原野奇侠1953

SHANE, adapted from Jack Schaefer’s popular novel, is George Steven’s eulogy of a bygone civilization, the West as we know it. Its rub is pivoted around the hard-pressed homesteaders against the grasping prior trailblazers, who cannot brook the land they have been fighting for with sweat and blood, to be shared with peace-loving late comers. It all comes down to a gunslinger, our titular hero Shane (Ladd) to solve the problem, once and for all.

Unlike other trigger-happy cowpokes, Shane is perversely reluctant to shoot, apparently afflicted by some unexplained past trauma, he comes off as rather shell-shocked and doesn’t even brings his six-shooter with him when he goes to town, much to the bewilderment of a 10-year-old boy Joey Starrett (De Wilde), who puts Shane on a pedestal ever since his advent to the Starretts’ turf.

Hired by Joey’s father Joe (Heflin) to work in their land, Shane literally becomes another member of the nuclear family, heightened by a tangible mutual feeling between him and Joe’s wife Marian (Arthur), neither of them acts improperly, but there is chemistry simmering underneath their restrained formalities, which even Joe descries but he is also prudent enough to keep the green-eyed monster at bay.

The conflict escalates when their nemesis, the Ryker brothers, going out of their ways to scare and harass homesteaders off the land for their cattle business, hires a notorious gunfighter Jack Wilson (Palance), who viciously baits and dispatches anyone who is hot-headed enough to draw the gun, Frank Torrey (Cook Jr.) falls to his victim, however, during his funeral, the homesteaders are held together by Joe and decide to stand on their grounds, which prompts the Ryker brothers to set a trap to liquidate Joe, after a dusty brotherly brawl amid skittish horses and Marian’s screaming, it is Shane who takes Joe’s place to attend the treacherous invitation, with Joey secretively tailing behind to witness the final showdown, executed with a quick-fire fashion that invites pause and rewind. When the dust settles, a wounded (mortally or not, Stevens leaves us to guess) Shane chooses to leave as he confesses there is no place for a man who has blood on his hands, with Joey’s wail “Come back, Shane” resounds in the crescendo,

A stoical Alan Ladd is forever enshrined in Shane’s laconic, reserved persona and he is the unlikely hero excels in rough-and-tumble with a short stature, but the truth is, Van Heflin offers a more well-rounded performance as the ultimately congenial and sympathetic Joe, as for Jean Arthur, in her first color movie and celluloid swan song, hampered by an unflattering wig and over-airbrushed effort of the make-up team, she, at the very least, hangs tough through the familial dissension as a dyed-in-the-wool nay-sayer of the gun violence, that particularly rings a bell in today’s climate.

Receiving 6 Oscar nominations in toto (including BEST PICTURE, SCREENPLAY and DIRECTOR), one for the amazing tween actor Brandon De Wilde (who would sadly perish in a car accident at an age of 30), who benefits from the fact that the meat of the story takes place from his idolized standpoint, persuasively visualizes a wide-eyed boy’s vicarious thrills and spills without becoming overtly cutesy or annoying, too many bratty kids in real life already, no one needs to see them throw a hissy fit on the big screen. Also Jack Palance cops a back-to-back Oscar nomination after his breakthrough in David Miller’s SUDDEN FEAR (1952), brimful of vice and danger, his villainous turn is a real spine-tingler.

Equipped with a divinely colorful Technicolor to render a beauteous natural landscape, SHANE judiciously deviates from the mainstream Western with its prescience of its westering future, yet proposes an auspicious prospect on the horizon of the pending modern age, while those who are passé get a melancholic solace that at any rate, some good deeds are done, a few good seeds are sowed and some bad apples are annihilated. Lastly, one advise, dialing down the volume can save yourself from the assault of Victor Young’s blaring, overblown aural accompaniment, which aids our appreciation of George Stevens’ deathless classic of a defiant hero named SHANE.

referential entries: George Stevens’ GIANT (1956, 8.3/10), Fred Zinnermann’s HIGH NOON (1952, 8.0/10).

看《Logan》的时候就对电影里出现的两段《Shane》的台词印象十分深刻，后来才发现两部片子很多地方都是遥相呼应的。

“A man has to be what he is, Joey.Can’t break the mould.” “There's no living with a killing. There's no going back from one. Right or wrong, it's a brand，a brand sticks. There's no going back. Now you run on home to your mother and tell her, tell her everything's alright. And there aren't any more guns in the valley.”这两段台词放在狼叔身上也毫不违和，生活大抵是这样没有选择又无可奈何。

《金刚狼3》中提到《Shane》这部影片，看似时间背景人物都完全不同设置的两部影片，为什么会放在一起

虽然讲述的是五十年代发生在美国西部的故事，《Shane》并非传统意义上的西部片，没有漫天的黄沙，酒馆前的决斗，没有头戴牛仔帽，腰别小手枪，策马奔腾的荒野镖客，赏金猎人，等等。以Rufus Ryker为首的拓荒者从印第安人手中抢来土地用于放牧，他们是我们印象中的西部牛仔们。以Joe为代表的自耕农户们来到拓荒者的土地开垦农田，修建水渠，发展农耕文明以求安稳富庶的生活。双方斗争不断，原野游侠Shane路过小镇，尝试融入农耕生活，但在帮助Joe及农耕户们打击拓荒者之后，最终选择出走回归荒野。

Shane原本是来自荒野自由自在的游侠，敏感警觉，温柔幽默。没人知道他的过去，但每一个游侠独行久了，大概都会向往美丽贤惠的妻子，可爱机灵的孩子，或者一头荷兰奶牛，就可以让他留下。这里甚至有可以拔刀相助的不平事，一种使命感让Shane更加觉得自己或许属于这个地方。如果没有Ryker，也许Shane几乎可以毫无压力的融入这种安逸“文明”的生活，拥有和Joe一样美满的生活。

影片至此都似乎在宣扬游牧文明向农耕文明的转变是对人类更好的选择，也是无法改变的趋势。人们会放下枪，放弃掠夺，各自守护好自己的土地，相安无事地过和平的群居生活。直到Ryker和Joe那一场激烈且重要的辩论，开拓者历经艰辛夺下土地，自耕户却理所当然地各划地盘自给自足，究竟谁是谁非呢。

Joe作为先进文明的代表，成功指出抢来的土地原本就不属于开拓者，眼前的一切不过是相似的游戏不断的上演。文明的发展，时代的更迭，说白了都是个人在群体或自然中追求自我利益的最大化而已。

那么这些游荡在时代边缘的Shane们，又该何去何从呢？

我认为《Shane》最妙之处，在于所谓的留白。影片没有过多关于Shane的心理描写，他只是善良单纯的一个追寻自己内心的人，他们有无法磨灭的旧时代的特质，成长的经历决定了他们似乎只能适应一种生活，于是在时代的变革中徘徊犹豫，无所适从。当他们终于决定停下脚步尝试改变，最终却只能发现，拿起手枪的一刻才是真正的自我。影史上经典的一幕，也是《金刚狼3》中提及的，有点忧伤的说出了这些悲情英雄宿命般的心声。

Shane : Joey, what are you doing here

Joey : I'm sorry, Shane.

Shane: You don't have to be, you'd better run back

Joey: Can I ride back home behind you?

Shane: I'm afraid not, Joey.

Joey: Please! Why not?

Shane: I gotta be going on.

Joey: Why, Shane?

Shane: A man has to be what he is, Joey. Can't break the mould.

I tried it and it didn't work for me.

Joey, there's no living with a killing. There's no going back from one.

Rignt or wrong, it's a brand. A brand stick. There's no going back.

Now you run on home to your mother and tell her everything is all right.

There are't any more guns in the valley.

影片中最为出色的配角，是小Joey。虽然是Joe 的儿子，Joey却更像是Shane的传承者。他对Shane代表的游侠时代有强烈的向往，但在教化之下，又可以安心接收文明的新时代。Shane的出现满足了他对“野蛮”时代的好奇，但在他的人生中，这只会是一个插曲，最终他还是会回到父母身边，做一位新时代的文明人。时代在这里顺利的更迭，而曾经的游侠，最终只能回到荒野中去继续游荡，回到属于自己的安心之所。

故事说到这里，我终于明白，为什么金刚狼的终结篇会以对Shane的致敬结尾。Logan和Shane一样都是荒野中的游侠，善良单纯，所以他们的感情和能力极易被人利用，不论是看似救世主的X教授，还是自私暴戾的史崔克。Logan一次次尝试融入X教授所代表的文明新时代，但他看起来永远是个异类，像一个能力超群只会干活，却无法领会老板精神的优秀员工。他的善良和使命感让他无法遵从自己的内心，只能一直充当X教授的帮手为拯救全人类奉献。但始终会有一天，当他累了，看清了，后继有人了，他总要回到荒野中，回到属于他，自由平静的大地中去。没有人可以豢养一只狼，狼虽然孤独而悲情，但那是他们应该在的地方，无所谓对与错好与坏，过去或未来。