Shane

To my good fortune Shane had just started playing as I changed the channel to Turner Classic Movies.  This is a movie that I had seen before but it had been about nine years since I had seen it in school so I thought it deserved a second viewing.


As with my Sunset Boulevard post I won't be going into too much detail about why this is a good movie.  It is a classic Western that everyone should see.  It might be a little bold to call it the first Revisionist Western, but it at least helped pave the way for those new ideas to come to the genre.  The closer look this film takes in regards to the life of a gunfighter is still a refreshing idea today.  This theme steers the film into a less action-oriented story and gives us something much more genuine.  The film won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography, and it is clear to see why.  The landscapes are beautiful and some of the darker imagery used is quite striking.  One scene that stuck out notably in this sense was Stonewall's funeral.  As the ceremony comes to an end there is a panning shot that shows the gathering of people on cemetery hill all in silhouette.  The shot almost seemed out of place in a Western, but it's somber mood works perfectly in revealing that death actually means something in this picture.

Alan Ladd is definitely one of the most charming people ever to grace the silver screen.  Watching his performance I couldn't help but be in awe.  This was largely due to the presence of the Joey character.  This is why I find it hard to call this film a Revisionist Western.  Joey's innocence and naiveté flows out of the movie and into the audience.  This paints a less than realistic portrait of Shane.  He still is the hero that rolls into town to save the day, but the film takes a less than direct approach to that conclusion.  Even though I had seen the film before I still wanted Shane to defeat the bad guys.  I wanted him to show his stuff, and in that, I believe lies the strength of Ladd's performance.  I wasn't bored of the movie or bloodthirsty, or anything of that matter.  Ladd just seemed to exude this feeling of being in control at all times.  This comes from more than just his quick action with the gun.  The film builds him up as almost a demi-god like figure.  Alan Ladd does not strike me as an intimidating or powerful person, but Shane certainly commands the respect of everyone around him.  Even when he takes his licks I found myself reacting just as Joey did.  Just knowing that Shane was big enough to take it all.  I find this type of character hard to fit into a Revisionist Western.  I do see that side of the argument though.  For a character to exude this much charisma and still hold back with it is a pretty impressive feat.  In the end though, he's still forced to be the hero, and I think he has Joey to thank for that.  It would take a lot for a kid to still look up to you after you beat up his Dad and left him forever, but I completely understood where Joey was coming from.

One last thing I'd like to discuss is the action in this movie, specifically the two fist-fight scenes. There is a point in the fight while Joe and Shane are fending off all of Calloway's men that the turn to each other, smirk, and then return to deliver blows to the faces of these henchmen.  It's a good scene, but really there isn't anything too outstanding going on here.  It was just that moment that came up that I thought I was seeing the birth of the buddy movie.  It just reminded me so much of Rush Hour when Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker high-five each other mid jump-kick.  I wanted to point it out in case anyone has seen an earlier example of this sort of thing.  If you have please let me know.  Back to serious talk, I thought the fight between Joe and Shane was a really interesting piece of filmmaking.  As the fight starts the camera doesn't even follow it.  We remain inside the house with little Joey and his mother.  Even when we finally move outside to where the action is the shot is constantly obscured.  One image that really stood out to me was when the camera was placed behind the legs of a spooking horse and the men fought in the background.  This was another section of the film that could fall under that Revisionist label.  The whole film we're waiting for Shane to really let loose, and once he does we aren't even treated to a clear view of the event.  The drama of this fight seems to reach to everything in the vicinity, but the action itself is made little by comparison.  The fury of the natural surroundings dwarfs anything these men could do, and I think this is the point in the film the comes closest to making Shane actually human.








If you have any comments, or suggestions for films to watch, please leave some feedback.  Also if you have found a similar "buddy" moment that predates this film, I'd love to hear about it.