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From: moviePig <nobody@nowhere.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv
Subject: Re: Don't come back, Shane
Date: Tue, 11 Feb 2025 22:51:14 -0500
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On 2/11/2025 8:53 PM, anim8rfsk wrote:
> Adam H. Kerman <ahk@chinet.com> wrote:
>> I first saw Shane (1953) in junior high English class. The
>> literature-appreciation curriculum loved teaching the kids about
>> "perfect" story structure, so everybody reads The Lonliness of the Long
>> Distance Runner.
>>
>> We were also taught to write the highly-structured three-three essay.
>>
>> As a tv viewer, there's nothing wrong with structured story telling. The
>> audience expects developments to occur at certain points; the writer of
>> the teleplay should meet those expectations. This doesn't interfere with
>> good writing, but it doesn't enhance it either.
>>
>> It's just structure.
>>
>> As a kid, I really never liked the movie all that much. It has its
>> merits: gorgeous scenery, excellent performances from Van Heflin and
>> Jean Arthur and the supporting cast, and the iconic performance of Alan
>> Ladd's career.
>>
>> But the story is simplistic and the characters serve the needs of the
>> plot. Van Heflin and the nice settlers in the valley are barely eeking
>> out a living. The evil Ryker family wants to expand their cattle ranch
>> onto land they don't own if only they could drive away the settlers.
>>
>> This is the movie in which the womenfolk are stampeded and cattle raped.
>>
>> Everybody else but Van Heflin wants to move because, well, the Rykers
>> are murderous. Van Heflin keeps talking them into staying which
>> predictably gets them killed because he has no plan.
>>
>> Jack Palance, excellent in an early role and also nominated, is the
>> henchman hired by the Rykers who flat out murders Elisha Cook in a
>> famous scene. (Quick: Come up with more than three roles in which Cook
>> isn't murdered on screen or killed off screen.)
>>
>> The tall dark stranger rides into the valley, but he's blond and average
>> height Shane as played by Alan Ladd and we really have to suspend
>> disbelief about the men he's killed in backstory.
>>
>> Shane's motivation is less Truth Justice and the American Way but that
>> he's in love with Jean Arthur.
>>
>> Then you've got the infuriating performance from the kid Joey
>> (Oscar-nominated Brandon deWilde). The kid is SUPPOSED to be annoying.
>> Success! But he doesn't work as a point-of-view character. For the kid,
>> it's all self indulgence and instant gratification. Well, at that age,
>> we might believe it but there's nothing natural about the performance,
>> and even if he were a better actor, that he's got zero respect for his
>> father throughout much of the picture makes the audience kind of dislike
>> him, impatient with him because he never learns to understand.
>>
>> Nor is it a coming of age story. The kid goes through hero worship
>> phases, things don't go the way he wants them, and he hates his hero.
>> Then a responsible adult tries to explain the situation to him. He
>> claims to understand, forgives his hero then goes right back to hero
>> worshipping him.
>>
>> We get better performances from several of the well-trained dogs than
>> the kid.
>>
>> My opinion is in the minority. This is one of the most popular Westerns
>> both at initial release and viewers over the decades who think it's
>> stood the test of time.
>>
> 
> You forgot to mention that Shane dies at the end.

He rides into the sunset, which, as we know, circles Earth endlessly.