''Shane'' is a 1953 American
Western film from Paramount. It was produced and directed by
George Stevens from a
screenplay by
A.B. Guthrie Jr., based on the 1949
novel of the same name by
Jack Schaefer. Its Oscar-winning cinematography was by
Loyal Griggs. The film stars
Alan Ladd,
Jean Arthur (in her last film after a thirty-year career) and
Van Heflin, and features
Brandon De Wilde,
Elisha Cook Jr.,
Jack Palance and
Ben Johnson.
''Shane'' was listed #45 in the 2007 edition of AFI's 100 Years…100 Movies list and #3 on AFI's 10 Top 10 in the category Western.
Plot
A stranger who calls himself Shane (
Alan Ladd) drifts into an isolated valley in the sparsely settled territory of Wyoming. It soon becomes apparent that he is a
gunslinger, and he finds himself drawn into a conflict between simple
homesteader Joe Starrett (
Van Heflin) and powerful cattle baron Rufus Ryker (
Emile Meyer), who wants to force Starrett and every other homesteader in the valley off the land. Shane accepts a job as a
farmhand, but finds Starrett's young son Joey (
Brandon DeWilde) drawn to him for his strength and skill with a gun. Shane himself is uncomfortably drawn to Starrett's wholesomely charming wife, Marian (
Jean Arthur).
When Shane and the rest of the homesteaders go into town, Shane gets into a fistfight with Ryker's men. With Joe's help, they beat up Ryker's men, and the shopkeeper orders them out. Ryker then declares that he and his men will kill the next time Shane or Joe return to the town.
As tensions mount between the factions, Ryker hires Jack Wilson (Jack Palance), a skilled gunslinger. After Wilson kills ex-Confederate Frank 'Stonewall' Torrey (Elisha Cook, Jr.), a hot-tempered Alabama homesteader who had stood up to him, the homesteaders have a funeral for him with many planning to leave afterwards. Once the funeral is over, the homesteaders see a fire burning in the distance. Ryker's men have set fire to the house of one of the homesteaders, Lewis. The homesteaders then resolve to keep fighting and they promise to help rebuild the house despite fears that the same will happen to them. Joe Starrett decides to take it upon himself to kill Wilson and Ryker and save the town; however, one of the cowpunchers, who declares that he's "quitting" Ryker, tells Shane that Joe is "up against a stacked deck." Shane stops Joe, and the two men fight over who should go on to face Wilson. Shane regretfully uses his gun to hit Joe over the head and knock him out, knowing this was the only way to prevent Joe from facing Ryker and getting killed. Joey yells at Shane, and then turns to his father. Shane saddles up and rides to the town.
At the town, Shane walks into the saloon. He faces Wilson first; they both draw their guns and Shane shoots Wilson several times. Shane turns swiftly to his left and guns down Ryker. Shane turns to leave. Joey, having followed Shane from the farm, warns Shane of danger. Ryker's brother is on the staircase with a Winchester rifle, and is able to fire first. He shoots Shane in the back, but then Shane returns fire and the rifleman collapses from the staircase onto the floor.
Joey runs up to Shane; Shane asks Joey to take care of the homestead and to watch over his family. The wounded Shane gets onto his horse and rides away. He is upright (looking down at the ground at night) with his left arm hanging to one side. He rides past the grave stones on Cemetery Hill, symbolically appearing to sink down amongst them.
The film does not explicitly indicate whether Shane survives the wound he received in the shootout. This has led to sometimes heated discussions among fans of the film, as depicted in the 1998 film ''The Negotiator''.
Cast
Alan Ladd as Shane
Jean Arthur as Marian Starrett
Van Heflin as Joe Starrett
Brandon De Wilde as Joey Starrett
Jack Palance (credited as Walter Jack Palance) as Jack Wilson
Ben Johnson as Chris Calloway
Edgar Buchanan as Fred Lewis
Emile Meyer as Rufus Ryker
Elisha Cook, Jr. as Frank 'Stonewall' Torrey
Douglas Spencer as Axel 'Swede' Shipstead
John Dierkes as Morgan Ryker
Ellen Corby as Mrs. Liz Torrey
Paul McVey as Sam Grafton
John Miller as Will Atkey, bartender
Edith Evanson as Mrs. Shipstead
Leonard Strong as Ernie Wright
Nancy Kulp as Mrs. Howells
Production notes
thumb|Behind the scenes of the filming of Shane.Although the film is fiction, elements of the setting are derived from
Wyoming's
Johnson County War. The physical setting is the high plains near
Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and many shots feature the
Grand Teton massif looming in the near distance. Other filming took place at
Big Bear Lake,
San Bernardino National Forest, the Iverson Ranch,
Chatsworth and at Paramount Studios in
Hollywood, California.
Director George Stevens originally cast Montgomery Clift as Shane, William Holden as Joe Starrett; when they both proved unavailable, the film was nearly abandoned. Stevens asked studio head Y. Frank Freeman for a list of available actors with current contracts. Within three minutes, he chose Alan Ladd, Van Heflin and Jean Arthur, though Arthur was not the first choice to play Marian; Katharine Hepburn was originally considered for the role. Even though she had not made a picture in five years, Arthur accepted the part at the request of George Stevens with whom she had worked in two earlier films, ''The Talk of the Town'' (1942) and ''The More the Merrier'' (1943) for which she received her only Oscar nomination. ''Shane'' marked her last film appearance (when the film was shot she was 50 years old, significantly older than her two male costars), although she later appeared in theater and a short-lived television series.
Although the film was made between July and October 1951, it was not released until 1953 due to director Stevens' extensive editing. The film cost so much to make that at one point, Paramount negotiated its sale to Howard Hughes, who later pulled out of the arrangement. The studio felt the film would never recoup its costs, though it ended up making a significant profit. Another story reported that Paramount was going to release the film as "just another western" until Hughes watched a rough cut of the film and offered to buy it on the spot from Paramount for his RKO Radio Pictures. Hughes' offer made Paramount reconsider the film for a major release.
Jack Palance had problems with horses and Alan Ladd with guns. The scene where Shane practices shooting in front of Joey required 116 takes. A scene where Jack Palance mounts his horse was actually a shot of him dismounting, but played in reverse. As well, the original planned introduction of Wilson galloping into town was replaced with him simply walking in on his horse, which was noted as improving the entrance by making him seem more threatening.
Technical details
''Shane'' was the first film to be projected in a "flat"
widescreen, a format that Paramount invented in order to offer audiences something that Television could not—a panoramic screen. Paramount, in conjunction with the management of Radio City Music Hall, installed a screen measuring 50 feet wide by 30 feet high, replacing the Hall's previous screen, which was 34 feet wide by 25 feet high. Although the film's image was shot using the standard 1.37:1
Academy ratio, Paramount picked ''Shane'' to debut their new wide-screen system because it was composed largely of long and medium shots that would not be compromised by cropping the image. Using a newly cut aperture plate in the
movie projector, as well as a wider-angle lens, the film was exhibited in its first-run venues at an aspect ratio of 1.66:1. Just before the premiere, Paramount announced that all of their films would be shot for this ratio from then on. This process was new to the general public, only having been debuted in New York City with ''
This is Cinerama'' and nationally with Warner Bros. picture, ''
House of Wax''.
The film was also one of the first films to attempt to re-create the overwhelming ''sound'' of gunfire. Warren Beatty cited this aspect of ''Shane'' as inspiration during the filming of ''Bonnie and Clyde.''
In addition, ''Shane'' was one of the first films in which actors were attached to hidden wires that yanked them backwards when they were shot from the front. The director George Stevens was in World War II and saw what a single bullet can do to a man.
In the mid to late 1970s, the Welsh television station HTV Cymru/Wales broadcast a version dubbed into the Welsh language.
Reception
The film opened in New York City at
Radio City Music Hall on April 23, 1953. According to ''Motion Picture Daily'', "opening day business at the Music Hall was close to capacity. The audience at the first performance applauded at the end of a fight sequence and again at the end of the picture.
Bosley Crowther, after attending the premiere, called the film a "rich and dramatic mobile painting of the American frontier scene" and noted:
Crowther called "the concept and the presence" of Joey, the little boy played by Brandon De Wilde, as being key to "permit[ting] a refreshing viewpoint on material that's not exactly new. For it's this youngster's frank enthusiasms and naive reactions that are made the solvent of all the crashing drama in A. B. Guthrie Jr.'s script."
''Shane'' ended its run at Radio City Music Hall on May 20, 1953, racking up $114,000 in four weeks at Radio City.
Nearly 50 years later, Woody Allen called ''Shane'' "George Stevens' masterpiece" and said it is on his "list of great American films, which include, among others, ... ''The Treasure of the Sierra Madre'', ''White Heat'', ''Double Indemnity'', ''The Informer'' and ''The Hill'' by Sidney Lumet.... ''Shane''...is a great movie and can hold its own with any film, whether it's a western or not."
Awards and honors
Wins
Academy Award for Best Cinematography, Color, Loyal Griggs; 1954.
Nominations
Academy Awards: Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Brandon De Wilde; Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Jack Palance; Best Director, George Stevens; Best Picture, George Stevens; Best Writing, Screenplay, A.B. Guthrie Jr.; 1954.
Other
In 1993, ''Shane'' was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
''Shane'' was listed at #69 on the original ''AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies'' list in 1997. When the list was revisited in 2007, it rose to #45.
In June 2008, AFI revealed its "Ten top Ten"—the best ten films in ten "classic" American film genres—after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community. ''Shane'' was acknowledged as the third best film in the western genre.
American Film Institute recognition
AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies #69
AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains:
*Shane, Hero #16
AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes #47
*"Shane. Shane. Come back!"
AFI's 100 Years... 100 Cheers #53
AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) #45
AFI's 10 Top 10 #3 Western
Homages
Clint Eastwood's western ''
Pale Rider'' pays tribute to ''Shane'' with a similar plot and similar ending. The movie ''
Nowhere to Run'' (1993) with
Jean-Claude Van Damme and
Rosanna Arquette was loosely based on ''Shane''. The 1965 comedy western ''
Cat Ballou'' spoofs ''Shane'' in various ways. Its buckskin-clad "good" gunfighter Kid Shelleen and black-clad villain Tim Strawn are obviously patterned after Shane and Jack Wilson, respectively, though in ''Cat Ballou'' the two adversaries turn out to be brothers. The McBain family funeral scene in the
Sergio Leone epic ''
Once Upon a Time in the West'' (1968) is borrowed almost shot-for-shot from the funeral scene in ''Shane''.
The 1984 album ''The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking'' by British musician and Pink Floyd founder member Roger Waters references the movie ''Shane'' extensively. Mainly in the track "5.01AM" where audio samples from the movie are used to punctuate verses of the song.
It is also speculated that the animated hit "Cowboy Bebop" based its final episode loosely off the ending to "Shane". In homage of the Western Hit.
The 1966 television series ''Batman'' featured a cowboy-themed villain called "Shame" played by Cliff Robertson. The storyline that introduces Shame also riffs on the film's famous catchphrase, featuring a young boy calling "Come back, Shame!"
Copyright status in Japan
In 2006, ''Shane'' was the subject of a major legal case in
Japan involving the expiration of its
copyright in Japan. First Trading Corporation had been selling budget-priced copies of public domain movies, including ''Shane'', as Japanese law only protected cinematographic works for 50 years from the year it was published—which meant that ''Shane'' fell into the public domain in 2003. In a lawsuit filed by Paramount, it was contested that ''Shane'' was not in the public domain in Japan due to an amendment which extended the copyright term for these works from 50 to 70 years, and came into effect on January 1, 2004. It was later ruled that the new law was not retroactive, and any film produced during or before 1953 was not eligible for the extension.
References
External links
''Shane'' at Filmsite.org
Category:1953 films
Category:American films
Category:English-language films
Category:1950s Western films
Category:Films directed by George Stevens
Category:Films shot in Technicolor
Category:Films shot in Wyoming
Category:Films whose cinematographer won the Best Cinematography Academy Award
Category:Paramount Pictures films
Category:United States National Film Registry films
Category:American Western films
ca:Arrels profundes
de:Mein großer Freund Shane
es:Shane
eo:Shane
fr:L'Homme des vallées perdues
ko:셰인 (영화)
hr:Shane (1953)
it:Il cavaliere della valle solitaria
he:שיין (סרט)
nl:Shane (film)
ja:シェーン
no:Shane
pl:Jeździec znikąd (film)
pt:Shane
ru:Шейн (фильм)
fi:Etäisten laaksojen mies
sv:Mannen från vidderna