Shane (1953)

[Chedney Honks]

I've just finished Shane and I really enjoyed it. I think it comes down to the central performances of Alan Ladd, Van Heflin, Jack Palance and Jean Arthur, with whom I am quite quickly falling in love.

The material is pretty familiar, having first dipped my toe and now started wading into the genre, with the tension between the old and the new once again central to the emotive context. The stand-off between a group of hardy homesteaders and the entitled ranchers throwing their weight around is nothing I haven't seen before a few times now, and this plays the whole thing pretty straight. It just works so very well.

There are good guys and bad, with Alan Ladd the charismatic pillar of bravery, strength and integrity at the heart of it. There's an undercurrent of pain and an uncertain past as a gunfighter, though, which prevents him from being either a caricature or an infallible hero. It's not subversive in any way that I can can tell, but the beats land. You're willing him to settle down, enjoy an honest quiet life, but as he says, "A man has to be what he is."

It's got beautiful cinematography, wide open plains and a little hamlet full of character. The ranchers are mean and cruel but you can understand their frustration. The homesteaders are pretty cowardly and unlikeable, and yet you root for them all the same. Jean Arthur is great, and I thought her relationships with both Shane and her husband were beautifully played. She's a naturally brilliantly funny actor with a delightful voice like peanut brittle. Here, she's a lot more centred, her world turned upside down by her husband's stubbornness and Shane's arrival. Her son started off as a slightly annoying kid but by the end, his innocence was one of the strengths of the film, to see Shane's actions through his eyes, the joy and pain of hero worship.

I can see me watching this again on a few more lazy Sunday afternoons. A beautifully paced, atmospheric, satisfying tale. When I grow up, I wanna be like Shane.

[EOLAN]

I did have the Bill Hicks routine in mind when last watched. Waiting for Jack Pallance to ask one of the locals to pick up the gun without it ever happening. Seems closer to what happened with James Stewart and Lee Marvin in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.
Was a very enjoyable beautiful film. Love the awkward relationship between Van Helfin and Shane. Didn't find the child actor anywhere near as bad as most people seem to either.

Since you are rightly so full of praise for Jean Arthur, I will note that I thought she was outstanding in Mr Smith Goes to Washington. James Stewart character/performance doesn't really hit until the final showpiece act.

[Keebleman]

Haven't seen it for decades. Need to watch it again.  Did you know Alan Ladd used to fuck chickens? Gilbert Gottfried is always talking about it.

[notjosh]

Since you are rightly so full of praise for Jean Arthur, I will note that I thought she was outstanding in Mr Smith Goes to Washington. James Stewart character/performance doesn't really hit until the final showpiece act.

Absolutely adore Jean Arthur. She's also fantastic in Only Angels Have Wings, The Devil and Miss Jones, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Too Many Husbands and The More the Merrier, among others. Only thing she did after Shane was The Jean Arthur Show, which I've never got around to.

[Chedney Honks]

Thanks for the Jean Arthur recs, fellas. I first saw her in The Whole Town's Talking and picked up and really enjoyed Easy Living on another recommendation. She's so charming, funny, zesty, charismatic, beautiful and likeable. She just has that special indefinable something which you so rarely see.

[Chedney Honks]

I watched Shane again and it's a wonderfully entertaining heartwarming film. Proper heroes and villains stuff but Shane himself is a total heartbreaker. Having now watched The Searchers, there are parallels in how Shane can't really function in society although he would love to.

Also mentioned on the latest episode of the tremendous Wrong Reel podcast in a discussion on the Johnson County War.

[Dex Sawash]

Does Shane

Spoiler alert

definitely do it with the farmer's wife

[close]

?

[McChesney Duntz]

She does say

Spoiler alert

"Shane! Shane! Cum on my back, Shane!"

[close]

at one point, doesn't she?

[rjd2]

Not seen the film for a while so not as familiar with it as the OP obviously. I do remember loving it like any sane person would.

I went on YT earlier for clips again and I do remember this scene where Palance murdered a somewhat unarmed man. The slagging of Jackson and Lee was a WTF moment though from the main heel of the film as he was 100% right. Love to know the logic of that dialogue.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWnDVW07_1c

[Echo Valley 2-6809]

Did you know Alan Ladd used to fuck chickens? Gilbert Gottfried is always talking about it.

Never rang true to me - he had a chicken farm so it's an obvious insinuation. Danny Thomas on the other hand...

[Chedney Honks]

Not seen the film for a while so not as familiar with it as the OP obviously. I do remember loving it like any sane person would.

I went on YT earlier for clips again and I do remember this scene where Palance murdered a somewhat unarmed man. The slagging of Jackson and Lee was a WTF moment though from the main heel of the film as he was 100% right. Love to know the logic of that dialogue.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWnDVW07_1c

I think that's one of the most interesting and representative examples of why Shane is so fucking good. On the surface, it seems like a pretty basic, trad Western but there's actually a lot more going on with the drama and the characters which makes it so rich. That scene with Jack Palance is so sinister and ominous and brutal, really impactful, but he's also quite right. It just adds a greyness to the morality and your sympathies. Same as Shane himself is such a mythic idol in many respects but he's also a total misfit, his fate can be nothing but tragic, he can never escape his past and his baggage.

I think this is a very easily underrated picture.

[Chedney Honks]

I've started dressing like Shane.

[cacciaguida]

Can I just say that I've not watched the film (yet) but that it inspired the name of Frank Skinner's underrated sitcom of the same name.

[Chedney Honks]

Good show. I wish it would come back.

[Mr Trumpet]

I liked that the 60s Batman show had an evil cowboy-themed villain called Shame.