A survey of the top ten Westerns by the American Film Institute (AFI) revealed that George Stevens’s Shane, completed in 1952 and released in 1953 was the third best, behind The Searchers and High Noon at positions one and two. For fans of the genre the other high scorers were Unforgiven (4), Red River (5), The Wild Bunch (6), Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (7), McCabe and Mrs Miller (8), Stagecoach (9) and Cat Ballou (10).

For Shane popular male star Alan Ladd played the laconic and kindly gunslinger with a mysteriously violent past, a soft spot for kids, a keen sense of injustice and a talent for stylish and accurate shooting and lively fist-fighting. The action takes place in beautifully photogenic Wyoming where the homesteaders he stays to help are being chased off their land by violent cattle barons and a seriously psychopathic hired hit-man called Wilson, played convincingly by Jack Palance. Those in great support include Van Heflin as the homesteader who gives Shane a job, Jean Arthur as the homesteader’s wife, who definitely likes Shane but not his gun and Brandon de Wilde who plays the homesteader’s son Joey, who grows to idolise Shane and who gives the film, which became a template for many to follow, some human focus. Continue reading →