SHANE

SHANE (July 1st 2004)

Shane (1953) is a timeless, classic western tale – a very familiar and highly regarded original western and the most successful Western of the 1950s. Shane was considered “the authentic american cinema”. The straight-forward narrative is told and seen mostly through the eyes of the young impressionable hero, who idolizes a mysterious, gunslinging hero from the wilderness who appears from nowhere - a man without a past or a future, but bringing with him a strong feeling of ideal, power and deftness. George Stevens created a symbolic myth: the age-old story of the duel between good and evil. The advent of the civilization and progress into the wilderness, a land-dispute conflit between a homesteader and a catlle baron, and the coming up age of a young boy. The screenplay was based on Jack Schaefer´s successful 1949 book of the same name. The film received six Academy Awards nominations: Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Brandon de Wilde), Best Supporting Actor (Jack Palance), Best Director (George Stevens), Best Screenplay (by A.B. Guthrie, Jr.) and Best Color Cinematography, and won its sole Oscar award for photograph Loyal Griggs. Short Brief Shane, an enigmatic and loner on horseback, arrives in an american west valley and decide to live a peaceful life there. He is mystified and venerate for a child (Joey), son of the couple farmers (Starrett and Marian). They receive him in their farm, but Shane retakes his past as a gunman when the cattle baron (Ryker), contract a professional killer (Wilson) to take possesion of the land. After the conflit, he leaves the valley. Film Curiosities: 1) Shane was filmed in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, with its gray-blue Grand Tetons Mountains as a backdrop. 2) Shane is the second film of George Stevens “American Triology”, positioned between Place in the Sun (1951) and Giant (1956). 3) Shane is in the official list of the American Film Intitute´s top 100 American Movies of last 100 years and most important films of the 20th century. 4) Shane is the Woody Allen (actor/director) favourite film. 5) In 1959, during the first visit of Nikita Khrushchev (1894-1971) in the United States, the American President Dwight Eisenhower (1890-1969) applied to Geroge Stevens a copy, in 16 mm, of Shane to exhibit it to the soviet premier in Camp David, as:” a increase summary of the american development by their pioneers”. Distribution: PARAMOUNT PICTURES Duration: 118 minutes Release: april, 24th, 1953 CASTING: Alan Ladd Shane Jean Arthur Marian Starrett Van Heflin Joe Starrett Brandon de Wilde Joey Starrett Walter Jack Palance Jack Wilson Ben Johnson Chris Calloway Edgar Buchanan Fred Lewis Emile Meyer Rufe Ryker Elisha Coock Jr Frank “Stonewall” Torrey Douglas Spencer Axel “Swede” Shipstead John Dierkes Morgan Ryker Ellen Corby Mrs. Torrey Paul McVey Sam Grafton John Miller Will Atkey Edith Evanhoutson Mrs.Shipstead Leonard Strong Ernie Wright Ray Spiker Lew Johnson Janice Carrol Susan Lewis Martin Mason Ed Howells Helen Brown Martha Lewis Nancy Kulp Mrs. Howells Theme song of the film: “The Call of the Far-Away Hills” Music by Victor Young: