From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Shane is a 1953 American Western film from Paramount.[2][3] It was produced and directed by George Stevens from a screenplay by A.B. Guthrie Jr., based on the 1949 novel of the same name by Jack Schaefer. Its Oscar-winning cinematography was by Loyal Griggs. The film stars Alan Ladd, Jean Arthur (in her last film after a thirty-year career) and Van Heflin, and features Brandon De Wilde, Elisha Cook Jr., Jack Palance and Ben Johnson.
Shane is among the top 50 in AFI's 100 Years…100 Movies list.
Alan Ladd and Jean Arthur
A stranger who calls himself Shane (Alan Ladd) drifts into an isolated valley in the sparsely settled territory of Wyoming. It soon becomes apparent that he is a gunslinger, and he finds himself drawn into a conflict between simple homesteader Joe Starrett (Van Heflin) and powerful cattle baron Rufus Ryker (Emile Meyer), who wants to force Starrett and every other homesteader in the valley off the land. Shane accepts a job as a farmhand, but finds Starrett's young son Joey (Brandon DeWilde)
drawn to him for his strength and skill with a gun. Shane himself is
uncomfortably drawn to Starrett's wholesomely charming wife, Marian (Jean Arthur).
When Shane and the rest of the homesteaders go into town, Shane gets
into a fistfight with Ryker's men. With Joe's help, they beat up Ryker's
men, and the shopkeeper orders them out. Ryker then declares that he
and his men will kill the next time Shane or Joe return to the town.
As tensions mount between the factions, Ryker hires Jack Wilson (Jack Palance), a skilled gunslinger. After Wilson kills ex-Confederate Frank 'Stonewall' Torrey (Elisha Cook, Jr.),
a hot-tempered Alabama homesteader who had stood up to him, Joe
Starrett decides to take it upon himself to kill Wilson and Ryker and
save the town; however, one of the cowpunchers, who declares that he's
"quitting" Ryker, tells Shane that Joe is "up against a stacked deck."
Shane stops Joe, and the two men fight over who should go on to face
Wilson. Shane regretfully uses his gun to hit Joe over the head and
knock him out, knowing this was the only way to prevent Joe from facing
Ryker and getting killed. Joey yells at Shane, and then turns to his
father. Shane saddles up and rides to the town.
At the town, Shane walks into the saloon. He faces Wilson first; they
both draw their guns and Shane shoots Wilson several times. Shane turns
swiftly to his left and guns down Ryker. Shane turns to leave. Joey,
having followed Shane from the farm, warns Shane of danger. Ryker's
brother is on the staircase with a Winchester rifle, and is able to fire
first. He shoots Shane in the back, but then Shane returns fire and he
collapses from the staircase onto the floor.
Joey runs up to Shane; Shane asks Joey to take care of the homestead
and to watch over his family. The wounded Shane gets onto his horse and
rides away. He is upright (looking down at the ground at night) with his
left arm hanging to one side. He rides past the grave stones on
Cemetery Hill, symbolically appearing to sink down amongst them.
The film does not explicitly indicate whether Shane survives the
wound he received in the shootout. This has led to sometimes heated
discussions among fans of the film, as depicted in the 1998 film The Negotiator.
[edit] Production notes
Although the film is fiction, elements of the setting are derived from Wyoming's Johnson County War.[4] The physical setting is the high plains near Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and many shots feature the Grand Teton massif looming in the near distance. Other filming took place at Big Bear Lake, San Bernardino National Forest, the Iverson Ranch, Chatsworth and at Paramount Studios in Hollywood, California.
Director George Stevens originally cast Montgomery Clift as Shane, William Holden as Joe Starrett; when they both proved unavailable, the film was nearly abandoned.[citation needed] Stevens asked studio head Y. Frank Freeman
for a list of available actors with current contracts. Within three
minutes, he chose Alan Ladd, Van Heflin and Jean Arthur, though Arthur
was not the first choice to play Marian; Katharine Hepburn
was originally considered for the role. Even though she had not made a
picture in five years, Arthur accepted the part at the request of George
Stevens with whom she had worked in two earlier films, The Talk of the Town (1942) and The More the Merrier (1943) for which she received her only Oscar nomination. Shane
marked her last film appearance (when the film was shot she was 50
years old, significantly older than her two male costars), although she
later appeared in theater and a short-lived television series.
Although the film was made between July and October 1951, it was not
released until 1953 due to director Stevens' extensive editing. The film
cost so much to make that at one point, Paramount negotiated its sale
to Howard Hughes, who later pulled out of the arrangement.[citation needed] The studio felt the film would never recoup its costs, though it ended up making a significant profit. Another story[specify]
reported that Paramount was going to release the film as "just another
western" until Hughes watched a rough cut of the film and offered to buy
it on the spot from Paramount for his RKO Radio Pictures. Hughes' offer made Paramount reconsider the film for a major release.
Jack Palance had problems with horses and Alan Ladd with guns. The
scene where Shane practices shooting in front of Joey required 116
takes.[citation needed]
A scene where Jack Palance mounts his horse was actually a shot of him
dismounting, but played in reverse. As well, the original planned
introduction of Wilson galloping into town was replaced with him simply
walking in on his horse, which was noted as improving the entrance by
making him seem more threatening.
[edit] Technical details
Shane was the first film to be projected in a "flat" widescreen, a format that Paramount invented in order to offer audiences something that Television could not—a panoramic screen.[5]
Paramount, in conjunction with the management of Radio City Music Hall,
installed a screen measuring 50 feet wide by 30 feet high,[6] replacing the Hall's previous screen, which was 34 feet wide by 25 feet high.[7] Although the film's image was shot using the standard 1.37:1 Academy ratio, Paramount picked Shane
to debut their new wide-screen system because it was composed largely
of long and medium shots that would not be compromised by cropping the
image. Using a newly cut aperture plate in the movie projector,
as well as a wider-angle lens, the film was exhibited in its first-run
venues at an aspect ratio of 1.66:1. Just before the premiere, Paramount
announced that all of their films would be shot for this ratio from
then on.[5] This was changed in 1954, when the studio changed their house aspect ratio to 1.85:1.
The film was originally released with a conventional optical soundtrack
in April 1953, but the success of the film convinced the producers to
re-mix the soundtrack in May with a new three-track, stereophonic
soundtrack, which was recorded and played on a 35mm magnetic full coat
reel installed by Altec, in interlock on another dubber in the
projection booth.[8] This process was new to the general public, only having been debuted in New York City with This is Cinerama and nationally with Warner Bros. picture, House of Wax
The film was also one of the first films to attempt to re-create the overwhelming sound of gunfire. Warren Beatty cited this aspect of Shane as inspiration during the filming of Bonnie and Clyde.[9]
In addition, Shane was one of the first films in which actors
were attached to hidden wires that yanked them backwards when they were
shot from the front. The director George Stevens was in World War II and
saw what a single bullet can do to a man.[10]
In the mid to late 1970s, the Welsh television station HTV Cymru/Wales broadcast a version dubbed into the Welsh language.[11]
[edit] Reception
The film opened in New York City at Radio City Music Hall on April 23, 1953.[7] According to Motion Picture Daily,
"opening day business at the Music Hall was close to capacity. The
audience at the first performance applauded at the end of a fight
sequence and again at the end of the picture.[12]
Bosley Crowther, after attending the premiere, called the film a "rich and dramatic mobile painting of the American frontier scene" and noted:
Shane contains something more than the beauty and the grandeur
of the mountains and plains, drenched by the brilliant Western sunshine
and the violent, torrential, black-browed rains. It contains a
tremendous comprehension of the bitterness and passion of the feuds that
existed between the new homesteaders and the cattlemen on the open
range. It contains a disturbing revelation of the savagery that
prevailed in the hearts of the old gun-fighters, who were simply legal
killers under the frontier code. And it also contains a very wonderful
understanding of the spirit of a little boy amid all the tensions and
excitements and adventures of a frontier home.
Crowther called "the concept and the presence" of Joey, the little boy played by Brandon De Wilde,
as being key to "permit[ting] a refreshing viewpoint on material that's
not exactly new. For it's this youngster's frank enthusiasms and naive
reactions that are made the solvent of all the crashing drama in A. B.
Guthrie Jr.'s script."[13]
Shane ended its run at Radio City Music Hall on May 20, 1953, racking up $114,000 in four weeks at Radio City.[14]
Nearly 50 years later, Woody Allen called Shane "George Stevens' masterpiece" and said it is on his "list of great American films, which include, among others, ... The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, White Heat, Double Indemnity, The Informer and The Hill by Sidney Lumet.... Shane...is a great movie and can hold its own with any film, whether it's a western or not."[15]
[edit] Awards and honors
Wins
Nominations
- Academy Awards: Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Brandon De Wilde;
Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Jack Palance; Best Director, George
Stevens; Best Picture, George Stevens; Best Writing, Screenplay, A.B.
Guthrie Jr.; 1954.
Other
- In June 2008, AFI revealed its "Ten top Ten"—the best ten films in
ten "classic" American film genres—after polling over 1,500 people from
the creative community. Shane was acknowledged as the third best film in the western genre.[16][17]
American Film Institute recognition
[edit] Homages
Clint Eastwood's western Pale Rider pays tribute to "Shane" with a similar plot and similar ending. The movie Nowhere to Run (1993) with Jean-Claude Van Damme and Rosanna Arquette
was loosely based on "Shane." The 1965 comedy western "Cat Ballou"
spoofs "Shane" in various ways. Its buckskin-clad "good" gunfighter Kid
Shelleen and black-clad villain Tim Strawn are obviously patterned after
Shane and Jack Wilson, respectively, though in "Cat Ballou" the two
adversaries turn out to be brothers. The McBain family funeral scene in
the Sergio Leone epic Once Upon A Time In The West (1968) is borrowed almost shot-for-shot from the funeral scene in "Shane."
The 1984 album The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking
by British musician and Pink Floyd founder member Roger Waters
references the movie "Shane" extensively. Mainly in the track "5.01AM"
where audio samples from the movie are used to punctuate verses of the
song.
Comedian Bill Hicks
referenced the film in his stand-up routine, particularly the scene
with Jack Wilson dropping a gun at the feet of a sheep-herder and
promptly shooting him. (As a reference to America's actions during the
Gulf War.)
[edit] Copyright status in Japan
In 2006, Shane was the subject of a major legal case in Japan involving the expiration of its copyright in Japan. First Trading Corporation had been selling budget-priced copies of public domain movies, including Shane, as Japanese law only protected cinematographic works for 50 years from the year it was published—which meant that Shane fell into the public domain in 2003. In a lawsuit filed by Paramount, it was contested that Shane
was not in the public domain in Japan due to an amendment which
extended the copyright term for these works from 50 to 70 years, and
came into effect on January 1, 2004. It was later ruled that the new law
was not retroactive, and any film produced during or before 1953 was
not eligible for the extension.[18]
[edit] References
- ^ "Notes for Shane (1953)". Turner Classic Movies. http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title.jsp?stid=16406&category=Notes. Retrieved 23 April 2010.
- ^ Variety film review; April 15, 1953, page 6.
- ^ Harrison's Reports film review; April 18, 1953, page 63.
- ^ http://nieverojo.colostate.edu/issue2/shane.htm[dead link]
- ^ a b Weaver, William R., "All Para. Films Set for 3 to 5 Aspect Ratio". Motion Picture Daily, March 25, 1953.
- ^ "Hall Alters Projection Equipment for 'Shane'". Motion Picture Daily, April 8, 1953.
- ^ a b "Para. Wide-Screen At Music Hall for Premiere of 'Shane'". Motion Picture Daily, April 8, 1953.
- ^ "Midwest 'Shane' Premiere at Lake". Motion Picture Daily, May 13, 1953.
- ^ George Stevens: A Filmmaker's Journey[page needed]
- ^ "Film Genre" The Western (2002)
- ^ "Dr. J.R.P. Evans" The role of Adult education in preserving the identity of an ethnic minority: the Welsh case (1991)
- ^ "Para. Wide-Screen At Music Hall for Premiere of 'Shane'". Motion Picture Daily, April 8, 1953.[chronology source needed]
- ^ Crowther, Bosley (April 24, 1953). "Shane (1953)". NYT Critics' Pick. The New York Times. http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9D06EEDF143EE53BBC4C51DFB2668388649EDE. Retrieved 2010-08-22.
- ^ "'Wax,' 'Shane' End Sturdy B'Way Runs". Motion Picture Daily, May 20, 1953.
- ^ Watching Movies With...Woody Allen: Coming Back To Shane, an August 2001 article from The New York Times
- ^ American Film Institute (2008-06-17). "AFI Crowns Top 10 Films in 10 Classic Genres". ComingSoon.net. http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=46072. Retrieved 2008-06-18.
- ^ "Top Western". American Film Institute. http://www.afi.com/10top10/western.html. Retrieved 2008-06-18.
- ^ Mitani, Hidehiro (Autumn/Winter 2007). "Argument for the Extension of the Copyright Protection over Cinematographic Works". CASRIP Newsletter. UW School of Law. http://www.law.washington.edu/Casrip/Newsletter/Vol14/newsv14i1Mitani.html. Retrieved 2009-01-12.
[edit] External links
Featured art
categories
To set this wallpaper as your desktop wallpaper
