Review of Shane (1953) by Oliver B — 19 Oct 2007

This is a very simple story, elegantly told though very dated now. Its snail-like pace, sluggish direction and heavy, stressed dialogue make it perhaps harder for the Empire generation to watch without sniggering than much older westerns (for instance Stagecoach or Destry Rides Again).

Certainly, there's little I can offer in defence of two particularly glaring technical problems: very poor day-for-night and the horrible sets of the July 4th celebration scenes. These are shallow aesthetic problems, however, and shouldn't (for me don't) affect the overall experience.

Shane is blank. He has no surname: he is both past and future. Though the time he operated in was little more than thirty years in "real life" (whatever that is), the West of the screen is an everlasting period of history to which normal rules of time and space do not (or need not) apply, though which Shane will drift forever, haunted by Brandon De Wilde's doleful cries.

..