Shane[1953] is a masterpiece on so many levels that it is truly difficult to know where to begin. I could start by comparing it with "High Noon", a deserving and highly-praised effort which really cleaned up at the Oscars the previous year[1952], but which now seems very dated and somewhat artificial in my opinion. By comparison, Shane feels as if it could have been made last month, by all of our best film professionals working together on what can only be described as a labour of love - - music, cinematography, screenplay, acting, production design - - everything.
I saw Shane first when I was 8 or 9 years old, in the Daylight theatre in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, back in 1953 when it was first released. I have since seem this moving and beautiful parable at least a dozen times since then, and it keeps getting better each time, like a truly masterful piece of symphonic music with many layers and textures. The imagery in Shane is so deep and the story so full of mythological archetypes that the experience evoked in the viewer is timeless - - it is really about the "hero's journey". And the dialogue in Shane is every bit as authentic, noble and powerful as it was when I first saw it as a wide-eyed little boy who was knocked right off his feet. The experience keeps getting deeper and deeper, as I get older.
Shane is much more than a Western. It has more in common with the Saxon myth Beowulf or Homer's Odyssey than it does with other Westerns, or for that matter with most other movies. Shane is really an epic, an inspiring and beautifully made epic, which speaks to the very deepest parts of us, of what is means to be human - - - and to stand up on your own and be counted.
Bravo to George Stevens! Bravo to Alan Ladd and the rest of a stellar cast. Without a doubt one of the best dozen or so movies ever made.
I saw Shane first when I was 8 or 9 years old, in the Daylight theatre in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, back in 1953 when it was first released. I have since seem this moving and beautiful parable at least a dozen times since then, and it keeps getting better each time, like a truly masterful piece of symphonic music with many layers and textures. The imagery in Shane is so deep and the story so full of mythological archetypes that the experience evoked in the viewer is timeless - - it is really about the "hero's journey". And the dialogue in Shane is every bit as authentic, noble and powerful as it was when I first saw it as a wide-eyed little boy who was knocked right off his feet. The experience keeps getting deeper and deeper, as I get older.
Shane is much more than a Western. It has more in common with the Saxon myth Beowulf or Homer's Odyssey than it does with other Westerns, or for that matter with most other movies. Shane is really an epic, an inspiring and beautifully made epic, which speaks to the very deepest parts of us, of what is means to be human - - - and to stand up on your own and be counted.
Bravo to George Stevens! Bravo to Alan Ladd and the rest of a stellar cast. Without a doubt one of the best dozen or so movies ever made.