Senator Ransom Stoddard (Stewart) and his wife Hallie (Miles) return to the small town of Shinbone where Stoddard first settled to practice law. He has come for the funeral of his friend Tom Doniphon (Wayne) and takes the opportunity to talk to a journalist about the story that made him a legend and furthered his career - the fact that he shot and killed violent outlaw Liberty Valance (Marvin). In flashback, we see what really happened. It was the unsung Tom, even though he had lost Hallie to Ransom, who shot Valance from a hidden place, allowing the unsuspecting tenderfoot to think that the fatal bullet had come from his gun.

When the newspaper editor hears the truth, he refuses to print Stoddard's 'confession' by saying, 'When the legend becomes fact, then print the legend.' This effectively sums up the plot of this nostalgic, melancholy and moving late Western by the 67-year-old John Ford. With his wonderful repertory of familiar actors, Ford seems to be summing up his whole career, showing his beloved populist west becoming eaten away by democracy, law and literacy (in the person of James Stewart). John Wayne represents this decline from the cocky hero in "Stagecoach" (1939) to the moment in "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" when the gunslinger enters the political meeting toward the end, drunken, unshaven and shabby, putting up a brave front. Even though he is defeated in the film, we know that he is a winner, as is the film in all its autumnal glory.