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Shane (1953)

Shane is one of the main historic westerns that has influenced many film makers and specifically films like Pale Rider (1985), Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) and Taxi Driver (1976) to name but a few. Adapted from a novel of the same name the story focuses on small family homesteaders being pushed off their land by cattle farmers that want to keep the range open, a story that is the stock in trade for many a western.

The title character of the piece is a gun slinger trying to turn his back on his violent way of life by working for one of the local families. There is a tragic element that runs through the film of Shane initially being reluctant to fight but being somewhat pressured into a bar room fight by the farmers to prove himself to them and then abandoned by most of them once he is out numbered, he can not turn his back on who he is. Themes such as the nature of a person and standing up for yourself are the main thrust of the story. Telling the story from the point of view of the families child brings a sense of naivety to the film which is especially poignant in the ending.

As you would expect from the genre the mountains and scenery provide an excellent back drop. Sadly the film does date as the imagine quality is not amazing and the story is restricted in what it can cover by the sensibilities of the period but the subtlety handling of some subjects due to these restrictions is an advantage of some modern cinema that can get bogged down in love triangles. Some of the dialogue is also a little ham fisted and clearly from a simpler period of film making but it does not detract massively from the film.

I give this a 4/5, it falls just short of being a 5/5 because time has left it behind a little.