Shane Blu-ray delivers stunningly beautiful video and great audio in this exceptional Blu-ray release
A mysterious drifter helps farmers fight off a vicious gunman.
For more about Shane and the Shane Blu-ray release, see Shane Blu-ray Review published by Michael Reuben on July 30, 2013 where this Blu-ray release scored 4.5 out of 5.
Shane is more than a Hollywood classic and a great Western. George Stevens' 1953
masterpiece tapped into something primal in the human experience, which is one of many
reasons why the film still resonates so strongly with viewers of all ages. Its influence has
been incalculable, and not just in a direct reinvention such as Clint Eastwood's Pale Rider. Look
at Mad Max's wordless exchanges with the Feral Kid in The Road Warrior, as Max reluctantly
comes to the aid of settlers under attack from The Humungus, and you'll see Shane. When
Avatar's ex-marine Jake Sully makes common cause with
the Na'vi to defend their home world against the superior firepower of a mining operation, he is following in Shane's
footsteps. The increasingly desperate struggle of Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight to escape the
consequences of his past and start a new life, freed from the burden of defending Gotham, echoes
Shane's flight from his life as a gunfighter.
Stevens, who both produced and directed, had little inkling of the impact his film would
have when he read Jack Schaefer's 1949 novel entitled Shane and thought that it would adapt
well to the screen. (A.B. Guthrie Jr. wrote the screenplay, with additional dialogue by Jack Sher.)
Stevens knew that he wanted to make a Western that depicted the effects of violence as
realistically as the production code of the era would allow. Having fought in World War II, he
knew how brutally a single bullet could ravage the human body. He was weary of films that
showed cowboys brandishing six-shooters like toys. In Shane, when someone is hit by a bullet
from a pistol, the impact knocks him down. Stevens also experimented with sound, so that the
gunfire would be loud and shocking to audiences of the era. The shots may be unremarkable by
today's digitally pumped-up standards, but at the time the gunfire registered with the impact of
Michael Mann's famous L.A. street battle in Heat.
Stevens' attention to detail and his insistence on multiple takes caused Shane to go over schedule
and over budget, to the point where Paramount tried to sell the film and cut its losses. Several
accounts of the story exist, but the prospective buyer was Howard Hughes, who ultimately
declined the deal. But Stevens had the last laugh. When the film finally premiered at Radio City
Music Hall on April 23, 1953, reviews were rapturous, and the box office exceeded Paramount's
expectations. The film has consistently appeared on various "best" lists, but even fans who think
they know it well will rediscover it in this new Blu-ray version distributed by Warner Home
Video under agreement with Paramount.
Shane is set in Wyoming during the years after the Civil War. A scattered group of homesteaders
have legal claims to small plots of land on which they are trying to support families by farming.
Opposing them is Rufus Ryker (Emile Meyer), an earlier settler, who wants the homesteaders
removed so that his cattle can graze throughout the valley without fences or other obstructions.
Ryker's men have not yet resorted to firearms, but they have tried every other form of
intimidation.
One of the many notable aspects of Stevens' filmmaking technique (and Guthrie's script) is that
none of this background is ever explained by a title card or a character delivering a speech. It
seeps through the dialogue and is imparted along the way, usually while other events are occuring
in the foreground. The film opens at the farm of Joe Starrett (Van Heflin), with the sound of his
unseen wife, Marian (Jean Arthur), singing. Their son, Joey (Brandon De Wilde), who was the
narrator of the book and often represents the audience's point of view, is aiming his rifle at a stag
when he spots a distant figure riding toward the farm: a man in buckskin with a pistol holstered
on a fancy belt.
The rider's name is Shane (Alan Ladd), and he never relates his history, but we and the Starretts
learn all about him from his reactions to what he sees in the valley. He's obviously a gunfighter
who's seen more than his share of violence, and he's just as obviously had enough of that life.
(As Shane says at one point, he wants to go somewhere unconnected with his former life—"some
place I've never been"—and Ladd's delivery gives the phrase an ache of longing.) Joe Starrett
initially mistakes Shane for one of Ryker's men, but he apologizes after Ryker and his hooligans
arrive with their usual threats and Shane unexpectedly backs up the Starretts. For reasons that
one can debate for a long time—this is clearly not the kind of place Shane had in mind—he takes
a job as a farmhand for Joe Starrett.
Much of Shane plays as a deliberately paced countdown to the ultimate confrontation that every
viewer knows is coming between Shane, the avenging angel with the tarnished wings, and Ryker
backed by all his forces, including the black-clad devil Wilson (Jack Palance, billed as "Walter
Jack Palance"), a gunfighter from Shane's old world but with none of his regrets or conscience.
Yet another of Shane's noteworthy features is how Stevens measures out the moments to the
final battle with incidents that deepen our appreciation of the stakes and invest us fully in the fate
of the Starretts and their fellow homesteaders, while also being, in and of themselves,
entertaining to watch. (Stevens knew what he was doing when he spent all those extra months
editing the film.)
Take, for example, the elaborately choreographed barroom brawl that begins as a fight between
Shane and Ryker's man Calloway (Ben Johnson, a future member of The Wild Bunch). It isn't
just an action sequence; it's also a mini-drama in which the resolve of the homesteaders, and
especially Joe Starrett, is tested. Will they or won't they come to Shane's aid? Young Joey is
among the observers, and his instinctive sense of what's right is a key element in the scene, as it
remains throughout the film. Marian Starrett's disapproval in the aftermath of the fight is the
ongoing counterpoint to Joey's encouragement.
Or consider the subplot involving the former Confederate soldier, Frank "Stonewall" Torrey
(Elisha Cook Jr.), who's too hot-tempered and too much of a braggart for his own good. From
the moment Stonewall appears, it's apparent that this brash homesteader is spoiling for a fight
with Ryker and his men, but Stevens bides his time, letting Stonewall talk, giving us a chance to
get to know him, so that when he's finally standing in a muddy street opposite the cold-eyed
Wilson, we can actually feel the instant when it dawns on the loudmouth farmer that he's been
baited into a fight he can't win. (It helps to have a character actor as skilled as Elisha Cook Jr.
playing the part.)
Shane has so many memorable scenes that it would consume too many pages to discuss them all.
One element of its unique visual design is worth noting, however, which is the decision by
Stevens and cinematographer Loyal Griggs (who won an Oscar for the film) to use long lenses
and include the Grand Teton mountains in the background of outdoor shots wherever possible.
Anyone who doubts that the Academy ratio of 1.37:1 can't be used for an "epic" feel should
study Shane's framing. When Joe Starrett and the homesteaders complain that there's no law
in this remote valley, you believe them, because Stevens continually shows you their isolation in
this beautiful but desolate landscape far from civilization, where their only hope arrives in the
unexpected shape of a soft-spoken man in a buckskin jacket.
Stevens and cinematographer Griggs shot Shane in three-strip Technicolor. Principal
photography was completed in 1951, at a time when films were still being photographed in the
Academy ratio of 1.37:1. By the time Shane was released, however, Paramount had decided to
convert to their version of widescreen, which was initially 1.66:1 and eventually settled at
today's standard 1.85:1. Shane's initial showing at Radio City Music Hall was at the former
aspect ratio, but it was almost certainly projected at varying aspect ratios during its theatrical run,
which fell during the period when American cinemas were converting to widescreen. In any case,
there is no dispute that the film was composed for the Academy ratio, which is how it has been
presented on this Blu-ray.
According to the commentary, Shane's negative underwent extensive restoration in the Nineties.
It is unknown whether additional restoration was performed for this Blu-ray, but the results on
Paramount/Warner's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray are simply astonishing. Details, densities,
black levels, textures and colors are all revelatory. I literally felt that I was seeing a film I had
never seen before. It's not just in the obvious scenes, such as the mountain vistas around the
Starrett farm, that this Blu-ray's image reveals its treasures. It's also in the subtler shadows of the
day-for-night sequences (what Stevens called the "Rembrandt lighting"), such as the encounter
between Ryker and Joe Starrett after the Fourth of July celebration, where the shadow detail is
just sufficient and the shades of black and blue layer over each other in just the right proportions
to create the sense of depth and danger that Stevens and Griggs intended.
The film's grain pattern is natural, fine and undisturbed by digital manipulation. The impressive
bitrate of 29.69 Mbps helps explain the lack of any compression issues.
Although Shane received a stereo remix after it was released, its original soundtrack was mono,
and that appears to be the track presented here in lossless DTS-HD MA 2.0. The track has very
good fidelity for a film of this vintage, with clear and natural-sounding dialogue, forceful sound
effects (especially the gunshots), wide dynamic range and as encompassing a presence for Victor
Young's memorable score as one can possibly imagine without stereo surround.
The extras have been ported over from Paramount's 2000 DVD of Shane.
Commentary with George Stevens, Jr. and Associate Producer Ivan Moffat: Stevens
served as an uncredited production assistant to his father on Shane, and Moffat worked
closely with Stevens, Sr. on the film and later wrote the screenplay for Giant. Their
memories almost fifty years after the experience are remarkably detailed, and Stevens has
the benefit of his father's notes and correspondence, from which he reads at appropriate
moments. Whether you're new to Shane or a long-time fan, the commentary is essential listening.
Theatrical Trailer (480i; 1.78:1, enhanced; 1:59): And you thought today's trailers give
away too much!
The ending of Shane has long been debated, including by characters in other movies. The debate
even becomes a kind of plot point in The Negotiator, as
the characters played by Kevin Spacey
and Samuel L. Jackson acquaint each other with their strategic outlooks by arguing over the
significance of Shane's final shots. Now, given the sensitivity to so-called "spoilers" by some
members of the Blu-ray.com community, even in a film that is now sixty years old—when, I
wonder, does the statute of limitations expire?—I will say nothing more except that, in my view,
the essential quality of Shane is that he is a breed apart from everyone else. It's the quality that
makes young Joey Starrett constantly pester him with questions, that both repels and secretly
attracts Joey's mother (the attraction subplot was abandoned), that makes men like Joe Starrett
respect him and that so intimidates a bully like Ryker. It also the quality that prevents Shane from
finding peace. "There's no living with a killing", Shane tells Joey near the film's end. "There's no
going back from one. Right or wrong, it's a brand. A brand sticks." Shane's fate was decided long
before those final frames. Highest recommendation.
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Kino Lorber have detailed their upcoming 4K Bu-ray and Blu-ray releases of George Stevens' classic western Shane (1953), starring Alan Ladd, Jean Arthur, Van Heflin, Brandon De Wilde, and Jack Palance. The two releases are scheduled to arrive on the market on July ...
Kino Lorber have revealed that they are preparing 4K Blu-ray and Blu-ray releases of George Stevens' classic western Shane (1953), starring Alan Ladd, Jean Arthur, Van Heflin, Brandon De Wilde, and Jack Palance. The release is expected to arrive on the market early ...
Use the thumbs up and thumbs down icons to agree or disagree that the title is similar to Shane. You can also suggest completely new similar titles to Shane in the search box below.
