Shane (film)

• Release Date: 1953
• Director(s): George Stevens
• Writer(s): A. B. Guthrie
• Principal Actors and Roles: Jean Arthur (Marian Starrett); Van Heflin (Joe Starrett); Alan Ladd (Shane); Brandon De Wilde (Joey Starrett); John Dierkes (Morgan Ryker); Emile Meyer (Rufus Ryker); Jack Palance (Jack Wilson)
• Book / Story Film Based On: Shane by Jack Schaefer

Shane is a style-setting western movie shot in Technicolor in 1953. Producer/director George Stevens shot it for Paramount’s new "flat widescreen" format. Paramount’s idea was to give movie-going audiences something they could not experience on television, and to that end they partnered with Radio City Music Hall in New York to install a screen that was fifty feet wide and thirty feet tall. Shane was composed mostly of medium-distance and long shots that could, it was assumed, withstand the cropping necessary for the widescreen format and thus could be shown in the new format as well as in theaters with standard screens.

Stevens, a World War II combat veteran, added sound and technical innovations to add to the movie’s realism. For example, he fired a small cannon into a trashcan to mimic on the sound track the report of a gunshot at close range. He attached wires to characters so that they were yanked backward when they were shot from the front in order to increase the realism of the violence.

Technical advances aside, Shane delivered moral complexity within a timeless conflict between good and evil that set it apart from almost all other westerns. It uses symbolic sequences that have become classics, such as the early scene of settlers laboring to uproot a tree stump from the farmer’s yard. In the process, it encapsulates both the mythology of America’s westward expansion and the gritty reality of the conflict between encroaching civilization and those who pioneered "lawless" territory.

Plot

Shane, a gunslinger whose past is opaque, arrives at the Wyoming homestead of Joe Starrett, his wife Marian, and his son Joey. While he has a drink of water a group of armed thugs ride up. This causes Shane to stick around. As the Starretts serve him a meal, Shane learns about the ongoing conflict between Starrett and other homesteading farmers and a local cattle baron named Ryker who wants their farms to remain open range for his cattle.

When Shane accompanies Starrett and other homesteaders into town for supplies, the first conflict occurs. The general store is next to the saloon, and Ryker’s men are drinking there. Shane orders a soda. One of Ryker’s men named Calloway mocks Shane and throws a shot of whiskey on Shane’s new shirt, telling him to, "Smell like a man!"

Shane ignores the insult until the next time they meet at the saloon. Then Shane orders two shots of whiskey. He throws one onto Calloway’s shirt and throws the other in his face. Shane then knocks the bigger man down. He prevails in the ensuing brawl, thanks to help from Starrett. Ryker threatens their lives the next time they meet.

Back at the ranch Shane shows Joey how to handle a gun. Joey’s growing hero worship increases as Shane demonstrates his prowess with a firearm. Horrified, Marian breaks up the session, insisting that guns will not be a part of her son’s life. Despite the obvious attraction between Shane and Marian, Shane disagrees, arguing that his gun is a tool just like a shovel—the gun is no better or worse than the man who uses it. Marian contends that the valley where they live would be better if there were no guns in it.

In town, Jack Wilson, a psychopathic killer who works for Ryker, manufactures a conflict with another homesteader named Torrey. In a striking long shot, Wilson kills the farmer in the mud of the street, grinning sadistically in the aftermath. Homesteaders are frightened and ready to leave the valley, but when Ryker’s men set fire to one of their homes, their resolve stiffens in support of Starrett, who has become a leader among them.

Starrett is going to meet Ryker for a parley at the saloon, at which Wilson has been ordered to kill the farmer. Calloway has a change of heart and warns Shane, who then knocks Starrett out to prevent him from going into town and dying. Marian asks Shane if he is doing this for her, and he answers yes—for her and Joey and for every decent person in the valley who wants to live in peace.

In the saloon Shane tells Ryker that they are both relics of the old, lawless West, and there is no place any more for either of them. He then provokes Wilson, outdraws him, and kills the killer. He also kills Ryker, who has a secret gun, and Ryker’s brother who shoots him from the shadows. Shane is warned by Joey just in time to survive.

Wounded, Shane then tells the boy to go home and tell his mother there are no more guns in the valley. He rides away, clearly badly injured, as Joey delivers one of the most-quoted lines of all: "Shane! Shane! Come back!"

Significance

Shane was nominated for six Academy Awards, two best supporting actor nominations for Brandon DeWilde as Joey and Jack Palance as Wilson, best picture and best director to George Stevens, best screenplay, and best cinematography, for which it won the Oscar. In 1993 the Library of Congress selected the film for preservation as part of the National Film Registry. The American Film Institute listed it at sixty-ninth among its "100 Years . . . 100 Movies" listing, and it named the movie the third-best Western of all time. The character of Shane is number sixteen on the AFI’s list of "100 Heroes," and Joey’s final lines rank forty-seventh on the organization’s list of "100 Years . . . 100 Movie Quotes."

Just as important as the accolades it received, Shane created a standard for symbolism and moral messaging in Westerns. Shane wears a white hat, rides a pale horse, and dresses carefully, almost foppishly, while Wilson is sloppy in appearance and wears a black hat. Shane stands straight and is almost beatific in his good looks; Wilson slumps and leers with a smirking smile beneath high, sharp cheekbones and demonic eyes. Yet these almost comically symbolic adversaries are equally out of place in the new West that will be settled by decent people who follow the rule of law. And while Shane, the knight in shining armor, prevails, he too has been destroyed. The themes and imagery have been replicated in countless Westerns since Shane was released, from The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance to Firecreek to McCabe and Mrs. Miller.

Awards and nominations

Won

• Academy Award (1953) Best Cinematography (Color): Loyal Griggs

Nominated

• Academy Award (1953) Best Picture
• Academy Award (1953) Best Director: George Stevens
• Academy Award (1953) Best Supporting Actor: Brandon De Wilde, Jack Palance
• Academy Award (1953) Best Screenplay (Adapted): A. B. Guthrie

Bibliography

French, Philip. Westerns: Aspects of a Movie Genre. Manchester: Carcanet, 2005.

Gilmore, Richard. Doing Philosophy at the Movies. Albany: State U of New York P, 2005. Electronic, print.

Keating, Patrick, et al. Cinematography. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 2014. Electronic, print.

McGee, Patrick. From Shane to Kill Bill: Rethinking the Western. Hoboken: Wiley, 2006. Electronic, print.

Moss, Marilyn. Giant: George Stevens, a Life on Film. Madison: U of Wisconsin P, 2015. Print.

Schneider, Steven Jay. 1000 Movies You Must See Before You Die. New York: Barrons, 2013. Print.

Stevens, George, Jr., ed. Conversations with the Great Moviemakers of Hollywood’s Golden Age. New York: Knopf, 2006. Print.

Sullivan, Robert W. IV. Cinema Symbolism. Fairfax: Rocket Science, 2014. Electronic, print.