Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Come Back, Shane!
Long before Jack Twist and Ennis del Mar lit up the Wyoming Rockies with their passion, a 10 year old frontier boy loved and idolized Shane (see black and white photo far left), a gentle but strong drifter with a gunslinger past. "Shane,"a true classic from 1953, is set on those same Wyoming plains, in the shadow of the Grand Tetons' sharp peaks. The film concerns the effect this drifter has on a family and a group of farmers struggling to survive against greedy ranchers that want them gone. Shane agrees to work as decent homesteader Joe Starret's farm hand and strongly attracts both Starret's 10-year old son, Joey, and his wife, Marion, in spite of herself. The ranchers hire a deadly gunman and the conflict escalates. But this Western is built on relationships and character as much as action. Highly recommended. Of course, the Batman TV Series parodied this film in 1966 with a villain called Shame (see color photo above), played by Cliff Robertson, and aided by Calamity Jan and Frontier Fanny : - ) As with all Batman two-part episodes the titles were a rhyming couplet: "Come Back, Shame" and "It's The Way You Play The Game." A 10-year old boy cries after Shame to come back not out of love, but because the villain thoughtlessly took his toy wagon. The cliff-hanger left Batman and Robin tied to stakes on the ground as a stampede of cattle rushes toward them. Batman's comment: "Shame on you, Shame."this entry's permalink
Comments:
Post a Comment
