John Ford directed many famous western films that brought back the vitality of that era. One of them is The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. In 1962, when the film was made, many dismissed it as a poor and disappointing work. Much of the criticism leveled against The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance focused on its appearance. Most of the films were made in color, which gave them a bright, optimistic tone that audiences loved. The "look" featured in Liberty Valance was black and white, which went against the normal cinematic tropes of the time. This was an artistic choice by Ford, because the film was known to have a large budget, which would have made it easy to make in color. It can be inferred that Ford's intention was to suggest a sense of reminiscence. To a certain extent, this film is about overcoming the old ways. The West is changing. The border is deteriorating. The present is dissolving not into history, but into legend, which removes facts and inserts what we want to know. A more modern view of the film acknowledges the film's flaws but credits it with being the last fully realized work of one of the most important directors in the history of American cinema. Ford understood that audiences' memories of older, less complex Westerns would add a layer of expressiveness to the viewing experience. The black and white structure helps him achieve this. Ford's decision to shoot the film in black and white in 1962 produced a dark, anachronistic look, while the unhidden stage effects of the film's opening scene reinforced Ford's vision of a wild, internalized Western frontier. Just as Ford intended, many flashback scenes are masked by darkness, while the frame of the narrative is bathed in light. This one with... half the card... is the whole point. Forget the facts and print what is known as legend. “When legend becomes fact, print legend,” this single quote from newspaper editor Maxwell Scott (Carlton Young), speaks throughout the entire film what Ford is trying to go through. The entire film tells of a vibrant era that has its roots in American history, but seems to be lost sight of here and now. The standard critical approach to Liberty Valance has been to emphasize the contrasts between its two worlds, the old and the new, and to characterize it as a celebration of the mythical Western frontier and the memory of its passage from the industrialized times to which it had to surrender. John Ford brought that vision back to his westerns, and although it was the last film featuring Ford and Wayne, it can now be called a classic tale of fact and legend...