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Young not Tiomkin (Reply to this comment)
by Tom_Connolly
I was in error when I wrote that Tiomkin arranged the music in the scene where Alan Ladd and Jean Arthur dance. Victor Young wrote the film's score.
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Mar 26 '00
3:31 pm PST
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shane's oscar win (Reply to this comment)
by sakana
the opinion states that the film's only oscar was for best b&w cinematography...in fact, the film is in color, and its win was for best color cinematography.
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Feb 09 '00
5:35 pm PST
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Plot summary is not criticism (Reply to this comment)
by Tom_Connolly
Mr Koller offers the opinion that Shane does not live up to its reputation. He then fails to explain why. Almost all of review is a re-telling of the movie's plot. He takes it for granted that the statement of his opinion alone justifies his casually rendered verdict.
Since there are so many published video guides that provide plot summary, this kind of re-hash is a waste of space for a website that purports to offer OPINION.
Mr. Koller is certainly entitled to feel that "Shane" is over-rated. I wish he had the presence of mind to explain why.
In his "opinion summary" he offers that "Shane" has "familiar characters and themes." What western doesn't? More than any other genre, the western is bound by its conventions. Certainly there are any number of westerns that have plot and character elements that we see in "Shane." No other western film combines these elements in the ways that "Shane" does.
What makes "Shane" unique in this regard? The acting, cinematography, music, and the mise-en-scene of the picture are crafted with a mixture of restraint and emotionalism that make the movie a masterpiece. Ladd, Heflin, Arthur, de Wilde and Palance each have moments that are singular. Each one of these performances is extraordinary. I would add that "Shane's " being so frequently parodied is an index of its greatness.
I do not choose to write a long essay in response to Mr. Koller's, but I will offer one scene to support my contentions about the films. When the settlers have their dance Shane and Mrs. Starrett dance together to the old song "Good-bye Old Paint." Tiomkin's arrangement of the music is poignant and simple. Starrett is trapped on the swinging gate of the fence while his wife dances in her wedding dress. Shane dances with perfect, unself-comscious grace. For a moment we see the gentle side of Shane, perhaps a glimpse of his genteel past. Starrett is helpless, awkwardly honestly, in love with his wife, but unable to reach her at that instant. He never shows any jealousy.
Shane, for his part never does anything more than show appopriate courtesy to Mrs. Starrett. He is absolutely in the tradition of the courtly lover.
There are hundreds of "familiar" courtly lovers in comparison to the dozens of "familiar" lone gunslingers that cause Mr. Koller to yawn a bit. Nonetheless, Shane is an endlessly fascinating character because of Ladd's perfomance. Never before, nor ever again was Ladd able to give such a performance. Archetypal characters such as Shane engaging in timeless conflicts are what give us our heritage. It is too easy to slough off a great film such as "Shane" by declaring it to be too "familiar." It is as grave an error to reduce "Shane" in this fashion as it is to label the hoplessly derivative splatter-pic "Pulp Fiction" original. I choose to leave off any further discussion at this time.
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Dec 11 '99
4:42 am PST
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