Shane (film)

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Shane
Directed by George Stevens
Produced by George Stevens
Written by Jack Schaefer (novel)
A.B. Guthrie Jr.(screenplay)
Jack Sher (additional dialogue)
Starring Alan Ladd
Jean Arthur
Van Heflin
Brandon De Wilde
Jack Palance
Ben Johnson
Edgar Buchanan
Elisha Cook Jr
Ellen Corby
Emile Meyer
Music by Victor Young
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release date(s) 23 April 1953 (USA)
Running time 118 min.
Language English
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Shane is a 1953 western film made by Paramount Pictures. 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. The cinematography was by Loyal Griggs, the music score by Victor Young and the costume design by Edith Head.

The film stars Alan Ladd, Jean Arthur and Van Heflin with Brandon De Wilde, Elisha Cook Jr., Jack Palance and Ben Johnson.

Contents

[edit] Background and production

Shane tells the story of a gunfighter who comes to a recently settled farm area near a quiet town and fights for the rights of homesteaders against the long-entrenched hard-bitten open-range cattlemen who control the majority of the land.

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 the Paramount Studios, Hollywood.

George Stevens originally cast Montgomery Clift as Shane, and William Holden as Joe Starrett. When they both proved unavailable, the film was nearly abandoned. Stevens asked studio head Y. Frank Freeman to see a list of available actors with current contracts. He chose Alan Ladd, Van Heflin and Jean Arthur within three minutes.

Although the film was made between July and October 1951, it was not released until 1953 due to director George Stevens' extensive editing. The film cost so much to make that at one point, Paramount considered selling it to another distributor. The studio felt the film would never recoup its costs. It ended up making a significant profit.

Jean 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, although she later appeared in two television series.

Jack Palance had problems with horses and Alan Ladd with guns. The scene where Shane practices shooting in front of Joey required 119 takes.

[edit] Technical details

Shane was the first flat widescreen (soft matted 1.66:1) color western film to be produced. (It was actually shot for 1.37:1 Academy ratio, but the studio dictated that it be cropped in the movie projector to compete with the to-be-released CinemaScope format.) The music was stereophonic.

The film was also one of the first films to attempt to recreate the overwhelming sound of gunfire. Warren Beatty cited this aspect of Shane as inspiration during the filming of Bonnie and Clyde (from the documentary "George Stevens: A Filmmaker's Journey").

In addition, Shane was one of the first films to simulate actually being shot. Actors were attached to hidden wires that yanked them backwards when they were shot from the front.[citation needed]

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

A mysterious gunslinger named Shane (Alan Ladd) drifts into a quiet western town, and quickly 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 him off his 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).

As tensions mount between the factions, Ryker hires Jack Wilson (Jack Palance), a cold-blooded and skilled gunslinger. In the end, Shane must make several tough moral decisions that will affect everyone involved. Circumstances finally force Shane to take on Wilson in a climactic showdown, killing him and Ryker, but being wounded in the shootout. After urging young Joey to refrain from a life of guns and violence, Shane leaves for parts unknown.

When Shane rides away, Joey calls after him "Mother wants you. I know she does." The boy recognizes that his mother and Shane are attracted to each other. The movie closes with Joey shouting "Shane! Shane! Come back!"

Due to the ambiguous nature of the final shot, there is some question as to whether or not Shane actually survives his wound.

[edit] Awards and nominations

The film received six Academy Awards nominations. It won the Best Cinematography, Color. The other nominations were for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Brandon De Wilde), Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Jack Palance), Best Director, Best Picture and Best Writing, Screenplay.

The original film has been deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.

[edit] 'Shane' in popular culture

  • In Sergio Leone's "Spaghetti" epic Once Upon a Time in the West, he made tribute sequence to Shane where we see a young boy pretending to shoot birds while hunting with his dad. That scene is similar to Joey when he is playing field and pretending to shoot ducks before he met Shane.
  • In one of Charles Schulz's Peanuts comic strips, Snoopy, dressed as a cowboy, tells Woodstock he doesn't like the latter's yelling "Come back, Shane!" (rendered in Woodstock's signature "chicken scratch" dialect).
  • At the start of the 1984 Roger Waters concept album The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking, Roger Waters' character is watching the film Shane on his television. Later on, the title track contains the lyrics: 'Do you remember Dick Tracy?/Do you remember Shane?' The lyrics indicate that Waters believed that Shane did indeed die.
  • In Ultimate X-Men, Storm compares the periodically nomadic Wolverine to Shane, saying he goes "from town to town, righting wrongs".
  • In the Samuel L. Jackson and Kevin Spacey movie The Negotiator, the ambiguity of the ending is used as a plot point. Spacey's character, Chris Sabian, asks Samuel L. Jackson's character, Danny Roman, why (in a conversation the two were having about Sabian's interests) Danny chose a movie in which the hero dies at the end. The two proceed to have an argument about what happens to Shane: Sabian arguing that Shane dies, citing Shane slumping, while Roman argues that that is only an assumption.
  • The movie line "Shane. Shane. Come back!" was voted as the 47th most famous movie quote by the American Film Institute.
  • The Batman (TV series) created a villain called Shame played by Cliff Robertson. His costume was nearly identical to Shane's gunfighter outfit, and a young boy ended the episode calling "Come back, Shame!" as Batman carted Shame off to prison.
  • Hey Arnold! uses a variation of the famous line; "Wayne, Wayne. Come back!"
  • The cartoon show, Animaniacs, which frequently featured a pop-culture reference in the opening title, in one episode included the lyric "Come back, Shane-ee", with the character Dot dressed up as a cowgirl, and a cowboy riding away.
  • Bill Hicks compares the United States' selling of arms to countries on which they subsequently wage war to the scene in Shane where Jack Palance's character urges the sheep herder to pick up a gun in order for the former to have a reason for shooting the latter.
  • Cowboy Bebop: The Movie uses an animated version of the final shootout as the movie playing in the background at a drive-in movie theater as Jet Black receives information from a police contact.
  • In the film Primary Colors, Adrian Lester's character is watching Shane and, after mouthing the final words of the movie, implores Shane to run for President.
  • The television show, Gilmore Girls, which is widely known for its fast paced pop-culture references mentions the movie in the third season, episode two titled "Haunted Leg". In the episode, main character Rory Gilmore replies "Shane. As in "come back?"." to Jess Mariano in reference to his girlfriends' name.

[edit] Welsh language version

Shane was one of few films to be dubbed into the Welsh language, and was broadcast on Television in Wales. Since the audience of the Welsh Language version were fluent English speakers and familiar with the original version, many of the translations of lines from the film caused considerable amusement, such as "Siwmae Shane" for "Howdy Shane", and "Ti'n cachwr Shane". The latter phrase would be considered as vulgar, and most would not consider it an accurate literal translation of the original, where there is no evidence of vulgar language. Since Shane was dubbed, S4C has in fact used little if any dubbed material.[citation needed]

[edit] Trivia

  • The title character's name is uttered 86 times, constituting over 1% of the 7600 words of dialogue.

[edit] External links

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