As soon as you hear Victor Young's music and see a lone figure riding across the plain, you realise something special is about to happen. Shane is a magnificent movie passionately directed by George Stevens who showed us perhaps more then any other, just how life was in those pioneering days. In Shane he parades the daily struggles by all who lived in the west, farmers, ranchers, townsfolk and of course ageing gunfighters, all doing their thing on a landscape guarded by it seems equally frustrated clouds rolling in from the Tetons. From the opening scenes where Stevens cleverly turns up the sound to emphasise the story line or a character, to those memorable last few moments when Shane rides out into the night, we are treated to 120 minutes of cinema at it's best. My favourite scene is when Shane, Joe, Marian and little Joe arrive home in their yard late at night and are confronted by Ryker, his crew and the dark stranger Wilson. The interaction between them all in the gloom is fascinating. Ryker pleads his case, Joe as expected refuses to listen,Marian anxiously looks on, little Joe is trying to understand it all and Shane and Wilson silently introduce themselves by eyeballing each other.With the discussions over Ryker and his men leave and Wilson backs his horse out of the yard. Fantastic stuff!! Yes....and what about that final showdown in Grafton's saloon, not much discussion there...just riveting scenes that have been copied ( or tried ) over the years by many. Shane is a wonderful story, put together on film by a once in a lifetime gathering of movie makers that all have contributed in producing one of the greats.
