The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance Page #7

the builder of cities.

We need roads to join those cities,

dams to store up

the waters of the Picketwire,

and we need statehood

to protect the rights

of every man and woman,

however humble.

How do we get it? l'll tell you how.

We get it by placing our votes

behind one man.

One man!

And we have that man with us here.

He is a man who came to us

not packing a gun,

but carrying instead

a bag of law books.

Yes. He is a lawyer and a teacher.

The first west of the rosy buttes.

But more important,

he's a man who has come to be known

throughout this territory

in the last few weeks as

a great champion of law and order.

Ladies and gentlemen,

l nominate as your delegate and mine,

to the Congress at Washington,

the Honourable Ransom Stoddard!

Let's have order!

Get going, Starbuckle.

Thank you, Mr Chairman. Thank you.

Well...

l see this demonstration,

but l can't believe my eyes.

ls it possible

that such a representative body

of honest, hard-working Americans

can endorse a candidate

for the Congress

of our beloved country

whose only claim to the office

is that he killed a man.

Do you call Liberty Valance a man?!

Order! Order!

Hear me out!

Who is this Ransom Stoddard?

And what qualifications has he

that entitle him to aspire

to such great office?

We are told he's a lawyer,

an attorney at law,

an officer of the court.

Yes, but what kind of lawyer?

A man who usurps the function

of both judge and jury

and takes the law into his own hand.

Quiet! Quiet!

What other qualifications

has he, then?

The blood on his hands?

The hidden gun beneath his coat?

The bullet-riddled body

of an honest citizen?

Honest citizen?! Liberty Valance?

You fool! Liberty Valance,

an honest citizen?

ls this your fearless champion

of law and order?

- Mr Chairman!

- The mark of Cain is on this man,

and the mark of Cain

will be on all of us

if we send him

with bloodstained hands

to walk the hallowed

halls of government...

- ..where Washington...

- Mr Chairman!

- Mr Chairman!

- Order! Order!

...yes, and Lincoln still live,

immortals in the memory of man.

Mr Chairman!

Rance! Rance!

Order! Order!

Pilgrim.

- Where are you going?

- l'm going home, Tom.

l'm going back east where l belong.

Valance couldn't make you run away.

What is it now, your conscience?

lsn't it enough to kill a man,

without trying to build a life on it?

You talk too much, think too much.

Besides,

you didn't kill Liberty Valance.

- What?

- Think back, pilgrim.

Valance came out of the saloon.

You were walking toward him

when he fired his first shot.

Remember?

Pompey.

All right, dude.

This time...right between the eyes.

But...

Tom, why did you do it?

Cold-blooded murder,

but l can live with it.

Hallie's happy. She wanted you alive.

- But you saved my life!

- l wish l hadn't.

Hallie's your girl now.

Go on back in there

and take that nomination.

You taught her

how to read and write.

Now give her something

to read and write about!

Well, you know the rest of it.

l went to Washington,

and we won statehood.

l became the first governor.

Three terms as governor,

two terms in the Senate,

Ambassador to the Court of St James,

back again to the Senate,

and a man who,

with the snap of his fingers,

could be the next vice president

of the United States.

You're not going to use the story,

Mr Scott?

No, sir.

This is the west, sir.

When the legend becomes fact,

print the legend.

He's right, Rance.

lt's getting late, Hallie.

We'll keep in touch with you,

Pompey. l promise.

- But, Mr Rance...

- Pork chop money.

Hallie...

Hallie, would you be too sorry

if once l get the new

irrigation bill through,

would you be too sorry

if we just up and left Washington?

l sort of have a hankering

to come back here to live.

- Maybe open up a law office.

- Rance...

lf you knew how often

l'd dreamed of it.

My roots are here.

l guess my heart is here.

Yes, let's come back.

Look at it.

lt was once a wilderness.

Now it's a garden. Aren't you proud?

Hallie, who put the cactus roses

on Tom's coffin?

l did.

Here, l got a brand-new spittoon...

Cuspidor, Hallie.

and Luke the engineer's got a full

head of steam in this tar bucket.

We'll make 25 miles an hour

or bust a boiler trying.

And we wired ahead to Junction City.

They'll hold the Express.

ln two days and two nights,

you'll be in Washington.

Thank you, Jason.

l'm going to write a letter

to the officials of this railroad

and thank them for their kindness

and for going to all this trouble.

You think nothing of it.

Nothing's too good for the man

who shot Liberty Valance.

Template

Rate this script:4.5 / 2 votes