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Shane

Shane

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Rating: 2 stars
Summary: non-working 50s housewife's western
Review: This show is tuned to the taste of a non-working housewife from that forgotten time when us could afford non-working housewifes and before they became ex-stinked. (Did I spell it right?)

Never mind, so, here's what she's got to love:

1. Male model quality gunfighter who hates guns and gunfighting, comes in squeaky clean designer golden leather robe and leaves as such.

2. A cute boy who plays only with wooden toy guns, if there is god forbid a real gun by him, it's securely unloaded, don't worry, keep ironing that shirt or cooking that 6 persons nuke family dinner....

3. If there is a fight -- it's cinematically attractive.

4. If someone gets killed, it happens so peacefully that she won't mind to see that dreadful scene again.

It's basically a mere one of the earliest screams against violence without offering any solution to such.

What solution did they offer in that "Angel and the Badman" (1947) with John Wayne? Oh, yeah, you leave your gun alone, but just make sure you got a sheriff around right in that moment when they start shooting at you. Well, here they offer another alternative -- make sure you got a gunfighter friend who whould shoot all them bad guys for you and ride away leaving your family clear from them bad guys...

Anything worth remembering? Nope. Not for me.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The BEST Western!!!! (-;
Review: I loved this movie when I was a little boy. I couldn't wait till I got home so I could strap on my six-gun. Now, when I watch it, I strap on my Glock. (-;

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I was there the year it was filmed.
Review: My family and I were in Jackson Hole, Wyoming the year that this movie was filmed. We drove down into the valley from Victor, Idaho and later shared the opening scene with "Shane" as he entered the valley. I have seen this movie many, many times and have most of the dialogue memorized. I am 62 and have shared it with my kids and grandkids to the point that they refuse to watch it with me again. (They secretly love it but not two to three times a month.) It is magnificent and probably means more to me personally because I was a kid who walked and rode all over Grand Teton National Park and the Jackson Hole area for years during the early 1950s. Watch for a white truck which moves from left to right in the very distant background as Shane approaches the ranch and the boy. It is very near the time when the boy is looking through the deer antlers. I never saw this vehicle until I watched the video on a 50" TV. Just an interesting thing that George Stevens ignored or didn't see.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A classic
Review: Jack Palance is magnificant in the minor role of the evil hired killer/gunfighter "Jack Wilson". Alan Ladd is very effective in his starring role as "Shane". This is one of the few westerns that is worth seen (I am not Western fan). I highly recommend this movie.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Overrated but not bad.
Review: Coming to this film, much heralded at the time of its release, after viewing Ford's "The Searchers," relatively neglected at the time of its release, is likely to produce a certain amount of incredulity. Maybe Pauline Kael, who trashes "Shane" as lifeless, stiffly-choreographed, overly-calculated myth-making, has a point after all. But to be fair to Stevens, "Shane" can be enjoyed on many levels. A viewer innocent enough to view the film through the eyes of Joey (Brandon de Wilde) can respond to its clearly delineated oppositions much as a 1953 audience. An adult viewer, on the other hand, might find in its visual splendor, poetic dialogue, melodramatic action, lush Victor Young score a cinematic version of grand opera. A Jungian or Freudian viewer, on the other hand, will recognize familiar archetypes as well as curious variations--the "femininity" and near-dandyism of Shane, who is a gunfighter in spite of himself. A historian will certainly see the film as situated in post-WW II America, a time when viewers needed assurance that a widely perceived threat to family values--the failure of the husband/father to return from the war or to resume his familiar place--was acutely felt. The film is capable of speaking to all of these levels, providing the viewer is willing to listen.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: zzzzzzz
Review: Ran this movie after seeing it on all the "best westerns" lists, and expecting a High Noon or at least a Rooster Cogburn. But by the middle of this maudlin insipid mushy semi tear jerker, well, zzzzzzzzzzzzzz. To state the obvious, Jack Palance flashes a little of his great charisma in a minor role (Palance as Shane might have saved this), Heflin is adequate and able to carry his part, Ladd might be a minor character actor today, and the boy and the wife--better left unsaid. The story is your typical simpleton good guys-bad guys routine without significant imbellishment and almost totally devoid of inspiration, dialogue that would make a kindergarden seem intellectual, and those fist fights could use a little more practice boys. The picture quality and and cinematogoraphy--kept getting the idea this was one of the first films ever made; a soundtrack reminding of fingernails on a blackboard, and still uncertain as to the mountains being real or fake. In the way of redeeming qaulities, one can understand that people who respond to certain aspects of movie making would rate this highly. There is a comforting quality of consistence through the picture, and it is in all its extremely simple ways a story where good, suprise, does triump over evil in the end, though maybe this could have used a little Hannibal Lecter for spice.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great Western, but ...
Review: I like Shane and always have.

A few things I noted:

- The commentary track on this DVD, by the Associate Producer and George Stevens's son, is pretty boring, and at times sounds like they didn't do a good job preparing for it, as if they're just making off-the-cuff remarks as they're watching the film for the first time in years. It could have been much better. One of the commentators even misquotes Brandon DeWilde's line: "Shane! Come Back!" when he mentions how the boy says "Come back, Shane!" This line is misquoted as often as Bogart's famous line in Casablanca (Bogart did NOT say "Play it again, Sam").

- The "continuity" person should have been fired! In the scene where Ben Johnson throws his whiskey shot on Alan Ladd's shirt in the store/bar, the "stain" moves around on his shirt - first it's kind of on both sides, then in the next cut it's kind of an upside-down V on both sides, then it appears to be TOTALLY GONE, then it is a big blob in the middle of the shirt.

- During the fight when Joe Starrett comes to Shane's rescue, in one cut Starrett has blood all over his chin, but in the next cut his chin is clean, and then in the next cut he has blood on his chin again.

- It is humorously obvious that they "miss" with a lot of their punches in the fight scene in the bar, even though heads "turn" as if they'd been struck. On close examination, it was not a well-staged fight scene. I guess such scrutiny comes after having seen the movie about a dozen times or more.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: "Shane" top-notch western
Review: I didn't grow up a fan of westerns; it was a long time before I would watch one. "High Noon" in college film class changed my mind. I could see the promise in the genre. I still am not a western fan per se, but I've seen a lot more since film class. After "High Noon", I would pick "Shane" as being an example of what a great film (western or otherwise) is. The quiet dignity of Alan Ladd as the stranger, Shane, is a testament to the 1950's hero who proves that courage is not always necessarily displayed by pugilism or gun fighting; it is also the ability to walk away from a fight if nothing can be won from it. Shane defends a squatter family that is being forcibly coerced to leave by a group of ruffians. The family takes Shane in, and he repays their kindness by helping with the heavy chores. Yet, Shane is no stranger to violence, as evidenced by the skittish, paranoid manner he displays in the beginning of the film. After the family patriarch and Shane are forced into fisticuffs by the extortionists, and the ruffians lose the first round, they call in a Northern gunslinger (Jack Palance) to finish the dirty dealings. Shane and the other squatters must now face their greatest challenge. This movie will hold your attention throughout. From beginning to end, the character of Shane remains clouded in mystery. Yet we know that in the face of unbearable odds, the man remains honorable, strong and heroic, quietly going about his job. The ultimate role-model movie. Great Technicolor and score as well!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: "Listen carefully, and you'll hear the "Batman" theme..."
Review: "Shane" is one of the ten best movies I've ever seen, fourth after "Forbidden Planet," "Superman:The Movie," and "Captain Sinbad." This movie's got something for everybody: a good fight for kids, romance for women, and the best duel ever for us guys! The music is great--and if you listen carefully, you'll hear the beginning of the "Batman" theme near the end of the movie!--the photography is great, and everything else is great! The promoters were right when they said, "There will never be another western like "Shane!" Come back, Shane!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of the classic Westerns.
Review: Along with "High noon","The magnificent Seven" and "The wild bunch","Shane" is one of the most definitive westerns ever,and also obviously one of the best.The story is both simple and powerful - the land-hungry ranchers intimidating the powerless farmers and then good gunman Shane helps the farmers while bad Gunman Jack Wilson helps the ranchers - and is the quintessential struggle between good and evil.The first 2 fist fights are in my opinion among the best ever in any film.As well as this,we see at the end Shane's prowess as a gunman.And his immortal words - a gun is a tool,as good or bad as the man using it - earlier. The story of "Shane" and indeed the character Shane have been reproduced to some extent in many other Westerns,including "Pale rider","Unforgiven" and differently in "The magnificent seven". Even non-westerns/neo-westerns like "Mad max 2" share a similar storyline. Basically,this is one of the films that set the standard for many westerns and other action films to come.


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