Shane

1953.

#69 / #45

Winner of 1 Academy Award.

Shane (Alan Ladd), a wandering and mysterious gunfighter, settles down with the Starretts, a homesteading family fighting for their livelihood against encroaching cattle men.

Eddie: SHANE is probably the last great true western. Other great westerns have come after SHANE, but they aren't as wholesome. None of them pits good guys against bad guys as clearly as SHANE. Unfortunately, Brandon De Wilde sucks it up pretty bad as Joey Starrett, the kid who develops a real boy-crush on Shane. I guess I shouldn't be so hard on him, since he was only eleven at the time, but he is terrrrible. On the plus side, Jack Palance plays an excellent villain, even though he couldn't ride a horse, and Alan Ladd has more American hope in his blonde hair than Superman does in all of his muscles and tights. Shane rides away at the end of the movie, and you feel so much rugged optimism riding away with him.

Sarah: I disagree with Eddie about the end of the movie. You don't feel rugged optimism. You feel sadness. Do you want to know why Shane is slumped in his saddle and doesn't respond to the kid's cries? Because he is dead. Why is he dead? Because the days of the west are dead, too.

And if we didn't have Joey Starrett, would the ending be the same? "Shannnnnne. Come back Shannnne!"

Eddie: I know he's dead. That's why the rugged optimism is riding away. Because it's gone. Nice to know that you read my reviews as carefully as you read driving instructions, Sarah.

Why You Should See It: The muted love affair between Shane and Marian Starrett (Jean Arthur). Nothing is ever mentioned, but in true 1950s Western fashion, those two were definitely boning when her husband and son weren't around.