Photo Credit: © Can Stock Photo Inc. / urfingus
In 1953, George Stevens directed an American western for Paramount called Shane. The film was based on a 1949 novel of the same title, written by Jack Schaefer. It starred Alan Ladd as Shane—a drifting, gun-slinging cowboy, and Van Heflin as a land-settling farmer named Joe. Joe’s wife was played by Jean Arthur and their son Joey by Brandon DeWilde. No bad guys were colder than Jack Palance, who played a gunman named Wilson.
Most Americans over the age of 40 are familiar with the movie. Many of those movie-goers mock the boy’s classic whine of “Shane! Come back!” as Shane rides off into the night at the end of the film. Decades later, when Jack Palance again played a tough-guy cowboy in his final film City Slickers, he was channeling the same dark Wilson character.
Defining Character
I hold this film up as a primer for manhood. There are plenty of “tough guy” moments in the film, as in any western, but I’m talking about moments where real character is shown. A father could sit with his son and say, “See? See how he handled that? That’s really important stuff, my son.”