Delayed Reaction: Shane

The Pitch: A guy is gonna spend the whole movie being, like, "I don't want to have a gunfight", then at the end, he has a gunfight anyway. And there will be this kid who's kind of annoying but gets an iconic moment.

A laconic stranger, looking to put a violent past behind him, gets pulled back in to help some homesteaders.

You can thank Logan for this one. In general, I'm trying to see more Westerns, but Shane shot up the list because of that X-Men movie. As a rule, if I movie is pulling so much from another movie that it outright uses a clip from it, then you can assume that filmmaker believes there's something to be gained by watching it. Shane reminded me a lot of High Noon in how most of the movie is just stalling until it gets to the climax. I think I preferred the conceit of High Noon a bit more. In Shane, it was so obvious where this was all headed, and lacking a literal ticking clock, there was little need to delay it. Shane more than makes up for it with a terrific ending. The kid yelling "Shane! Come back!" as the injured Shane rides away: that's good stuff.

This is a pretty movie too. Is there a Blu-ray for it? I'm sure there is. I would've liked to see that instead of DVD quality.

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend