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Liberty Valance and the Cactus Rose
So a friend sends me news from the desert! This picture reminded me of the cactus rose in Liberty Valance, a contender for the greatest movie made in America–or anywhere, John Ford’s finest statement on the arrival of the Declaration of Independence, of justice, the laws, and a lawyer (Jimmy Stewart) who teaches a girl (Vera Miles) to read (her Bible, to begin with), to dream of real roses, and to choose the future. But in the past, there’s this other man (John Wayne), who knows she loves the cactus rose–a hardy growth which is beautiful over against the sublime desert–deadly, indifferent to man, eternal. There’s always that lingering memory of nature. The beauty of the vast wild American West reminds us always of freedom.
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