Shane Reaction Notes

SHANE: REACTION NOTES

Shane is a movie about a group of small town farmers who are being picked on by some cowboys. Then Shane mysteriously comes into view and tries to do the right thing by helping the farmers. Jack Schaefer wrote the script and the film was produced by George Stevens. Paramount Pictures released the movie in 1952.

The characters in the movie were as follows. The main character in the film was (you guessed it) Shane, "the outsider" in this movie. Shane eventually stays with Joe Starret, his wife Marian and their son Joey. The man whom the farmers were against was Rufe Ryker, an older cowboy who seemed to be fairly mad at the entire world. Once Ryker found out about Shane, he brought in a hired gun from Cheyenne, who went by the name Wilson.

The plot of this movie is about the struggle between the farmers and the cowboys. The farmers all want to start up crops, but the cowboys want to run their cattle through the open space so they can feed. Obviously, the two sides don't agree. The cowboys end up attempting to use strong-arm tactics to get their way. They even try to scare the farmers off the land by burning down one of the homes of the farmers. Eventually, Shane, a former gunfight, realizes what he must do. He rides into town and kills all of the cowboys, including Wilson, the hired gun.

Shane is by all means a western because it contains all the conventions of one. Open space, bad guys (the cowboys), and lots of guns, lawless land, and a whole bunch of horses.

There were a couple of conflicts in this movie. The biggest conflict was that between the farmers and the cowboys. A sub-conflict was the beef between Wilson and Shane. Narration of this film was done in third person. I think the only characters that added to the film were Shane, Mrs. Starrett and Wilson. The kid was a pretty miserable actor and was only good for his wide-eyed facial expressions when gunshots rang out. Everyone else was pretty much weak. The film was set in the Wyoming. The time frame was over a couple of weeks, I'd say less than a month.

I normally enjoy westerns, however, I found this one to be somewhat boring and I found that it really dragged on. However, there were a couple sections where the pace was picked up and the action kicked in the casting was decent, once again, except for the kid. Unfortunately, I would not recommend