Shane | |
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By “Copyright 1953 Paramount Pictures Corp.” – Scan via Heritage Auctions. Cropped from original image., Public Domain, Link theatrical poster
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Directed by | George Stevens |
Produced by | George Stevens |
Screenplay by | A.B. Guthrie, Jr. Jack Sher |
Based on | Shane 1949 novel by Jack Schaefer |
Starring | Alan Ladd Jean Arthur Van Heflin Brandon deWilde Jack Palance |
Music by | Victor Young |
Cinematography | Loyal Griggs |
Edited by | William Hornbeck Tom McAdoo |
Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release date
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Running time
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118 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $3.1 million |
Box office | $20,000,000 |
Shane is a 1953 American Technicolor Western film from Paramount Pictures, noted for its landscape cinematography, editing, performances, and contributions to the genre. The picture was produced and directed by George Stevens from a screenplay by A. B. Guthrie Jr., based on the 1949 novel of the same name by Jack Schaefer. Its Oscar-winning cinematography was by Loyal Griggs. Shane stars Alan Ladd and Jean Arthur in the last feature (and only color) film of her career. The film also stars Van Heflin and features Brandon deWilde, Jack Palance, Emile Meyer, Elisha Cook Jr., and Ben Johnson.
Shane (Alan Ladd) and Marian Starrett (Jean Arthur)
Bosley Crowther called the film a “rich and dramatic mobile painting of the American frontier scene”. He continued:
Shane contains something more than the beauty and the grandeur of the mountains and plains, drenched by the brilliant Western sunshine and the violent, torrential, black-browed rains. It contains a tremendous comprehension of the bitterness and passion of the feuds that existed between the new homesteaders and the cattlemen on the open range. It contains a disturbing revelation of the savagery that prevailed in the hearts of the old gun-fighters, who were simply legal killers under the frontier code. And it also contains a very wonderful understanding of the spirit of a little boy amid all the tensions and excitements and adventures of a frontier home.
Crowther called “the concept and the presence” of Joey, the little boy played by Brandon deWilde, “key to permit[ting] a refreshing viewpoint on material that’s not exactly new. For it’s this youngster’s frank enthusiasms and naive reactions that are made the solvent of all the crashing drama in A. B. Guthrie Jr.’s script.”
Awards and honors
- Academy Award for Best Cinematography, Color: Loyal Griggs; 1954
- Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Brandon deWilde
- Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Jack Palance
- Best Director: George Stevens
- Best Picture: George Stevens
- Best Writing, Screenplay: A.B. Guthrie, Jr.
- American Film Institute recognition
- AFI’s 100 Years…100 Movies: No. 69
- AFI’s 100 Years…100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition): No. 45
- AFI’s 100 Years…100 Heroes & Villains: Shane, Hero No. 16
- AFI’s 100 Years…100 Movie Quotes: “Shane. Shane. Come back!”, No. 47
- AFI’s 100 Years…100 Cheers: No. 53
- AFI’s 10 Top 10: No. 3 Western[24]
- In 1993, Shane was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant”.
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