267. Shane (1953)

Directed By George Stevens

Synopsis

A family of farmers takes in a wandering gunman (Shane) who decides to stay on and work for the family. The local cattle baron wants to take over all the farms, the farmers get together and decide to fight him. After one of them gets shot by a hired gun some consider leaving. Eventually Shane has a showdown with the cattle baron and his hired gun, solves the problem and goes off into the sunrise.

Review

This is a film that definitely has a place on this list, not particularly because of any inherent directing or acting quality, but because of its iconic value. There are so many scenes here that have been lifted and "tributed" and just plain iconic that the film deserves its place here.

That said, there are plenty of things to dislike here, the kid is annoying, Ladd is not a particularly good actor, it feels kind of like a too violent children's film. But it does have a charm and innocence which is quite refreshing.

So not a great film, I guess if I was a bit younger I would have really loved it. This way I didn't but I recognise its value and importance. The almost great archetype of the "lonesome cowboy" film.

Final Grade

7/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

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 recorded in stereo, but heard in theatres only in mono - only films in Cinemascope and Cinerama used stereophonic sound at that time.

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 in which actors were attached to hidden wires that yanked them backwards when they were shot from the front.

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