******SPOILERS INCLUDED******
For me, Shane is the ultimate western. It is not my favorite, which is Hondo, or the one I consider the best, which is The Searchers, but more than any other, it represents the ideal, the dream, the 'mythos' of the Old West.
As Americans, we had lost our mythology. Biblical heroes still exist, but their lives, customs, manners and their world is so different from our own, that it is hard to see them as heroes for our modern world. But the men and women of the western frontier, as seen though the lens of a motion picture camera, were close enough to our modern world to become the Heroes, the archetypal Heroes, we needed. From William S. Hart to Marshall Dillon, they have provided us with the role models for what a Hero should be and Shane is the ultimate expression of that Hero and the Myth.
Shane is the stranger. We don't know his name or his origins, but we know what he is: he is the Hero, the quintessential archetypal Hero of the West.
He comes from nowhere when he is needed and he returns to nowhere when his job is done. His job is to save good, decent people from the Villain who has power to harm them.
Many movies reflect different versions of the western myth, but in Shane it comes in its purest, most simplified form. Shane, the gunfighter, drifts into the valley trying to escape his past. He meets Joe and Marian Starrett and their son, Joey. They are homesteader trying to create a life for themselves. They and the other homesteaders are threatened by Rufus and Morgan Ryker, ranchers who see the farmers along the river as a threat to their access to water in times of drought. They use their cowboys to threaten and attack the farmers. With Shane's help, the farmers are able to stand up to the Rykers and their cowboys. So the Rykers hire Jack Wilson, a vicious gunfighter, to kill Shane. In a climactic gunfight in the saloon, Shane defeats and kills Wilson and the Rykers, ten wounded, he rides from the valley, alone, as Joey calls after him: 'Shane Shane, come back Shane.'
Simple and straightforward, Shane is the ultimate expression of Hero of the Old West. We may not actually believe he exists, but we like to think he does.
For me, Shane is the ultimate western. It is not my favorite, which is Hondo, or the one I consider the best, which is The Searchers, but more than any other, it represents the ideal, the dream, the 'mythos' of the Old West.
As Americans, we had lost our mythology. Biblical heroes still exist, but their lives, customs, manners and their world is so different from our own, that it is hard to see them as heroes for our modern world. But the men and women of the western frontier, as seen though the lens of a motion picture camera, were close enough to our modern world to become the Heroes, the archetypal Heroes, we needed. From William S. Hart to Marshall Dillon, they have provided us with the role models for what a Hero should be and Shane is the ultimate expression of that Hero and the Myth.
Shane is the stranger. We don't know his name or his origins, but we know what he is: he is the Hero, the quintessential archetypal Hero of the West.
He comes from nowhere when he is needed and he returns to nowhere when his job is done. His job is to save good, decent people from the Villain who has power to harm them.
Many movies reflect different versions of the western myth, but in Shane it comes in its purest, most simplified form. Shane, the gunfighter, drifts into the valley trying to escape his past. He meets Joe and Marian Starrett and their son, Joey. They are homesteader trying to create a life for themselves. They and the other homesteaders are threatened by Rufus and Morgan Ryker, ranchers who see the farmers along the river as a threat to their access to water in times of drought. They use their cowboys to threaten and attack the farmers. With Shane's help, the farmers are able to stand up to the Rykers and their cowboys. So the Rykers hire Jack Wilson, a vicious gunfighter, to kill Shane. In a climactic gunfight in the saloon, Shane defeats and kills Wilson and the Rykers, ten wounded, he rides from the valley, alone, as Joey calls after him: 'Shane Shane, come back Shane.'
Simple and straightforward, Shane is the ultimate expression of Hero of the Old West. We may not actually believe he exists, but we like to think he does.