Shane

Second blog in a row about Western movies.

I wrote a paper about Shane as a freshman in college and my professor read my paper to the class. One of my proudest moments in life, actually. Maybe that's a sad commentary about the quality of my life, but it made me proud for my English Prof to single me out.

I won't even try to duplicate what I wrote then and I really don't remember much about my paper at all other than it was meant to expose the myth of Hollywood and the fast draw in movies.


This blog is not about Hollywood, or the fast draw, or old Westerns or any of that old nonsense. This blog is actually about a line at the end of this old classic.

To set things up, I kind of have to give a summary of the plot to this flick.


It was filmed in 1953 and every actor in the movie is now deceased including the little kid that adores Shane.
Shane was a gunfighter that sees the end for his kind of life. He rides into this small community right in the middle of the typical Western feud between invading farmers and Cattlemen.
Shane joins up with the farmers and tries to lay his guns down and retire.
Obviously, that didn't sit well with the Cattle baron who brought in a gunfighter to deal with the farmers. The gunfighter brought in by the ranchers was played by Jack Palance, possibly the all time greatest bad guys ever in film.
To make a long story short, Shane puts back on his gunfighter clothes and deals with the situation the way a gunfighter does.

Great, great movie set with some of the most beautiful mountains in the world as the background, The Grand Tetons.

My favorite line happens as the Shane worshiping kid begs Shane to stay with them instead of riding off into the sunset.
"A man has to be what he is, you can't break the mold".

One can take that sentence a lot of ways.
You can argue against my point and say that a person can be anything they want to be if they put their minds to it.
But, for me it was always an inspiration to be all that you could be as a man. If I as a man have certain gifts and skills then why break the mold, just be what I am.

I have a lot of favorite movie lines and this one is not my favorite or probably even close to the top. Still, it's a nice line from a really good old fashion movie and inspires me to be a man.