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From: super70s <super70s@super70s.invalid>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv
Subject: Re: Don't come back, Shane
Date: Wed, 12 Feb 2025 18:09:14 -0600
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On 2025-02-12 16:33:10 +0000, anim8rfsk said:

> 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.

60-62 years ago was about the first time I saw it when it was 
rereleased to theaters as a double feature with something else, could 
have been its 10th anniversary.