Review of Shane (1953) by Jacob M — 05 Aug 2013

"Shane! Come back!".

Aside from many of John Wayne Westerns, such as The Searchers, Rio Bravo, and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, one of the most acclaimed Westerns of all-time is Shane, a film about freedom and justice for all. For the non-Western buff, is Shane a true classic like The Searchers or overrated junk like Major Dundee? Well, I think Shane is a classic, and a Western well worth your time.

Set in Wyoming shortly after the end of the Civil War, gunfighter Shane (Alan Ladd) arrives in a homestead community and works as a farmer under Joe Starrett (Van Heflin), intending to eliminate his old ways and be a new person. His presence delights Joe's wife Marian (Jean Arthur), and is "worshipped" by the child Joey (Brandon De Wilde). Everything goes well until the community is threatened by a land baron (Emile Meyer), who hires gunmen, such as Jack Wilson (Jack Palance), to intimidate the farmers, drive them off their lands, and even kill if they object. Joe wants to stand up to the corrupt baron, but Shane is considering of coming out of retirement.

When watching Shane, I didn't know what to expect. I came in believing the film would be a dull, uninspiring Western like Major Dundee, but ended up to be a masterpiece. The cinematography is excellent; the colors are drawn out showing the beautiful scenery of Wyoming, and shows how epic Westerns can be. The score is epic. Simply epic. It's epic, moving, stunning, heart-wrenching, and beautifully made.

What really makes Shane the masterpiece it is is the real message in the film. It tells a true American message, that people have rights to call any place their home, and no one has the privilege to take it away. I was moved, especially considering the last Western I saw was racist towards the French.

They could have picked John Wayne. They could have picked Gregory Peck. They even could have picked James Stewart in the role, but Alan Ladd, who I'm not familiar with, is fantastic in the role of Shane. He's tough, he's simple-minded, and knows how to draw out a crowd. My favorite moment is where he's intimidated in a bar, and starts an epic fight with no weapons. Van Heflin is also fantastic as Joe the patriarch. Jean Arthur plays the wife, and while she can be a tad annoying, I enjoyed the character's concerns about the issues and the implied romance with Shane. Jack Palance, as the hired gunman, delivers, and shows his unique toughness in another of my favorite scenes, where his character intimidates a farmer and kills him in cold blood. As Willy Wonka says, "The suspense is terrible. I hope it will last.".

As far as child actors go, you either love them or hate them, but in the case of Brandon De Wilde, he's in the middle. Brandon reminded me of Jake Lloyd in The Phantom Menace, where he acts strong enough for a kid, but falls flat when it comes to heavy material. The scenes where he discusses issues with Shane didn't move me enough as the director intended audiences to do, and serve as the weakest scenes in the entire film. Though the final scene with the two is the one scene where it was actually moving, and famous in cinematic history.

Though lacking in terms of depth between Shane and the kid, Shane is an exciting, dark, realistic, moving, touching Western filled with excellent cinematography, powerful acting, especially from Alan Ladd as the title character, and provides us with a powerful message about American pride. Shane, along with The Searchers, is truly what a Western should be.