Word: stoddard
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Jardine also mentioned ends Kontos (31 catches for 478 yards on the year) and John Olsen (13 for 165). Defensively, he singled out backs Joe Petrucelli, Tom Winner, Dave Jollin, and John Rallis; linebacker Tom Whidden; and linemen Sandy Stoddard and John Stone...
...Stoddard, on the other hand, is of another breed; the movement West, triggered by Greeley, came after the settlers in the wagon trains, and brought with it well-established Eastern customs. To Ford, Stoddard represents blind progress. Stoddard's first confrontation with Doniphon reveals absolutely no understanding between them; they eye each other as if the other were a strange animal...
Ford reveals Stoddard as incapable of adjusting to the life of the West: when Tom brings Hallie a "cactus rose," Stoddard, having seen real roses, cannot appreciate the beauty of the desert flower. Where Tom sees Liberty Valance as a source of personal conflict, a potential menace to his own well-being, Stoddard can only see Valance as the embodiment of a social evil that must be wiped out through new laws and social reform...
Though the audience tends to identify with Doniphon's individualism and to feel instinctively a desire to preserve the simplicity of the old West, the social change brought about by the railroad and the need for staehood slowly make the Doniphons and Valances obsolete. By killing Liberty Valance, facilitating Stoddard's rise to political prominence and the progressive modernization of the West, Doniphon destroys himself. Hallie, once Tom's girl, has fallen in love with Stoddard, and in sparing him, Doniphon loses her. He is left without the girl he loves at the dawn of a new era that...
Ford bitterly laments the intrusion of reality on his legend. When Hallie says to Stoddard at the end, "This country used to be a wilderness. Now it's a garden. You helped to make it," we cannot help feeling a deep regret that it had to happen that way. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is Ford's deeply personal farewell to a period in American history he loved, a folklore he helped create. Ford's westerns represent one of the most significant achievements in the history of American art. Liberty Valance, his masterpiece, is one of the greatest films...