Verdict:
Shane is a traditional old-fashioned Western. Stranger comes to the country. He is of course strong and shoots well. He protects the innocent. The bad guys are wholly bad, only becoming a little less bad to give more contrast to the ultimate villain, who is the ultimate evil.
The story is not complex. It is just about ranchers bullying settlers, cantering on Shane’s experience staying with one of the families. There are no sub or side-plots, just the escalating conflict with the bad guys. The movie paces itself quite well and the story has a traditional and steady rise to the climax.
The acting is a mixed bag, but there is a very clear culprit to point out.
There is a kid named Joey played by Brandon de Wilde. He is in this movie a lot as one of the main characters and he is terrible. Everything about his scenes is uncomfortable. The camera hangs on too long until he stops moving his eyes and says something. His delivery is excruciatingly fake. And I realise that it is a sin to comment on an actor’s looks, especially a kid, but his buck teeth, squinty eyes and and giant forehead, in combination with the way he speaks, just make him appear …special.
Conversations in general have their ups and downs. There are parts that sound like they were written by an unschooled person for a comic book, and Joey is the concentrated juice of that. The weird thing is, there are also moments when the writing suddenly gets deep and mature.
The villain is great. Snake eyes, evil smile, everything about this guy is wonderfully psychotic. He is played by a certain Jack Palance who I thought was wearing some special mask for this movie, but that is actually the guy’s real chin! This bad guy pretty much makes up for the boy’s acting, but is unfortunately not given as much screen time.
The cinematography’s alright, although has imperfections here and there like a noticeable cut in the middle of a scene or the day-for-night scenes. A man whistles, but the makers dubbed a word being said over it instead, hoping no one would notice, I guess.
Also, this is not a point against the film so much, but it is a point of contention for me nonetheless: I call into question the whole motivation of the good guys. The farmers are not fighters and have families. They insist on standing their ground against a number of armed men and the main character only seems to encourage this behaviour, knowing the danger this brings to the families. It sounds increasingly more stupid and irresponsible for the family to stand their ground, as the movie progresses and things become more dangerous.
Have I mentioned I hate the kid? I really hate that kid.
Anyway, the film is a feel-good traditional western. It is a bit thick, but it makes sense, and it is for most part enjoyable.