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What happens to Shane? (1 Viewer)

Does Shane die at the end of the film?


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David_B_K

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I voted for 'rides away'. It never ocurred to me that Shane might have been mortally wounded until I watched it with my parents years ago and my mother said she thought Shane rode away and died. I read the book decades ago and never felt Shane died at the end. The line about ''there's no living with a killing' merely explains why he has to leave at the end.
 

smithbrad

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When I watched this several years ago my feeling was that he just road off. After watching it last night and recently hearing the premise that maybe he dies, I will say his riding motion looked a bit awkward at the very end. Could that mean his injury, upcoming death, or just an awkward step by the horse. I'm going with the idea that my noticing anything was because of the preconceived notion of him dying and nothing else, so I'm voting a new option 4: he manages to stay away from gunfights, wanders from place to place, and lives to a ripe old age alone.

Now not having watched this in quite sometime, I never realized how much Eastwood's Pale Rider steals from this film.
 
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Peter Neski said:
what happened in the book??
The book's ending is pretty much the same and open to the same interpretations. Shane is shot, badly, but he summons the strength to get out of the saloon, get on his horse and ride away. He tells Bob (who is the narrator of the book) that he has to ride away because "there's no going back from a killing". For the sake of everyone, he has to ride on. The implication is he'll be all right but there's just no way he can stay.
"There were men on the porch behind me, but I was aware only of that dark shape growing small and indistinct along the far reach of the road. A cloud passed over the moon and he merged into the general shadow and I could not see him and the cloud passed on and the road was a plain thin ribbon to the horizon and he was gone."
It's a very good book and the film stays true to it for the most part. Schaefer's book are always worth tracking down. "Monte Walsh" is also excellent.
 

Bill Huelbig

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Richard--W said:
There is no suggestion, indication, inference, or hint that Shane dies in the end
Except for that final shot of the graveyard. It can't just be an arbitrary choice for it to be the last shot in the film. Maybe Stevens did it to make sure audiences would always be able to discuss the ending, the way we are now, 60 years later.
 

Robert Crawford

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Bill Huelbig said:
Except for that final shot of the graveyard. It can't just be an arbitrary choice for it to be the last shot in the film. Maybe Stevens did it to make sure audiences would always be able to discuss the ending, the way we are now, 60 years later.
After completely listening to the audio commentary, I'm more convinced than ever that Shane leaving town through the graveyard was not about his death perse. It's a scene to illustrate that no more gunfighters are left in the valley and people can live and raise their families in peace without the threat of gun fighting that brought violent killing to that valley.

It was a symbolic ending by Stevens just like he showed people coming into the town through that same portal of those two trees. He wanted people to think about this film as Stevens Jr. as made that point clear so discussing the ending was surely in his thinking. To quote Stevens Jr. there were more than a few intellectual points made in the film to give audiences something to chew over after watching this film. Also, that film for the most part was being viewed through the eyes of a nine year old boy which contributed to some of the symbolic gestures.
 

Bob_S.

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I agree with Brad. He lives to a ripe old age. I think he comes across a ranch owned by a pretty widow who nurses him back to health. He marries her and finally gives up gun fighting. Shane is my favorite movie and also my favorite western novel. Alan Ladd did a good job but I always pictured Shane differently. And yes, when I first saw Pale Rider, I was like, "What a complete rip off of Shane!".
 

Robin9

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Robert Crawford said:
Right which is why I started this polling thread. It never occur to me that others thought Shane died at the end until I started reading such opinions many years ago on the net.
Until reading this thread it had never occurred to me that anyone might think Shane didn't die at the end. For me that shot of Shane motionless in the saddle with his arm out at an angle indicates that he has died and that rigor mortis has set in.
 

Robert Crawford

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Robin9 said:
Until reading this thread it had never occurred to me that anyone might think Shane didn't die at the end. For me that shot of Shane motionless in the saddle with his arm out at an angle indicates that he has died and that rigor mortis has set in.
Today, I can understand how some might think he died, but please, rigo mortis doesn't set in a few minutes.
 

DVDvision

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Shane becomes the sheriff of the mining town of Lago, but is betrayed by the villagers and whipped to death.

The man with no name later rides into town.

Now you can close this thread ;)
 

smithbrad

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HDvision said:
Actually there's High Plains Drifter before this, with a midget in place of the kid.
I don't think of High Plains Drifter in the same way. There are just so many similarities between Shane and Pale Rider that as Scott said, it really does comes off as a remake. Knowing Pale Rider fairly well, it didn't strike me this way until this second viewing of Shane after so many years.
 

Robin9

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Robert Crawford said:
Today, I can understand how some might think he died, but please, rigo mortis doesn't set in a few minutes.
I've never been to Wyoming but I assume it takes more than a few minutes to ride from the valley to the top of the hills. Judging from various shots in the film, it should take hours. Any resident of Wyoming should feel free to correct me.
 

Robert Crawford

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Robin9 said:
I've never been to Wyoming but I assume it takes more than a few minutes to ride from the valley to the top of the hills. Judging from various shots in the film, it should take hours. Any resident of Wyoming should feel free to correct me.
Have you watched Shane lately? You don't have to be a resident of Wyoming to know that the last scene of the film was him riding through the grave yard and it's not hours away from town.
 

PaulaJ

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Why, I'm shocked, shocked, you all wonder what happened at the end of Shane. :) Thanks to ABC we know that Shane came back and found Joe had died but his father was now living with Marion and little Joey. And that somehow Ryker had survived too. Shane started working again on the Starrett homestead and he and Marion fell in love though it took almost a whole TV season for them to admit it. :)

ShanePump-S.jpg
 

Nick*Z

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Yep, Shane buys the farm - well...alright, not literally. Probably in the mountains. Too proud for the graveyard. To much changed from his experiences with the family to ever truly turn hard and go back to gun slinging as a profession.

Dead anyway. Shame. Come back, Shane! Love that western!
 

Howard Tom

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Richard--W said:
There is no suggestion, indication, inference, or hint that Shane dies in the end.

He rides away. That's it.

Western heroes in the 1950s were always getting wounded and then riding away.
Well, not Gregory Peck's Johnny Ringo, but that may be an exception.
 

Nick*Z

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The only thing western heroes "always" do is ride a horse. Everything else is open for discussion. Let's not read too much into this. Oh, by the way. I'm Shane's great grandson.
 

Robin9

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Robert Crawford said:
Have you watched Shane lately? You don't have to be a resident of Wyoming to know that the last scene of the film was him riding through the grave yard and it's not hours away from town.
Yes, but that last shot flatly "contradicts" the preceding shot and makes no sense. I watched the DVD last night but I'll delay replying in detail until I've watched the BRD. I will revert.
 
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