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From: moviePig <nobody@nowhere.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv
Subject: Re: Don't come back, Shane
Date: Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:20:48 -0500
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On 2/12/2025 11:33 AM, anim8rfsk wrote:
> super70s <super70s@super70s.invalid> wrote:
>> On 2025-02-12 08:34:35 +0000, anim8rfsk said:
>>
>>> moviePig <nobody@nowhere.com> wrote:
>>>> 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.
>>>>
>>>
>>> Seriously? You don’t know about this? I would think that of all people you
>>> would have understood that.
>>>
>>> It had to be pointed out to me as well.
>>>
>>> Shane is dead on that horse. Deadman riding. He doesn’t move at all during
>>> any of those ending shots. The horse just rides off into the sunset with a
>>> corpse on its back.
>>
>> Did they have test audiences back then, or did the studio moguls alone
>> have that function? Shane dying at the end couldn't have tested well
>> with the general public so perhaps that's why it's ambiguous.
>>
>> Shane was released a couple of years after it was filmed IIRC so they
>> had plenty of time to mull the finished product.
>>
>> I've owned the DVD for about 12-15 years so Shane can come back
>> whenever I cycle around to him.
>>
> I only heard about this for the first time within maybe the last five
> years. Might’ve been on TCM. And I first saw the movie in film class in
> college 50 years ago.

Is there definitive authority on the matter?  On the 'dead' side, there 
seems little dramatic reason for his wound (and for us seeing it) than 
to presage his demise.  On the 'not dead' side, the idea of a kid 
yelling to a propped-up corpse is a bit Grand Guignol for '53 Hollywood.