Tom Doniphon (John Wayne) has finally succumbed to death, having long held it at bay. Returning to his small town funeral in Shinbone are the lawyer-turned-senator Stoddard (Jimmy Stewart) and his wife (Vera Miles). Back in their prime, the three of them stood up to Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin) and the movie as a whole serves as a flashback to the love triangle and the heroism of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.

Directed by the famed John Ford, the film meanders slowly through the narrative, never hurried but no less entertaining. I'm guessing you either love John Wayne or hate him, but the love has been passed on to me from my grandparents, and I can appreciate his delivery of the long-suffering strength of a cowboy and leader of men. Wayne's Doniphon stands in stark contrast to the city boy/pretty boy take of Stewart's Stoddard: Wayne is in fact more like Valance than he is like Stoddard, as both men use violence not intelligence to get their desires.

But this Western isn't just like every other, where the man gets the girl and they ride away into the sunset together. No, this is a more complicated version, more like a Shakespearean tale set to an American frontier setting. And the average viewer of a black and white movie, at least a John Wayne Western, is no stranger to the plot, so I'll set out the ending. The fact that Doniphon would kill Valance on Stoddard's behalf simply to please a woman, to defend one man by murdering another and not care about it, that is the type of moral dilemma that we love extracting today. Interestingly enough, the star power of Stewart and Wayne could sell such a story in the 1960s, even when the audience preferred more straightforward heroes.

What makes a man? That's the question that dances with many a John Wayne story, and that's the kind of movie that this is. Is there a moment when it's too late to regret, and turn back? Is it ever too late to be forgiven? The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance seems to answer "no!" while embracing the future of peace and prosperity that Stoddard seems to have engineered as a politician. Hallie (Miles) seems to provide that redemption for Stoddard, but the closing seems to leave that question hanging over his head: Stoddard will always be measured by his shortcomings, no matter what progress he makes.

And maybe that's what we can take away: no redemption, no reconciliation, is complete without Christ. While our efforts may make us feel better, forgiveness alone flows from God, and without it, we can never be free.

This special centennial collection also comes with extra commentary from various filmmakers, and a seven-part featurette, The Soul of Myth.