The Man Who Didn’t Shoot Liberty Valance
And Other Crumbling American Myths
This weekend the Oscars will be awarded. Will there be enough Black winners? Enough Women? Will enough “conservatives” be given a fair chance to explain their views too? All eyes will begin on Jimmy Kimmel, and maybe his son.
Many of the movies that have been nominated have a liberal tilt. They show that life is difficult, unfair and complex. Everyone struggles, but everyone basically means well, and deserves a chance. There are movies that celebrate diversity of race, sexual preference, and strange fish. There are movies about standing up to tyranny, either by leading a country at war, or by fighting for the free press.
Not nominated were hundreds of movies that were not so nuanced, or sensitive to people’s inner, often unexpressed, emotions. Most of these come under the heading of “action movies.” These movies fill American theaters on a weekly basis. In these moves, usually from one to thousands of things get killed. Many of these things are monsters, aliens, zombies, and most often, people. People, or people like creatures, are killed with big guns, swords, explosions, crashes, eaten, thrown off buildings or out of planes, and in battles; often huge battles at the end of the movie. Many are killed by superheroes using special effects. Usually, during the battle, there are sly and ironic comments about love, bravery and death. Americans handle emotions with dead-pan humor.
I don’t go to movies much, or even watch them on TV. I’m not recommending that for anyone, it’s just me. I understand how movies are great, and how they have been one of America’s greatest products for over a century. But I spent years with people whose lives were difficult, unfair and complex. I don’t need to pay money to see it. I also spent many hours trying to find ways to help people stop wanting to kill themselves, so watching people get blown up by the dozens doesn’t make me feel elated. I mean, (I think I can break confidentially now), why do think Darth Vader finally decided to save his son? It took many hours of therapy.
Way back in 1962, during my formative years, there was a movie that was mostly about the killing of one man, a bad man, a local terrorist named Liberty Valance. That movie, like many westerns from that time, were instrumental in shaping America’s ideas about the character of American men. What does it mean to be brave and honorable? How do we treat women? What are our values, and how do we stand up for them.
That’s what almost all Westerns were about. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence came ten years after another classic film, High Noon, in which it was Gary Cooper, who won an Oscar for standing up for Truth, Justice, and the American Way.
Of course, even then there was irony in those movie, and in how those men really acted, and who really stepped up and saved the day. Not to be a “spoiler” here ( If you haven’t, you should see these movies, because they really shaped and were shaped by America) but neither of the “good guys” in the movies survived on their own. Jimmy Stewart, the lawyer who came to tame the west with laws, couldn’t shot fast or straight. Gary Cooper was fast, but not fast enough to shoot the three of them. Both of these movies were more nuanced than the message that came out of them.
One line in the song The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence, as sung by Gene Pitney, states that “the point of a gun was the only law that Liberty understood.” That was also true for the three men who got off the train in High Noon. It seems to be, for some reason that I have trouble comprehending, that many people in America today, still believe that is the solution to handling law breakers. even though many of the people espousing that position seem to be law breakers themselves.
To my way of thinking, as John Wayne would say, and correct me if I’m wrong, as I’m sure you will, it’s not 1870 any more, not even in the southwest. We live with miles and miles of suburban sprawl and traffic. We have policemen almost everywhere. We all understand our laws very well, and almost all of us follow them, even though sometimes they seem a bit confining. We have lawyers everywhere for big disputes, and we have small claims court for small ones. If two men go out in the street to face each other, they better get it over with before the light changes. Also, they have a much better chance of hurting, or even killing, innocent people around them than they do each other.
It’s 2018. Women are constantly telling us that they don’t want to be treated as sex objects, or as delicate flowers any more. They want to be listened to, respected and understood. They also want to be hired, and to rise into leadership positions. It is being noticed that women possess more of the skills that are necessary in today’s society than men. Skills such as attention to detail, patience, and communicating clearly, without using tactics such as bullying or intimidation.
We have also learned that a man standing alone to solve a problem will not be nearly successful as a small group working together to solve the problem. It also helps if the people in the group come from diverse backgrounds and have had different experiences and therefore can each see things from a different perspective. There is no need, and no use, for guns in any of these groups.
Still, today, too many of our elected officials, and our movies producers, play into the myths of the hero and the superhero. Our buffoon-and-chief demeaned the police and security people in Florida for not running into the school where the kid with a high-powered rife was killing people. He said he would have run in himself, even without a weapon, just like Jimmy Stewart or Gary Cooper. He sees himself as that kind of a hero.
I know many people wish he had; it would have been a fitting ending. But we already saw how he rushed to save people when he went to Puerto Rico. He went three weeks late and threw paper towels into the crowd. Brave.
Hopefully, todays movies are helping to create new American myths. Right now there is a very popular movie that shows Black people as powerful protectors of culture. There is a women action heroine in almost every new thriller. And maybe we will move on from that. There could be a movie about a couple who convince the world that climate change is real, and it will show ways to deal with it that are exciting and sexy. There could be a movies about a very diverse group of people that find a way to being about Middle East peace, or rid the world of nuclear weapons. We need to honor heroes who don’t kill anything.
Of course, one of the things I have been wondering about is who will play Robert Mueller in the movie we are all waiting for, the one that will show how Mueller and his diverse team, strategically found a way to save democracy in America. A movie without any guns, and a very happy ending.
I leave you with the Gene Pitney song, and another bit of irony. The song was a big hit and explains everything that happened in the movie. It was written for the movie by the great team of Burt Bacharach and Hal David. But, the director, John Ford, hated the song, and it was never put in the movie. Yet, it was a hit, all on it’s own, further solidifying an American myth.
