In a random selection, I chose to watch the Western film Shane. I have never taken the opportunity to watch a Western film but I had some idea about what I was going to see in this movie.  The first scene was exactly what I expected to see: mountains, horses, a big blue sky, and a cowboy.

To shortly summarize the film: The cowboy, Shane, is wandering through the West on his horse as he comes across a family living on the homestead.  Shane befriends the family, especially the little boy, Joey. Joey thinks Shane is invincible and is mesmerized by him. However, Shane is very mysterious and the father of the family, Joe, is reluctant to trust him. There are also some subtle feelings between Shane and Joe’s wife, Marian.  The movie includes classic Western scenes of saloon fighting and drinking just as I had expected it would. The family that Shane meets is struggling to keep hold of their “claim” (land) along with other people on the homestead. A greedy man named Ryker claims that Joe is on his land and he has come to take it back. One by one, other families on the homestead leave their land but Joe is determined to stay.  Ryker recruits a notorious gunman, Jack Wilson, to help him fight off the people on “his land”.  Joe plans to fight Ryker and Wilson but Shane’s inner cowboy and previous gunfighting experience surfaces as he knocks out Joe and goes to fight Ryker and Wilson. Shane ends up killing Wilson in a saloon shootout.  To Joey’s disappointment and Marian’s relief, Shane rides off just as any true cowboy would too.  

Two themes that I found most prevalent in Shane, are manliness andindependence.  There are two instances in the film when Shane is asked to leave the saloon because he is not fit to drink with the men.  It is obvious that the Western men pride themselves on their “manliness.”  I’m assuming that most of them have built their homes and started their families out west.  This also fits in with the theme of independence.  The men on the homestead want to be independent and keep their “claim” without being controlled by land barons.  Also, Shane is very independent. He enters this story alone, and leaves alone.

Significant images and icons I identified were horses, guns, mountains, saloons, whiskey, cowboy attire including hats, and wagons.  All of these images are consistent throughout the film and are what I would describe as classic Western images.

Because I can identify these images as “classic Western” images, I stand by my opinion that the West is an icon. I already knew what to expect before I watched this film and I think that says something about the West being an American icon.  The West has its own style and iconic images that the majority of people across the United States and elsewhere could identify.

Picture Sources:

http://shauncostello.com/tag/lawrence-kasdan/