Shane is a 1953 American Western film from Paramount. It was produced and directed by George Stevens from a screenplay by A. B. Guthrie, Jr., based on the 1949 novel of the same name by Jack Schaefer. Its Oscar-winning cinematography was by Loyal Griggs. The film stars Alan Ladd, Jean Arthur (in her last film after a thirty-year career) and Van Heflin, and features Brandon deWilde, Elisha Cook, Jr., Jack Palance and Ben Johnson.

Shane was listed #45 in the 2007 edition of AFI's 100 Years…100 Movies list and on AFI's 10 Top 10 in the category Western.

Plot
A stranger, wearing buckskin and a six shooter, calling himself Shane (Alan Ladd), rides into an isolated valley in the sparsely settled state of Wyoming some time after the Homestead Act was put into place in 1862 . Whatever his past, he's obviously skilled as a gunslinger, and soon finds himself drawn into a conflict between homesteader Joe Starrett (Van Heflin) and ruthless cattle baron Rufus Ryker (Emile Meyer), who wants to force Starrett and the others off the land.

Shane stays for supper and the night at the invitation of Joe's wife, Marian (Jean Arthur), and starts working as a farmhand. Young Joey (Brandon deWilde) is drawn to him and the gun, and wants to learn how to shoot. Shane tries to teach him and his mother that a gun is a tool like any other, except it's designed to shoot people. Whether it's used for good or not depends on the person using it.

There is an obvious attraction, and perhaps a history, between Shane and Marian. She tells Shane that they would be better off if there weren't any guns in the valley, including his. She is emphatic that guns are not going to be a part of her son's life.

When Shane goes into town with Starrett and the rest of the homesteaders, he gets into a fistfight with Ryker's men after being ridiculed for backing down before. With Joe's help, they win, and the shopkeeper orders them out. Ryker declares that the next time Shane or Joe go to town the "air will be filled with gunsmoke."

As tensions mount, Ryker hires Jack Wilson (Jack Palance), an unscrupulous, psychopathic gunslinger, who laughs at the thought of murder. Wilson goads ex-Confederate Frank 'Stonewall' Torrey (Elisha Cook, Jr.), a hot-tempered Alabama homesteader, into a fight, and shoots him down in the street.

After the funeral, many plan to leave. But a fire set by Ryker's men spurs them into pulling together to put it out, rather than driving them out.

Ryker decides to have Wilson kill Starrett in an ambush at the saloon, under the pretense of negotiating. One of Ryker's men loses his stomach for this, and warns Shane that Starrett's "up against a stacked deck."

Joe is resolved to go anyway. He knows that Shane will look after Marian and Joey if he doesn't survive. But Shane tells Joe he's no match for Wilson, although he might be a match for Ryker. They fight and Shane has to knock him unconscious. Joey yells at Shane for pistol whipping his father with the butt of his gun.

Marian begs Shane not to go and asks if he is doing it for her. He admits that he is, and for Joey, and all the decent people who want a chance to live and grow up there.

In town, Shane walks into the saloon. Shane tells Ryker that they're both relics of the Old West, but Ryker hasn't realized it yet. Wilson draws, but is shot and keeps reflexively shooting, even after he's dead. Ryker pulls a hidden gun and Shane returns fire. He's turned to leave when Ryker's brother fires a Winchester rifle from the balcony overhead. Joey, who ran after Shane, calls out and Shane fires back.

Shane walks out of the saloon, where Joey is waiting for him. He says that he has to move on and tells him to take care of his family. Shane also says to tell Joey's mother that there "aren't any more guns in the valley."

Shane's blood runs onto Joey's hands when he reaches up to him. Joey's worried, but Shane tells him that's fine. Wounded, Shane sits up, with his arm hanging uselessly at his side as he rides past the grave markers on Cemetery Hill, and out of town, into the sunrise, over the mountains.

Whether Shane has been mortally wounded, as is often speculated, is apparent in neither the film nor in Schaefer's novel.

Reception
The film opened in New York City at Radio City Music Hall on April 23, 1953. According to Motion Picture Daily, "opening day business at the Music Hall was close to capacity. The audience at the first performance applauded at the end of a fight sequence and again at the end of the picture.

Bosley Crowther, after attending the premiere, called the film a "rich and dramatic mobile painting of the American frontier scene" and noted:“ Shane contains something more than the beauty and the grandeur of the mountains and plains, drenched by the brilliant Western sunshine and the violent, torrential, black-browed rains. It contains a tremendous comprehension of the bitterness and passion of the feuds that existed between the new homesteaders and the cattlemen on the open range. It contains a disturbing revelation of the savagery that prevailed in the hearts of the old gun-fighters, who were simply legal killers under the frontier code. And it also contains a very wonderful understanding of the spirit of a little boy amid all the tensions and excitements and adventures of a frontier home. ”

Crowther called "the concept and the presence" of Joey, the little boy played by Brandon deWilde, as being key to "permit[ting] a refreshing viewpoint on material that's not exactly new. For it's this youngster's frank enthusiasms and naive reactions that are made the solvent of all the crashing drama in A. B. Guthrie Jr.'s script."

Shane ended its run at Radio City Music Hall on May 20, 1953, racking up $114,000 in four weeks at Radio City. It earned $8 million in rentals in North America during its initial run.

Nearly 50 years later, Woody Allen called Shane "George Stevens' masterpiece" and said it is on his "list of great American films, which include, among others, ... The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, White Heat, Double Indemnity, The Informer and The Hill by Sidney Lumet.... Shane...is a great movie and can hold its own with any film, whether it's a western or not."

Awards and honors
Awards
Academy Award for Best Cinematography, Color, Loyal Griggs; 1954

Nominations
Academy Awards:
Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Brandon deWilde
Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Jack Palance
Best Director, George Stevens
Best Picture, George Stevens
Best Writing, Screenplay, A.B. Guthrie Jr.; 1954

Other
In 1993, Shane was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Shane was listed at #69 on the original AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies list in 1997. When the list was revisited in 2007, it rose to #45.
In June 2008, AFI revealed its "Ten top Ten"—the best ten films in ten "classic" American film genres—after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community. Shane was listed as the third best film in the western genre.

American Film Institute recognition
AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies #69
AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains:
Shane, Hero #16
AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes #47
"Shane. Shane. Come back!"
AFI's 100 Years... 100 Cheers #53
AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) #45
AFI's 10 Top 10 #3 Western