"Shane! Shane! Come back!"
Classic Western, released in 1953. It was directed by
George Stevens, produced by Stevens and
Ivan Moffat, and written by
A.B. Guthrie, Jr., based on
Jack Schaefer's
novel. The stars included
Alan Ladd as Shane,
Jean Arthur as Marian Starrett,
Van Heflin as Joe Starret,
Brandon De Wilde as Joey Starrett,
Jack Palance as the evil Jack Wilson,
Ben Johnson as Chris Calloway,
Emile Meyer as Rufus Ryker, and
Elisha Cook, Jr. as Frank "Stonewall" Torrey.
You may know the
plot by now: the Starretts and other
homesteaders are being victimized by the
cattle ranchers. The
ranchers hire
gunslinger Jack Wilson to run off or kill the homesteaders, and Shane shows up to
defend the weak and powerless. In the end, his job completed, Shane rides off into the
sunset.
I don't consider this the best Western ever (personally, I prefer the
films of
John Ford), but "Shane" is certainly the most
beloved Western ever. Ladd's
white-hatted cowboy and Palance's
black-hatted murderer have become Western
icons, like De Wilde's shouted pleas at the end of the
movie. The themes of
self-reliance and the
noble stranger protecting the weak from
evil men are classics that never grow old. The
performances are almost universally
outstanding, though some of the
dialogue is a bit hackneyed.
"Shane" won an
Academy Award for
cinematographer Loyal Griggs. It was nominated for
Best Picture,
Best Director, and
Best Screenplay. Palance and De Wilde were both nominated for
Best Supporting Actor.
Interesting trivia:
Montgomery Clift was originally cast as Shane, and
William Holden was cast as Joe Starrett. Also, Palance was not, at the time the movie was filmed, very good with
horses. He had only one good mount during filming, and his riding was so
unsteady that, for his first scene in the movie, Stevens had Palance
walk his horse into town instead of riding it. The scene, of course, ended up being one of the most
memorable in the film.
Shane: "A gun is a tool, Marian, no better or no worse than any other tool, an axe, a shovel or anything. A gun is as good or as bad as the man using it. Remember that."
Research from the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com)