Except that Wayne’s character (Tom Doniphon) wasn’t the “real hero”. Sure, he saved, Ranse from being killed and allowed him to be credited with killing Valance, in the process losing Hallie to him, but the real point of the film is that heroes are not made of single acts; they’re the people who spend a lifetime fighting injustice and championing the betterment of others. Doniphon could have killed the brutal and villainous Valance at any time, and frankly, nobody but Valance’s crew (who he and Pompey could probably have taken out in one fell swoop) would have cared. (Valance knows this, hence why he steers clear of Doniphon.) But he allows Valance to terrorize the townfolk and people around the area because he figures it’s a problem for the weakling sheriff and the sparsely manned marshalls to deal with.
Ranse Stoddard, on the other hand, came out West with a clutch full of law books and a dream of civilizing the West, giving it law and justice and, eventually, representation as a state. He had no prospects, and it was aptly clear that he was grossly inequipped to handle the perils of a West run by thugs and freerangers opposed to legal restrictions on grazing their cattle. He doesn’t tuck tail and run when beaten within an inch of his life by the eponymous villain; he stays and works to cover his room and board while he heals, then teaches the townfolk, including Pompey, the mestizo children, and of course Hallie to read and write, and more significantly, about the Constitution and the rights that they are all entitle to. Doniphon (in a fashion both typical of the characters Wayne typically played and Wayne himself in real life) has no real interest in this; he only comes around to aiding Doniphon because he sees how much this means to Hallie, and ultimately, what a better life this will make for her in the future when his cowpoke lifestyle is no longer viable.
In the end, Stoddard becomes a hero in the public eye because he “killed” Liberty Valance. But his real heroism was pressing forward in representing the public over the interests of freerangers, and working tirelessly to help the people of Shinbone and the unnamed state that is formed even as it clear that he’s become weary of maintaining the genial senatorial personality for the public. The moral of the film is that we are so focused on the single public event that brings a figure into prominence and often don’t appreciate the real effort that makes a genuine hero, hence the need to “print the legend, not the facts”. Doniphon, and to a certain extent, Hallie, both made sacrifices to make this happen, and for his part, Stoddard bears the guilt of both having lied to achieve his star and having deprived his friend and savior of the woman that he loved most in the world, but he carries on for the public good.
It’s a valid point. While Wayne was busy playing up the good ole’ boy cowboy persona and allowing the studio to build him up in the public image of a hero, Stewart put his career and life on the line to join the USAAF (technically, he was initially drafted but he had done much work to encourage and train pilots, and actually enlisted after failing to meet weight standard), become a B-24 pilot, and flew bombing sorties with the 453 and 445 Bombardment Groups, later flying pathfinder sorties with the 389 BG, and earning duty awards too numerous to list. After the war, he remained in the AAF and AF reserves, rising to the reserve range of Brigadeer General, and even flew missions (as a non-duty observer) over Viet Nam. Despite all this, he never brought up his service and downplayed his heroism with interviewers, only intentionally addressing it in public in support of the Air Force (mostly voiceovers for documentaries and occasionally promoting films like Strategic Air Command).
So not only is Ransom Stoddard the true hero of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance vice Tom Doniphon, but Jimmy Stewart was a genuine and humble hero in real life versus the bombastic and self-awarding Marion Mitchell Morrison.
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