Cinema
Shane
George Stevens · 1953
Synopsis
The Wyoming Territory, in the late 1880s. A lone rider, Shane, comes down into a valley and stops at the Starrett farm: Joe, his wife Marian and their young son Joey, who never takes his eyes off him. The cattleman Rufus Ryker wants to drive from their land the farmers who have settled there, and his men harass them. Shane takes Starrett's side and stays on as a farmhand; he has put away his gun. Ryker then sends for Jack Wilson, a reputed gunman from Cheyenne.
Context
To make the gunshots thunder, the director had a small cannon fired into a dustbin, and the men who were hit were yanked backwards by hidden cables; Warren Beatty said he later imitated these sounds. Filming took place near Kelly, in Wyoming, from the end of July to mid-October 1951, and the cost reached about three million dollars, one million more than planned. Stevens then spent about fifteen months on the editing, which irritated Paramount, which considered selling the film before making it one of its flagship releases.
Who it is for
A western of one hour fifty-eight minutes, in Technicolor; the film never says what the stranger did before arriving in the valley.
Prizes and reception
Academy Award for colour cinematography for Loyal Griggs, out of five nominations, and added in 1993 to the National Film Registry.
Sources for this page 9
The pages consulted to check this page.