It’s a classic , although what spoilt it for me are :
Brandon De Wilde’s pain in the ass Little Joey.
Jean Arthur’s voice
Alan Ladd’s clean cut drifting gunfighter, who arrives spotlessly clean , not a hair out of place and not a days dust on him.
Only the presence of Jack Palance’ sadistic gunman Jack Wilson and Ben Johnson makes this watchable for me.
But that’s just my opinion. 
I didn’t like it. Tony Anthony’s brother loved it.
A guy at IMDb said it is one of “the darkest westerns ever”. That guy can’t have seen The Great Silence…
[quote=“Silence, post:23, topic:600”]A guy at IMDb said it is one of “the darkest westerns ever”. That guy can’t have seen The Great Silence…[/quote]Its a very good film of it’s day but i wouldn’t say it was particularly dark, unless it’s referring to the ending which is kind of left open ended anyway.
I thought Alan Ladd was perfect for the role, one of the reasons I always avoided Shane was because of that clean cut image of him on the cover, but hes actually pretty tough. I was pleasantly surprised by the gritty sort of ahead of its time direction and sound effects (especially the explosive gunshot sounds). It has aged very well, I think.
I agree ” Shane” is one of the best classic westerns and Alan Ladd was good in it. Only thing that annoys me about the film is that the kid in it gets too much screen time.
The novel on which the movie is based, is a first person narrative, the boy has become a man who looks back on what happened long ago (like Mattie in True Grit). The film opens and closes with Brandon De Wilde’s face, as if to suggest that he’s the ‘narrator’ of the movie, but this doesn’t really work.
‘Shane’ and ‘High Noon’ are two of the best, but there is also ‘The Searchers’, ‘Sergeant Rutledge’ and ‘The Magnificent Seven’.
Finally saw this movie and I agree with most of the criticisms made here, but I still thought it was great. Alan Ladd outdrawing Jack Palance does strain credibility for me though. It’s like Mister Rogers outdrawing Lee Van Cleef. Still, one of the great classic westerns.
Well, Shane seems clean cut to us but at the time, though he was somewhat clean (meaning he wasn’t dirty), he was quite realistic and edgy looking. It was rare to see western heroes dress in his fashion.
Also at the time the film was quite dark, and inspired ‘The Great Silence’ in some ways (in reverse, the hero intimidates people into drawing first, line the villain, Jack Palance, in Shane). Later films were darker, but at the time it was hard to find them. I liked Shane, it is one of the first true drifter westerns.
look what scherp wrote
https://www.furiouscinema.com/2012/05/shane-50-furious-westerns-series
The first American classic western I have watched in many decades, and thanks for that. Extremely slow, sentimental and rather boring. The typical music is awful.
Two fist fights not better than the spaghetti style. The kid running miles in the end but not very believable and more annoying than in Cjamango. Ugly woman also.
The last (nearly only) shootout (lasting not more than a minute or so) was the most spaghetti like. Alan Ladd was OK.
At least Shane didn´t turn back in the last scene, but I rate this a 4/10. It is probably well executed within its genre limits though, but I would rather rewatch at least a hundred SWs several times before enduring this one another time.
Gotta love this guy lol
To each their own… 
I think Shane is a terrific piece of cinema. Good acting, beautiful scenery, lots of tension and an exciting, well-crafted showdown!
Classic grandiose score by Victor Young aswell!
