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Shane

1953 film directed by George Stevens

Shane is a 1953 film about a Southerner and gunfighter, who seeks to escape his secret past by getting a job as a ranch hand to a family of homesteaders. When a cattle rancher seeks to get rid of the homesteaders, Shane must return to his roots.

A gun is only as bad or as good as the man using it. Remember that.
Directed by George Stevens. Written by A. B. Guthrie, Jr., on the 1949 novel of the same name by Jack Schaefer.
There's A Score To Settle...and This is it!taglines

Dialogue

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I know that, if, if anything happened to me that you'd be took care of, took care of better than I could do it myself. I never thought I'd live to hear myself say that but I guess now's a pretty good time to lay things bare.
 
There's no living with, with a killing. There's no going back from it. Right or wrong, it's a brand, a brand that sticks. There's no going back.
Joey: Somebody's comin', Pa!
Joe Starrett Sr.: Well, let him come.
Shane: You were watchin' me down the trail for quite a spell, weren't you?
Joey: Yes I was.
Shane: You know, I... hoe de hohoho I like a man who watches things go on around. It means he'll make his mark someday.
Ryker: Howdy Starrett.
Morgan: 'specting trouble?
Ryker: I don't want no trouble, Starrett. I came to inform ya. I got that beef contract for the reservation.
Joe: Did it take this many of you to tell me that?
Ryker: I mean business.
Joe: Then you tend to your own.
Ryker: That's just what I'm doing! I'm telling ya now, I'm gonna need all my range.
Joe: Now that you've warned me, would you mind gettin' off my place?
Ryker: Your place! You're gonna have to get out before the snow flies.
Joe: And supposin' I don't?
Ryker: You and the other squatters...
Joe: Homesteaders, you mean, don't you?
Ryker: I could blast you out of here right now, you and the others.
Joe: Now you listen to me, the time for gun-blastin' a man off of his own place is past. Why, they're building a penitentiary right now...
Marion:[interrupting] Joe, that's enough.
Morgan:[to Shane]Who are you, stranger?
Shane: I'm a friend of Starrett's.
Joe: These old-timers, they just can't see it yet, but runnin' cattle on an open range just can't go on forever. It takes too much space for too little results. Those herds aren't any good. They're all horns and bone. Now, cattle that is bred for meat and fenced in and fed right - that's the thing. You gotta pick your spot, get your land, your own land. Now a homesteader, he can't run but a few beef. But he can sure grow grain and cut hay. And then what with his garden and the hogs and milk, well, he'll make out all right. We make out, don't we, Marion?
Marion: [pause] Of course.
Joe: I wouldn't ask you where you're bound.
Shane: One place or another. Some place I've never been.
Joey: Pa, do you think Shane will teach me to shoot?
Joe: I'll teach you myself, once I get the time, Joey.
Joey: Can you shoot as good as Shane, Pa?
Joe: How do I know? I've never seen him shoot. But I doubt it.
Joey: He didn't wear his gun today. Why is that, Pa?
Joe: Well, he's tradin' at the store, not holdin' it up.
Joey: But why, Pa, honest? Why didn't he?
Joe: I don't wear one myself.
Joey: It goes with him, though...Could you whip him, Pa? Could you whip Shane?
Joe: Don't you ask nothin' but questions?
Joey: But could you?
Joe: Ooh, maybe. But there’s no call for that, Joey. Shane’s on our side.
Marion: Somebody’s coming, Joe.
Joe: I know. It’s Ernie Wright.
Chris: Well now, looky here what we got. [to Pete] That’s one of the new ones. We call him Sody-pop.
Pete: Deal me out.
Chris: Why, what's the matter, Pete?
Pete: Just say I'm superstitious.
Chris:[to Shane] I guess you don’t hear very well, sodbuster. I told you that if you wanted to stay healthy you’d keep out of here. Look pig farmer, you’d better get back inside with the women and kids where it’s safe.... D’you hear me? Get goin’.
Shane: Don’t push it, Calloway.
Chris: Did you think you were goin’ to come in here and drink with the men?
Shane: Set ‘em up, bartender. Two whiskies.
Chris: You ain’t going to drink that in here.
Shane: You guessed it.
Joey: Mother, I just love Shane.
Marion: Do you?
Joey: I love him almost as much as I love Pa. That's all right, isn't it?
Marion: He's a fine man.
Joey: He's so good. Don't you like him, Mother?
Marion: Yes, I like him too, Joey.
Joey: Why don't you ever wear your six-shooter, Shane?
Shane: Well, I guess I don't see as many bad men as you do.
...
Shane: One, for instance, likes to have a shoulder holster. Another one puts it in his - the belt of his pants. And there are some who like two guns. But one's all you need if you can use it.
Joey: Which is the best way?
Shane: What I'm telling you is a good a way as any and better than most.
Marion: Guns aren't going to be my boy's life.
Joey: Why do you always have to spoil everything?
Shane: A gun is a tool, Marion. No better and no worse than any other tool - an axe, a shovel, or anything. A gun is as good or as bad as the man using it. Remember that.
Marion: We'd all be much better off if there wasn't a single gun left in this valley - including yours.
Morgan: [greeting Starrett's wagon] Alright. Alright. I'll open the gate for ya.
Joe: Who goes there?
Morgan: Brother Rufe's come to pay you a little visit.
Ryker: Howdy, Starrett. 'Evening, Ma'am. I had something I wanted to talk over with you Starrett.
Joe: Whatever business you and I got we can say it right here.
Ryker: I'll just lay it on the barrel-head then. How'd you like to work for me?
Joe: I work for myself. I've done enough working for others.
Ryker: Wait till I tell ya. I'll pay ya top wages, more than you can make on this patch of ground.
Joe: Nope. I'm not interested.
Ryker: I haven't said it all. You can run your cattle with mine. What's more I'll buy your homestead. Set a price you think is reasonable, you'll find me reasonable. Is that fair?
Joe: You've made things pretty hard for us, Ryker, and us in the right all the time.
Ryker: Right? You in the right! Look, Starrett. When I come to this country, you weren't much older than your boy there. We had rough times, me and other men that are mostly dead now. I got a bad shoulder yet from a Cheyenne arrowhead. We made this country. Found it and we made it. We worked with blood and empty bellies. The cattle we brought in were hazed off by Indians and rustlers. They don't bother you much anymore because we handled 'em. We made a safe range out of this. Some of us died doin' it but we made it. And then people move in who've never had to rawhide it through the old days. They fence off my range, and fence me off from water. Some of 'em like you plow ditches, take out irrigation water. And so the creek runs dry sometimes and I've got to move my stock because of it. And you say we have no right to the range. The men that did the work and ran the risks have no rights? I take you for a fair man, Starrett.
Joe: I'm not belittlin' what you and the others did. At the same time, you didn't find this country. There was trappers here and Indian traders long before you showed up and they tamed this country more than you did.
Ryker: They weren't ranchers.
Joe: You talk about rights. You think you've got the right to say that nobody else has got any. Well, that ain't the way the government looks at it.
Ryker: I didn't come to argue. I made you a fair proposition.
Joe: What about the others?
Ryker: Shane already knows he can work for me anytime.
Joe: The other homesteaders.
Ryker: Look, be reasonable! After all, there's only so many hands in a deck of cards.
Joe: Then I've got to say no.
Ryker: You don't give a man much choice do you, Starrett? [to Joey] How do you feel about it, son? Wouldn't you like to go partners with me? I don't want trouble with your father. We don't want anyone to get hurt, do we?
Joe: Joey ain't quite of age, Ryker.
Ryker: What d'you say, son?.
Marion: Come up here, Joey.
Ryker: I don't want you to be sorry, Starrett. I'll see ya. [he leaves].
Joe: [to Shane, watching the retreating Wilson] What do you make of him?
Shane: He's no cowpuncher.
Joe:: No. He don't look the part sure enough.
RykerL [from the bar to Wilson and Morgan, watching Grafton going into the store] I like Starrett too. But I'll kill him if I have to. I tell you, I'll kill him if I have to.
Wilson: You mean I'll kill him if you have to. [Morgan chuckles]
Morgan: Just get Starrett in here. It wouldn't take much to bait him. [He moves to the saloon doors and looks out and sees Shipstead and Torrey approaching]
Morgan: Well lookey here........lookey here.... [Wilson, curious, joins him at the saloon door followed by Ryker]
Wilson: Why don't we just gun him and get on with it? One of them's run already. It won't take much to stampede the rest.
Ryker : Remember, Wilson, this has gotta look right to Grafton.
Wilson: Hey! Come here!
Shipstead: I wouldn't go over there if I were you.
Torrey: Nobody's gonna buffalo me. [to Wilson] What can I do for you?
Wilson: And where d'you think your goin'?
Torrey: To get a whisky.
Shipstead: Torrey! Torrey!
Wilson: They tell me they call you Stonewall.
Torrey: There anything wrong with that?
Wilson: It's just funny. I guess they named a lot of that Southern trash after old Stonewall.
Torrey: Who'd they name you after, or would you know?
Wilson: I'm saying that Stonewall Jackson was trash himself. Him and Lee and all the rest of them rebs. You too.
Torrey: Your nothing but a low-down lyin' Yankee!
Wilson: Prove it.[Wilson shoots Torrey]
Morgan: One less sodbuster.
Joe: Torrey was a pretty brave man, and I figure we'd be doin' wrong if we wasn't the same...We can have a regular settlement here, we can have a town and churches and a school...We've just got to, that's all...We can't give up this valley and we ain't gonna do it. This is farmin' country, a place where people can come and bring up their families. Who is Rufe Ryker or anyone else to run us away from our own homes? He only wants to grow his beef and what we want to grow up is families, to grow 'em good and grow 'em, grow 'em up strong, the way they was meant to be grown. God didn't make all this country just for one man like Ryker.
Lewis: He's got it though and that's what counts.
Shane: You know what he wants you to stay for? Something that means more to you than anything else - your families. Your wives and kids. Like you, Lewis, your girls; Shipstead with his boys. They've got a right to stay here and grow up and be happy. That's up to you people to have nerve enough to not give it up.
Marion: Isn't there anything I can say that'll change things?
Joe: Can't you see, honey, maybe this is the chance. Morgan and them boys went home.
Marion: You don't really believe that. That's not the reason.
Joe: It's just too much for me to give up, this place and the valley. All the things that will be.
Marion: Will be. [about his toy gun] Joey, don't point that thing! Go play outside! Play outside, Joey! Please dear, go outside and play. [Joey exits] It's just pride, that's all, a silly kind of pride. Don't I mean anything to you, Joe? Doesn't Joey?
Joe: Marion - honey, it's because you mean so much to me that I- I've got to go. Do you think I could go on living with you and you thinking that I showed yella. Then, what about Joey? How do you think I'd ever explain that to him.
Marion: Oh Joe, Joe.
Joe: I've been thinkin' a lot and I know I'm kinda slow sometimes, Marion, but I see things. And I know that, if, if anything happened to me that you'd be took care of, took care of better than I could do it myself. I never thought I'd live to hear myself say that but I guess now's a pretty good time to lay things bare.
Marion: It's as though I'd be glad for you to go.
Joe: Honey, you're the most honest and the finest girl that ever lived and I couldn't do what I gotta do if I hadn't always knowed that I could trust ya. Now don't you go countin' me out. [He straps on his holster] I wouldn't have lived as long as I have already if I wasn't pretty tough.
Marion: You're both out of your senses. This isn't worth a life, anybody's life. What are you fighting for? This shack, this little piece of ground, and nothing but work, work, work? I'm sick of it. I'm sick of trouble. Joe, let's move. Let's go on. Please!
Joe: Marion, don't say that. That ain't the truth. You love this place more than me.
Marion: Not anymore.
Joe: Even if that was the truth, it wouldn't change things.
Marion: You were through with gun-fighting?
Shane: I changed my mind.
Marion: [softly] Are you doing this just for me?
Shane: For you, Marion - for Joe - and little Joe.
Marion: Then we'll never see you again?
Shane: Never's a long time, ma'am. Tell him, tell him I was sorry.
Marion: No need to tell him that.
Shane: I came to get your offer, Ryker.
Ryker: I'm not dealing with you. Where's Starrett?
Shane: You're dealing with me, Ryker.
Ryker: I got no quarrel with you, Shane. You walk out now and no hard feelings.
Shane: What's your offer, Ryker?
Ryker: To you, not a thing.
Shane: That's too bad.
Ryker: Too bad?
Shane: Yeah, you've lived too long. Your kind of days are over.
Ryker: My days! What about yours, gunfighter?
Shane: The difference is I know it.
Ryker: All right. So we'll all turn in our six-guns to the bartender. We'll all start hoeing spuds. Is that it?
Shane: Not quite yet. [to Wilson] We haven't heard from your friend here.
Wilson: I wouldn't push too far if I were you. Our fight ain't with you.
Shane: It ain't with me, Wilson?
Wilson: No it ain't, Shane.
Ryker: I wouldn't pull on Wilson, Shane. [to Will Atkey] Will, you're a witness to this.
Shane: So you're Jack Wilson.
Wilson: What's that mean to you, Shane?
Shane: I've heard about you.
Wilson: And what've you heard, Shane?
Shane: I've heard that you're a low-down Yankee liar.
Wilson: Prove it.
Joey: [after the gun battle] Shane! I knew you could, Shane. I knew it. I knew it just as well as anything. Was that him? Was that Wilson?
Shane: That was him. That was Wilson alright. He was fast - fast on the draw. 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 home behind you?
Shane: Afraid not, Joey.
Joey: Please, why not?
Shane: I gotta be goin' on.
Joey: Why, Shane?
Shane: A man has to be what he is, Joey. You can't break the mold. I tried it and it didn't work for me.
Joey: We want you, Shane.
Shane: Joey, there's no living with, with a killing. There's no going back from it. Right or wrong, it's a brand, a brand that 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.
Joey: Shane, it's bloody. You're hurt.
Shane: I'm alright, Joey. You go home to your mother and your father. And grow up to be strong and straight. And Joey, take care of them, both of them.
Joey: Yes, Shane. [Tears well up in Joey's eyes] He'd never have been able to shoot you - if you'd have seen him.
Shane: Bye, little Joe.
Joey: He never even would have cleared the holster, would he, Shane? [calling after him] Pa's got things for you to do, and Mother wants you. I know she does. Shane. Shane! Come back! 'Bye, Shane.

About Shane

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  • Shane contains something more than the beauty and the grandeur of the mountains and plains, drenched by the brilliant Western sunshine and the violent, torrential, black-browed rains. It contains a tremendous comprehension of the bitterness and passion of the feuds that existed between the new homesteaders and the cattlemen on the open range. It contains a disturbing revelation of the savagery that prevailed in the hearts of the old gun-fighters, who were simply legal killers under the frontier code. And it also contains a very wonderful understanding of the spirit of a little boy amid all the tensions and excitements and adventures of a frontier home.

Taglines

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  • There's A Score To Settle...and This is it!
  • There never was a man like SHANE. There never was a motion picture like SHANE.
  • The Greatest Story Of the West Ever Filmed

Cast

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