The acting collaboration between John Wayne and Vera Miles spanned five movies released between 1955 and 1968, but two classic Westerns stand out above the rest. John Ford’s 1956 movieThe Searcherspropelled Miles to global fame and is now considered the Duke’s most iconic performance, while 1962’sThe Man Who Shot Liberty Valanceis another of Ford’s best works. Yet, despiteThe Searchers’ unparalleled influence on the Western genre and cinema at large, it’sThe Man Who Shot Liberty Valancethat scores highest on Rotten Tomatoes among Wayne and Miles’ joint projects.
Vera Miles was first paired with John Wayne for the 1955 short filmRookie of the Year, which was an episode of anthology seriesScreen Directors’ Playhousegiven to John Ford to direct. Ford ended up retaining Miles for his next movie starring Wayne,The Searchers, a slow-burning Western featuring sumptuous panoramic visuals and career-defining performances.The Searchersdivided critical opinion upon its release, however, unlike Ford’s later Western thriller with akiller twist,The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance Is John Wayne & Vera Miles’ Best Rated Movie Together
It Scores 95% To The Searchers’ 87% On Rotten Tomatoes
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valancehas a score of 95% on Rotten Tomatoes, making it more highly-rated than any other collaboration between John Wayne and Vera Miles. It betters the score ofWayne’s favorite Western,The Searchers, by 8%, while the pair’s other three movies together,The Green Berets,Hellfighters,andRookie of the Year, are either very poorly rated or have no critical consensus.
InThe Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, the Duke plays local cowboy Tom Doniphon, who takes no prisoners in his approach to dealing with outlaws. Miles, meanwhile, plays Wayne’s warm-hearted love interest Hallie. The movie features one of the all-time great standoffs of the Western genre, in whichJohn Wayne owns the screen opposite Lee Marvin’s Liberty Valance.
Why The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance Outscores The Searchers On Rotten Tomatoes
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance Has More Critical Consensus Around It
It might be a surprise to some thatThe Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, an admittedly superb John Ford Western, outscoresThe Searchers, widely considered the greatest Western of all time, in terms of aggregated critical reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. But it’s worth bearing in mind that, upon its release,The Searchersdidn’t initially receive all that much acclaim, and wasn’t even nominated at the Oscars in 1957. Even today, some critics have a problem with the pacing of the movie.
10 Movies You Didn’t Know Were Inspired By John Wayne’s The Searchers
John Wayne’s classic western The Searchers is one of the most influential movies ever made, having inspired everything from Star Wars to Taxi Driver.
On the other hand,The Man Who Shot Liberty Valancehas been celebrated virtually from the moment it came out in 1962. It’s a more compact and polished movie thanThe Searchers, and features thriller genre tropes which help pull its audience in. The Duke had honed his tough-talking cowboy persona down to the last detail by the time he played Tom Doniphon, and legendary nice-guy character actorJames Stewart perfectly complements Wayne’s performance. Still, however well-reviewed Ford’s 1962 thriller is, there’s no question thatThe Searchershas left a greater legacy and been more influential on modern filmmaking overall.
