Feb 17, 2010 - 04:30 AM

When George Steven's Shane (played by Alan Ladd) was ready for release in 1951, it became a hard sell. Paramount Pictures wanted to slosh it off to some other studio, skeptical of the film's unconventionality. Not able to garner interest from anyone, two years later Paramount "bravely" decided to place the film into general distribution. Fortunately, although somewhat slowly, Shane began to attract considerable public interest.

It is inconceivable that the money-men didn't want anything to do with a movie that in due course would reach up and hold its standing as one of the Top 10 westerns of all time, alongside such classics as Fred Zinnemann's High Noon (1952) or John Ford's The Searchers (1956). True art is often only recognized and marked as such by the passage of time.

The story, precisely as seen through the eyes of a boy (Brandon DeWilde), was filmed in realistic and unusual terms, given the era it was conceived in, a time when westerns were often reduced to run-of-the-mill cowboy-versus-Indian tales. Shane is about corrupt powers pitted against hard-working homesteaders whose ownership of farm land is threatened by greedy ranchers. Into this tension enters Shane, an ex-gunfighter wishing to renounce his past and longing for a better life.

Joe Starrett (Van Heflin), the boy's father, is determined to courageously stand up to the oppressors as he leads and empowers other farmers. Another gunfighter (Jack Palance at his most diabolical) is brought in to combat and eliminate him, thus frightening his neighbours enough to leave the valley. Obviously, Starrett is no match for the evil gunslinger. Shane takes matters into his own hand and wins a final, spectacular shootout.

Once again, the community is safe as Shane departs towards the mountains. He exists for a single space in time and purpose. But, with him gone, a sense of loss and vulnerability emerges.

The simplicity of the plot and shallowness underneath the characters' surface is, ironically, what gives this movie energy. We admire Shane, and yet there is a feeling of despair and sadness about him. A loner who is a person of integrity, ability and control, he represents that often-explored American anachronism: a man living on the edge of law and society, unable to conform to a changing world. Other westerns that come to mind in this light are The Gunfighter (1950), Lonely Are The Brave (1962) and The Wild Bunch (1969).

Shane was filmed near Jackson Hole, a breathtaking, beautiful part of Wyoming. For years, up until 2008, local resident Walt Farmer, a retired Air Force veteran who wrote a CD-Rom book about the movie's history, provided tours of actual locations that served as backgrounds for the film.

Warren Cosford, known as a passionate radio visionary who once held the prestigious position of production manager at now-vanished CHUM-AM, Toronto, is also a big Shane fan. Warren saw first-hand where the movie was made.

"I drove into Jackson Hole from the south, as the sun came up," Warren said. "I went on a rafting ride and asked the operator if there was anything left of the Shane set. He said there are a couple of log cabins just outside of town that people had actually been living in when the film was made. I got directions and headed out. I think they were the buildings we see at the Torrey farm (residents played by Ellen Corby and Elisha Cook Jr., whose character foolishly gets wiped out by Palance)."

Several classic westerns from the 1950s and 1960s have been given the royal treatment by way of bells and whistles on re-released, sometimes commemorative DVD editions, but not Shane. A DVD exists, but only in bare-bones condition. A commentary by George Stevens Jr., production assistant and son of the late director, is included. An opportunity exists here to really load up a package with exciting extras, like a filmed tour of Jackson Hole. The time is ripe for a special DVD of Shane, one of the best movies ever in Hollywood history.