Line #46 Film/Shane


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3	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/shane_1953.jpeg]]
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5	->''"Shane! Come back!"''
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7	''Shane'' is a classic 1953 {{Western}} film directed by Creator/GeorgeStevens, adapted from the [[Literature/{{Shane}} novel of the same name]] by Jack Schaefer.
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9	DeterminedHomesteader Joe Starrett (Creator/VanHeflin), his wife Marian (Creator/JeanArthur), and their young son Joey (Brandon [=deWilde=]) are running a small farm in an isolated Wyoming valley. A local cattle rancher, Rufus Ryker (Emile Meyer), wants to force them -- and the valley's other [[DeterminedHomesteader Nesters]] -- out of their homes; he offers money, but is more than happy to do it with guns and a few [[{{Mooks}} hired goons]]. In the midst of this ongoing conflict, a wanderer in buckskin clothing named Shane (Creator/AlanLadd) meets Starrett, and after a quickly-resolved misunderstanding, Starrett hires Shane to work for him and help protect his family. Shane soon becomes an idol to Joey, who wants to learn how to shoot and hopes Shane can do the teaching. This pushes Shane, Starrett, and Marian into a heated debate about the appropriateness of guns and violence.
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11	Shane ultimately protects the Starretts using violence, knowing that this means he will never be able to settle down to a peaceful life; he is cursed by his previous choices in life to always be [[TheGunslinger a gunslinger]], [[TheDrifter always drifting]]. After the film's climactic gunfight, Shane tells Joey to run home and tell his mother that she has her wish -- that there are "no more guns in the valley". Of course, for this to be true, [[ButNowIMustGo Shane himself has to leave]].
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13	The film's ending is the subject of a famous and long-standing debate: after riding off into the sunset, did Shane live or die?
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15	Nominated for six UsefulNotes/{{Academy Award}}s, winning for Best Color Cinematography. The last big-screen appearance for Jean Arthur, whose Hollywood career dated back to TheRoaringTwenties. Creator/JackPalance, in one of his most notorious roles, played the murderous gunman Jack Wilson. Essentially remade and combined with ''Film/HighPlainsDrifter'' as the 1985 Creator/ClintEastwood film ''Film/PaleRider'', with Eastwood basically playing Creator/AlanLadd's role.
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17	----
18	!! ''Shane'' includes the following tropes:
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20	* AdaptationalNameChange: Several characters from the novel had their names changed. Robert "Bob" [=Macpherson=] Starrett became Joey Starrett, Luke Fletcher became Rufus Ryker and Stark Wilson became Jack Wilson.
21	* AdaptationExpansion: It was a two-hour movie made from a novel that barely tops 100 pages. Most of the book's scenes are extended in some way for the movie, and several brand new scenes were created.
22	* TheAlcoholic: "Stonewall" Torrey is implied to be one on occasion, since he orders a jug every time he goes into Grafton's.
23	%%* AxCrazy: Wilson seems to be looking for an excuse to kill people.
24	%%-->Prove it.
25	%%* BadassAdorable: Joey.
26	* AwesomeButImpractical: According to Starrett, Ryker's seizing as much land as possible for his cattle is doomed to fail, as it's too inefficient: there's too much space to govern the cattle, and he's got too large a herd to govern anyway as most of them are skin and bone. A better goal is to keep a tiny herd that can fenced in and can be looked after, and allow space for other things like hogs and grain.
27	* BangBangBANG: There are some damned loud guns in this movie. Notably, the very first time a gun is fired (as Shane teaches Joey how to shoot), it's much louder than any other gunfire—the sound was recorded by firing a pistol into a garbage pail. This was done to startle the viewers and hint at approaching violence in what is otherwise a fairly quiet, domestic scene.
28	* BarBrawl: Shane starts one with Calloway to repay the way Calloway insulted him the first time he came into town. He beats Calloway, then challenges the rest of Ryker's gang. Starret has to wade in with a club, and they defeat all of them.
29	* BerserkButton: [[PlayingWithATrope Played with,]] in the case of calling Wilson "a low-down Yankee liar". He smiles in amusement at the insult...[[OhCrap and then demands that his insulter "prove it".]]
30	* BigBad: Rufus Ryker will stop at nothing to drive the farmers off their land so he can use it for his cattle.
31	* BittersweetEnding: The ranch is saved, but Shane is left to WalkTheEarth--if he isn't bleeding to death.
32	%%* BloodKnight: Jack Wilson.
33	* BothSidesHaveaPoint: Marian believes there shouldn't be any guns in the valley where the live, while Shane, as someone experienced with guns, believes that a gun is no better/worse than its user.
34	%%* ButNowIMustGo: Maybe. This depends on whether you agree or disagree with Shane.
35	%%* ChairmanOfTheBrawl
36	* ColorCodedForYourConvenience:
37	** One of the few good westerns to use the Black Hat White Hat Trope straight.
38	** Strictly speaking, Shane's hat is ''gray'', appropriate to his moral ambiguity.
39	* ConstantlyCurious: Joey is forever asking questions of Shane.
40	* CreatorCameo: During the bar fight between Shane and Calloway, the off-screen voice that says "knock him back to the pig-pen" is that of George Stevens.
41	* DamnYouMuscleMemory: When Joey cocks his rifle, Shane instinctively drops into a crouch and grabs for his revolver, revealing that he's a gunfighter rather than the mild-mannered traveler he was trying to look like.
42	* DarkReprise: Fred plays "Dixieland" to tease Torrey, and everyone sings "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abide_with_Me Abide with Me]]" at the party. [[spoiler:They do the same, but in a much more sombre tempo, at Torrey’s funeral.]]
43	* DefeatEqualsFriendship: Shane and Calloway become friends after their bar fight.
44	* DeterminedHomesteader: Joe Starrett refuses to move off of his land in spite of any threats. He also tries getting the other farmers to band together and stand up to Ryker.
45	* TheDragon: Jack Wilson is brought in by Ryker to enforce his will on the homesteaders. Wilson kills Torrey, and Shane ultimately has to get through Wilson to beat Ryker.
46	%%* TheDrifter: Shane is a perfect example of this.
47	* DueToTheDead: When the other farmers flee after Torrey's murder, Starett persuades them into staying just long enough to give Torrey a proper funeral.
48	* EmpathicEnvironment: The confrontation between Starrett and Shane is one of the best examples of this trope.
49	* EveryoneHasStandards: Chris Calloway may be a bully who tries to pick a fight with Shane several times, but when he realizes Ryker plans to kill Starrett after Torrey's death, he turns on his boss.
50	* FakeShemp: Creator/AlanLadd did not ride the horse in the last scene where Shane rides away. A famous rodeo man who was also of short stature worked as the double.
51	* FauxAffablyEvil: Ryker waits for the Staretts on their farm when they come back from the Fourth of July celebration and attempts to persuade them that he has the better rights to the land. He then says that they ought to work for him instead. But he brings along several goons as well, and he goes right back to hostility when the Starretts refuse.
52	%%* TheFilmOfTheBook
53	* TheGunslinger: Shane. He even does some GunTwirling at one point.
54	* GunsAkimbo: Subverted for the title character, who is a firm believer that one gun is all he needs.
55	* HeelFaceTurn: Chris Calloway turns against Ryker in the end.
56	%%* HeroicSacrifice
57	* IneffectualSympatheticVillain: Inverted in terms of casting. Creator/ElishaCookJr normally played this type of character, but in this film, he plays a good guy--Frank "Stonewall" Torrey, a Southern DeterminedHomesteader and friend of the Starrets. In every other respect, he lives "up" to this trope to a T: Torrey is a consistent failure and he resents the fact that neither friends nor enemies take him seriously, but he is determined to stand up for himself and the Lost Cause. All of this sets him up as an all-too-easy victim to one of the most effective and unsympathetic villains in Western film history.
58	* IronicEcho
59	** "You're a low down, lying Yankee." [[spoiler: Frank "Stonewall" Torrey]]
60	** "Prove it." [[spoiler:Jack Wilson]]
61	** "Bye, little Joe." [[spoiler:Shane, if he was mortally wounded]]
62	* KnightErrant: Shane is a wandering gunfighter who automatically steps to the defense of Starrett when Ryker tries to intimidate him, in spite of Starrett's initial (but understandable) unfriendliness.
63	* NiceJobFixingItVillain: The other farmers are all set to leave in the wake of Torrey's death, even after Starrett's speech. When they see that Ryker's men have set fire to Lewis's farm, they get their spines back.
64	* NoPlaceForMeThere: Shane defeats the villains threatening the farmers by using deadly violence, and in his parting speech to Joey he tells the boy he must leave, and that there are 'no more guns in the valley', recognizing his own violent nature prevents him from settling in the very place of peace he saved.
65	* OffIntoTheDistanceEnding: Shane rides away after defeating the villains, as the little boy who admires him cries, "Shane! Come back!"
66	* OlderThanTheyLook: Creator/JeanArthur was over fifty years old in this film, ten years older than the actor who played Ryker. She doesn't look it at all.
67	%%* PercussivePrevention: Subverted into a horrifying fight between friends, complete with EmpathicEnvironment.
68	* PleaseDontLeaveMe: The famous ending of the film, as shown in the page quote above.
69	%%* TheQuietOne: Jack Wilson. Shane himself also counts.
70	* ReCut: A small but vital one: depending on what version you watch, you may actually hear Joey's voice calling out "Bye, Shane!" in the last shot of Shane riding off. Narratively, the difference has a contrast of Joey accepting that Shane has to go, compared to a refusal of the idea (where his last words are "Come back!").
71	* RetiredGunfighter: The film implies that Shane used to be a dangerous gunfighter. Now he seems content to work as a farmhand for Starrett...until Ryker forces him to fight again.
72	* RecycledSoundtrack: The music cues for the climactic ride that Shane takes to the showdown are from an earlier Creator/{{Paramount}} film ''Rope of Sand''.
73	* RiddleForTheAges: Historians still debate whether Shane dies while riding away on his horse, slumped over.
74	* RousingSpeech: Starrett tries to give one (though subdued, giving the setting) to the other families at Torrey's funeral, entreating them to stay and stand up to Ryker. Shane backs him up, but it's not until they see Ryker burning Lewis's farm that they finally listen.
75	%%* SacrificialLion: [[spoiler:"Stonewall" Torrey.]]
76	* SceneryPorn: The film was shot in glorious Technicolor in Wyoming's Jackson Hole valley.
77	* SelfDefenseRuse: Wilson goads Torrey into going for a gun, then kills him. He then addresses the on-lookers:
78	-->You all saw him, he had a gun.
79	* ShellShockedVeteran: Shane is ''pretty'' jumpy in the beginning, upon hearing Joey cocking a rifle, and later when a cow clangs into something.
80	* SmallRoleBigImpact: Wilson has eight minutes of screen time and less than fifty words of dialogue--but Jack Palance made the most of it. On a more meta level, Wilson is considered one of the definitive Western bad guys ever, and it is one of Palance's most remembered roles, despite him having acted for more than fifty years in over seventy movies.
81	%%* TheSociopath: Ryker and Wilson.
82	* SoftSpokenSadist: Wilson never raises his voice once. His challenge to "prove it" is hardly above a whisper, and he has a rather unsettling smile on his face the whole time.
83	* TalentDouble: Shane's fancy gun twirling in the climactic showdown was actually performed by Rodd Redwing. When Shane demonstrates his prowess for Joey earlier in the movie, and it is clearly Creator/AlanLadd on camera, Ladd is using a different, easier-to-use revolver for the scene (it took him over a hundred takes to get it right).
84	* TemptingFate: Torrey does this when he tries to stand up to Wilson. He gets a bullet planted in his chest as a result.
85	* TwilightOfTheOldWest: Implied by this exchange:
86	--> '''Shane''': Yeah, you've lived too long. Your kind of days are over.
87	--> '''Ryker''': ''My'' days? What about yours, gunfighter?
88	--> '''Shane''': The difference is, I know it.
89	* UncertainDoom: One of the most famous examples in cinematic history. Whether Shane survived the wounds he sustained in the climactic battle is debated to this very day.
90	* WorthyOpponent: Shane gains Chris Calloway's respect after beating him in a brawl. This is implied to be one of the factors behind Calloway's HeelFaceTurn, as he makes it a point to go to Shane in secret to let him know.

Context Film / Shane