family affair.” It’s personal, because a son and brothers are dead, and it is now a family feud. But not quite, since Chihuahua dies, and Doc wants his revenge, but he is also feeling like he’ll never revisit his past status as a respected physician. He may be suicidal going to the shootout, but, in a way, he becomes an adopted Earp brother.

The sky has threatening, black clouds, fitting in with the dark deeds happening in Tombstone. Ford builds suspense as the opponents maneuver for position. Wyatt tries the legal way, telling Clanton he has a warrant for his arrest, and asks him to surrender. Clanton admits that he killed the Wyatt brothers, and vows to kill the remaining sibling. Wyatt, his brother, Morgan, and Doc shoot and kill the rest of the Clanton sons. Doc is betrayed by his current disease as he coughs, causing him to drop his guard, and is shot. Clanton surrenders, voicing his pain at the loss of his sons. Wyatt will not kill him, or spare Clanton the relief of an execution. Instead, he says, “I hope you live a hundred years, so you’ll feel just a little what my pa’s gonna feel. Now get out of town, start wandering.” Wyatt knows first-hand about the emptiness of being a wanderer. He wants to condemn Clanton to a childless, homeless existence. But not Morgan. He shoots and kills Clanton as the old man slowly rides away. The clouds are now white, possibly reflecting the eradication of the evil that had infested the town. However, Gallagher says Wyatt’s victory here comes at the price of a high body count, so justice is not triumphant.

Morgan and Wyatt are no longer lawmen, and they begin to ride out to tell their father what has happened. Wyatt encounters Clementine, who will stay on as a schoolteacher. She symbolizes putting down roots. He says he may return and resume his original plan of owning some cattle. He kisses her on the cheek (originally a handshake, which producer Darryl F. Zanuck discarded after a negative response from a test audience) before riding away, suggesting some hope for an eventual happy ending, at least for these two, which he underscores by saying how much he likes the name, Clementine. It is an ironic ending because they can’t be together given their separate worlds. His statement is followed by the words of the title song, bookending the film, which declare eternal love. The feeling of love may be everlasting, but it will not be consummated here.

The next film is Foreign Correspondent.

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

 SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

John Ford’s Western The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) presents the choice for the frontier individual to either rely on the law to deal with those that break society’s rules, or to take matters into one’s own hands and pick up a gun to get justice. In this film, Ransom Stoddard (James Stewart), being a lawyer, wants to go through the legal system to deal with the criminal, Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin). Tom Doniphon (John Wayne) represents the option to handle problems individually when the law offers little satisfaction. The film addresses the value of democracy and the threats to the process, which sustains the movie’s relevance.

The story begins at Tom’s funeral and the older Ransom (Rance)(does the name suggest he paid with part of his integrity to get things done?), now a U. S. Senator, and his wife, Hallie (Vera Miles), are paying their respects in the western town of Shinbone (a name that implies a hard and spare lifestyle).  Link Appleyard (Andy Devine) greets the couple at the train station. He used to be the town’s marshal. While Rance talks to the local newspapermen, Link takes Hallie on a ride to the desert. That area has stayed the same, showing how nature remains constant where cactus roses grow, but the world of people changes. They go to the dilapidated ruins of a building where Tom used to live. The locals don’t even know about Tom, which shows how recorded history leaves out the significant acts of some people.

Tom’s African America friend, Pompey (Woody Strode, who was in Spartacus) is at the funeral director’s place, mourning. Rance is angry that Tom’s body is not wearing his boots, spurs, and gun, like a true cowboy. Rance just wants to keep his grief private, but the intrusive editor of the local newspaper, Maxwell Scott (Charleton Young) insists on an explanation for the Senator’s presence for the funeral of an obscure person. Rance decides that the past should not be forgotten so he tells his story, which is presented as an extended flashback.

The camera focuses on the dusty old stagecoach that brought the young recent law school graduate Rance to Shinbone. The image is a sort of time machine that transports us into the past. Rance says he took Horace Greely’s advice to “Go west” and “seek, fame, fortune and adventure.” Just as he speaks those words gunshots go off as the stagecoach is held up by Liberty Valance’s gang, wearing masks, showing how some adventures are not positive ones. Rance voices his outrage, and the response he receives is a beating from Liberty (an ironic name showing how destructive individualism can be if not held subject to laws that protect society as a whole). Liberty laughs at Rance’s suggestion that he will go to jail. When he grabs one of Rance’s law books, he rips out pages, showing how little respect he has for the power of the legal system. He whips Rance, saying he is inflicting “Western law” which comes down to a type of Social Darwinism, where only those that can inflict the most violence survive.

Tom rescues Rance and brings him to Hallie for help (Wayne uses what becomes his signature word, calling Rance “pilgrim” often, which is a traveler with a religious connotation that suggests that Rance is on a righteous crusade, not a vengeful one). (For me Wayne’s voice and delivery of lines is often over-the-top and takes me out of the story. Sorry fans). Tom’s decency is shown by offering to pay for Rance’s food since the lawyer was robbed of everything. Tom also compliments on how pretty Hattie looks, and there is an indication that he might propose to her someday. Rance says the man used a silver-tipped whip on him. Tom recognizes it as Liberty Valance’s weapon, and says Rance better start carrying a gun, suggesting that is the way to deal with men like Liberty. Tom says, “I know those law books mean a lot to you, but not out here. Out here, a man settles his own problems.” Later, Burt Reynolds’s character in Deliverance says rhetorically in the wilderness, “Where is the law?” Ford’s film takes place at a time when there was little policing of the savagery of humans, and the NRA motto of the only way to stop a bad man with a gun is a good guy with a gun was the way of the West.

Unfortunately, law and order in Shinbone comes in the out-of-shape form of the freeloading Link Appleyard, whose cowardly attitude and soft body may indicate the lax enforcement of the authorities in these parts. Andy Divine’s high-pitched, stuttering voice adds to the lack of the character’s toughness. When he finds out that Liberty is involved in Rance’s robbery and beating, the Marshall just wants to run away. He says, “The jail ‘s only got one cell, and the lock’s broke, and I sleep in it.” It’s a funny line, but it shows the sad state the law-abiding citizens of the town are in. Tom introduces himself to Rance and says Rance doesn’t look like a person who can handle a gun, especially against Liberty, who he says is the toughest fellow around, “next to me.” We have the macho image of John Wayne in full force here.

 Rance is helping out in Hallie’s restaurant kitchen since he is getting food there. He reads his law books and thinks he has a loophole to arrest Liberty under the local jurisdiction. Hallie is embarrassed because she cannot read his book. When he offers to teach her, she counters by saying he’s there wearing an apron and washing dishes, which implies his education hasn’t helped him on the frontier. She has a point, but she realizes that reading would enrich her life as she could read the Bible.

Tom shows up and has a cactus rose for Hallie, so we now know why she wanted one at the opening of the story. Rance has his hands on Hallie’s shoulders when Tom walks in as Hallie was announcing the news that Rance was going to teach her to read and write. Tom shows some jealousy by using slight sarcasm about how Rance is now protecting the ladies at the restaurant. Hallie’s affections seem to become divided between the rugged individualism of Tom and the scholarly morality of Rance. Tom sees Rance’s attorney sign he painted and tellingly says that if he hangs it up, he will have to defend it with a gun, and he’s not the type. Again, there is the idealism of Rance countered by the harsh practicality of Tom.

Tom sits down with the dining Dutton Peabody (Edmond O’ Brien), the newspaper editor at that time, who is also a drunk. He’s as hungry for a story as he is for steak and potatoes. He wants to know if Tom has popped the question to Hallie. Tom is not about to be rushed. Meanwhile, Pompey planted the cactus rose, and Rance asks if Hallie has seen a real rose. She says no, but she hopes that she will someday. Their remarks show how she has aspirations beyond the boundaries of this town, and Rance may be the man to help her on her way.

Liberty bursts in with two of his gang, and, as expected, Link rushes out. Liberty goes to a table and sees that the steak is “just right” for him, and wants those men seated to vacate the table, pulling the chair out from under one cowboy. He’s like a bullying Goldilocks. Rance volunteered to wait on tables because the place is so busy, and men did not perform that task back then. Liberty plops his whip on the table, so Rance knows for sure that it is Liberty who whipped him. Liberty laughs at Rance as he enters the room with plates of food and calls him the new “waitress.” There are a number of these emasculation scenes. If one tries to use one’s brains instead of fists, and if a man is trying to be helpful and courteous, he is considered weak. The cliche being invoked here is the one of a man being whipped by a woman, which is supposed to illustrate how weak he is.

As Rance walks past Liberty, the man trips him and the food spills to the floor. Rance is ready to rush Liberty, which would be a suicide move. Tom comes to the rescue, because at this moment, in this place, the law and civilized action can’t win. Tom tells Liberty that it was his steak on the floor and Liberty must pick it up. There looks like there is going to be a shootout, with Pompey pointing a rifle from the kitchen. The outraged Rance yells why is everybody so “kill crazy” there. He picks up the meat to diffuse the situation. Liberty takes a drink of whiskey outside, then smashes the restaurant window with it while he and his men start to fire off their weapons as they ride out of town.

Tom rhetorically asks, “Well now, I wonder what scared them off?” Dutton adds to Tom’s sarcasm, saying, “You know what sacred ‘em? The spectacle of law and order – here, risin’ up out of the gravy and mashed potatoes.” More emasculation. Rance admits that it was a gun that was needed to drive Liberty away. However, he points out the stupidity of getting killed over a piece of steak. He tries to assert his individual strength by saying that he fights his own battles. Despite his gruff manner, Tom was trying to prevent Rance from getting killed. Editor Dutton sees Rance as newsworthy and wants to exploit him. He offers to let him hang his attorney-at-law shingle in front of the newspaper office, which can draw Liberty’s fire, literally. Rance rejects Tom’s advice on two counts: he’s neither leaving nor picking up a gun to fight Liberty. The film suggests that at this point putting one’s faith in the law seems like idealism.

The cattle barons are trying to push small homesteaders out of their business. Statehood would protect the less powerful and the barons are fighting against it. Here we have the theme of using democracy to fight those that use their power to destroy the lives of others. Rance reads about what is going on in the newspaper, which stresses the importance of freedom of the press. Rance now is teaching the townspeople, with Hallie helping him out, how to read and write (including Latino children, which points to how immigrants are an important part of the democratic process). They are learning American history, too, and Nora Ericson (Jeanette Nolan), a German immigrant, says the United States is a republic, which means the people are the “bosses,” and if there is a dislike for what the “big shots” in Washington are doing, the people can vote them out. The disdain for elitism is evident here and promotes a type of populism. It’s appropriate that the Black man, Pompey, responds to a question about how Thomas Jefferson wrote that “all men are created equal.” He apologizes for forgetting some of the words, and Rance’s remark that many people forget the equality part allows the film to take a shot at racism.

Rance tells those at the lesson that having a strong representative to fight for their interests is important, so getting out the vote is vital. Tom has been away doing horse trading and he bursts in telling Pompey he needs him working. Tom is the pragmatist who knows that Liberty is working with the cattle barons and hiring guns to ensure the rich men’s interests. Tom acknowledges the nobility of what the newspaper and Rance believe in, but he says that promoting it will bring about bloodshed. Tom says the hired gunmen tried to ambush him, but he killed one of them. Dutton goes off to write the story, and Tom warns that if he prints that information he’ll get himself killed. Here we have the dilemma of the responsibility of the press versus whether news sometimes helps create trouble. While they talk, the camera shot shows the U. S. flag in the background and a portrait of George Washington. The images stress how the history of the nation and democracy are on the line. Tom warns that the gunmen will be there on election day to intimidate the voters. Tom tells Hallie to get out of a school that can turn into “a shooting gallery.” But Hallie strongly asserts her independence by telling him he can’t tell her what to do because he doesn’t “own” her.

Rance dismisses the school and when he erases what he has written on the blackboard, “Education is the basis for law and order,” it’s as if ignorance of what holds civilization together is winning. He is becoming cynical as he tells the protesting Hallie that “when force threatens, talk’s no good anymore.” Rance leaves and Dutton confesses to Hallie that a while back he lent Rance a gun and the lawyer has been going outside town and practicing how to shoot. He is compromising his ideals for Tom’s view of reality.

Hallie asks for Tom’s help, and he catches up with Rance and takes him to his house under construction. Tom says that he plans on marrying Hallie once he has his house fixed up for her. But, because Hallie shows so much worry for Rance, Tom believes that she and Rance have feelings for each other. Tom engages in more humiliation as a way of showing Rance how his being in a shootout is futile. He tells the lawyer to hang up some paint cans to be shot at, but instead Tom fires at them, spilling paint on Rance. He is trying to show how fast a gunslinger can be and that, although he says he doesn’t like “tricks,” Liberty indulges in them. Rance is angry about this further attack on his manhood and punches Tom so hard he knocks him down, saying he doesn’t like tricks, either. The look on Tom’s face reveals some admiration for Rance’s toughness.

Election day comes, as Rance explains to the crowd of men at the bar, to elect two delegates to a state convention to determine whether the territory south of the Picketline River should become a state. (Dutton says humorously that declaring booze off-limits on this day “is carrying democracy too far.”). Only white men can vote at this time, as the film stresses by having the women and Pompey stay outside. Rance emphasizes that statehood means that their ranches will be protected from an open range policy where the rich interests have no legal constraints from taking over the smaller lands of the farmers. Rance nominates Tom, despite their differences. In a way, Rance is trying to draw Tom into the legal framework of democracy. But, Tom refuses, saying he has other plans. We know he means marrying and settling down with Hallie, which shows his focus is on his individual wants, not social ones.

Then Liberty shows up, who, unlike Tom, whose intentions are honorable, is an agent of chaos. He doesn’t live in the area but says wherever he wants to live is his address. He sees a newspaper headline that says he killed two homesteaders, which shows Dutton has showed a great deal of courage to publicly indict Liberty. The men nominate Rance to be a delegate, with Tom seconding the motion, showing he has gained some respect for the man, acknowledging Rance’s legal background and that he can throw a “punch.” Liberty gets a member of his gang to nominate him. One of the townspeople nominates Dutton, who wants no part of it. He says he must stay outside of politics so he can “build” up politicians, and “tear” them down. He says he is the people’s “conscience,” and “the watchdog that howls against the wolves.” Dutton might be overdramatizing his role in society, and he’ll do almost anything for a drink. However, he does state the purpose of the free press, which, if silenced, allows liars and bullies to escape being held in check. Liberty, not wanting to confront Tom, tells Rance that he has to stop hiding behind Tom’s gun, and Liberty will be waiting for him in the street for a gunfight. Tom offers to get Rance out of town, but at this point we’re not sure if Rance will leave.

The drunk Dutton, laughingly blowing on his whiskey jug mistaking it for a candle, is trying to find the courage to continue his work at the bottom of a bottle of booze. He alters Horace Greeley’s quotation, saying to his shadow (of himself?), “Old Man: go west. And grow young with the country.” His version stresses the newness of the frontier, its uncorrupted nature which brought about it being dubbed the New Eden. The West here is a type of Fountain of Youth to rejuvenate the jaded. When Dutton returns to the newspaper office, Liberty and his men are there. They beat Dutton almost to death and destroy the premises. Liberty also shoots Rance’s lawyer sign. The scene symbolizes how lawlessness can destroy the fair rules that rein in destructive behavior so that the average citizen can live a life without fear.

After seeing what happened to Dutton, Rance tells Marshall Appleyard to let Liberty know that he will meet him outside for a showdown. He is giving into the violent practicality of the times. Hallie tells Pompey to get Tom, while Link calls for the doctor to help Dutton. At the saloon, individuals are now starting to voice their anger at the card-playing Liberty. Even the cowardly Link says that if Liberty shoots the inexperienced Rance, it will be murder (Rance’s lack of gun shooting skills is stressed by his still wearing a restaurant apron).

Outside, Liberty toys with Rance, shooting near him, but then wounding him in his right hand, sending the gun to the ground. He picks it up with his left hand, and when Liberty threatens to shoot him “right between the eyes,” Rance gets a shot off. Liberty is hit and dies. Rance looks at his gun and drops it, looking defeated morally despite surviving.

Tom shows up at the kitchen where Hallie is tending to Rance’s wound. He witnesses Hallie comforting Rance, holding him, kissing his forehead, and sobbing over what could have happened to him. Tom says he is sorry he didn’t arrive in time, and after seeing the affection between the other two, leaves slamming the door. When Liberty’s gang members say Rance murdered Liberty, Tom disarms them and knocks them down. Tom yells at Link to do his job and arrest the two outlaws. Lance then wants to take credit for the apprehensions. It is a foreshadowing of who should really be getting credit for an action. As the town celebrates the demise of Liberty, Tom stands up for Pompey at the saloon when the bartender doesn’t want to serve his Black farmhand. Pompey doesn’t drink and says they have work to do back at home. Tom is now drunk, upset by losing the affection of Hallie, and the business he has in mind back at his ranch is anything but constructive. He sets fire to his house, the one he was adding onto in anticipation of living in it with Hallie. Pompey rescues him from the fire.

After recovering from their ordeal sufficiently both Rance and Dutton attend the statehood convention. Major Cassius Starbuckle (John Carradine), who has become a politician, says he had a speech but does not want to indulge in “oratory.” So, he crumples a piece of paper that is supposed to contain his prepared words. But, a delegate unravels it and it is blank. Thus, the Major is a deceptive character, who puts into a nomination another politician to represent them in Washington. After he speaks, a cowboy on a horse rides in supporting the nominee and does rope tricks. The whole scene satirizes the political process which is seen as a theatrical display with little substance.

Dutton calls the Major “the cattleman’s mouthpiece,” so he is representing the big business interests. He extols the average working person and places in nomination a surprised Rance, who he says is a model for the proper legal way to bring law and order to the frontier. The manipulative Major asks what kind of lawyer is he who killed “an honest citizen,” which is a ludicrous statement considering Liberty’s evil nature. But he indicts Rance for taking “the law into his own hands” and that he “has blood on his hands.” He continues by saying that Rance has, “the mark of Cain” on him. It is an ironic accusation, since Rance wanted nothing to do with killing a fellow brother of the human race when he set out to bring Liberty to justice in a civilized manner.

Tom shows up at the convention and follows the exiting Rance, who says he is going back east because he can’t build a reputation on killing a man. Tom then reveals what really happened and we get a flashback which shows that he is the man who shot Liberty Valance. He’s willing to keep that secret so that Rance can be elected and usher in a righteous change in the way the law is practiced in the territory. The movie suggests that the birth of a decent nation entails undergoing some painful events. Tom says that Hallie is now Rance’s girl, and since he taught her how to read and write Rance has the responsibility to give her something to read and write about. He puts the responsibility of creating decency on Rance’s shoulders.

The story returns to the present. Rance went to Washington and went on to become the governor of the new state and its senator. Nobody remembers Tom now, as his ways faded away. He knew it was time for change and he accepted that inevitability since we are told at the beginning of the movie that in recent times he no longer carried a gun. Rance has told the truth about Tom now to the new editor, Scott, who rips up the notes he was taking and throws them into a stove. He says he is not going to print the story Rance related. Scott says, “This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.” The implication is that it is detrimental to people to invalidate the myths they needed to believe in.

Back on the train, Hallie admits that she placed the cactus roses on Tom’s coffin. The plant symbolizes the kind of man Tom was – thorny with an appealing side. Now Rance feels his time has come to give up politics after achieving what he wanted, and he wishes to return to Shinbone and maybe open up a law office, which was his original plan. She says he should be “proud,” because he helped in changing the territory from a “wilderness” into a “garden,” a sort of hybrid that combines what is natural with cultivation. Hallie says her “roots” and her “heart” are still in this place in the West, which suggests that a person should stay grounded by keeping connected to one’s origins.

The train conductor lets Rance know that they have made accommodations for him because nothing is too good for the “man who shot Liberty Valance.” Sometimes the legend is mightier than the truth.

The next film is My Darling Clementine.