Shane: Victor Young’s Score, and A Brief Essay on the Picture

Shane (1953)| Soundtrack Suite (Victor Young)

Thanks to Soundtrack Fred for the upload!

By Nicholas Stix (Spoiler Alert!)

Shane is the greatest Western ever made, and George Stevens’ masterpiece of masterpieces. Not A Place in the Sun, not Giant, though they too are masterpieces.

In Jack Schaefer’s childish, eponymous novel, the title character is tall, strapping, dark-haired and invincible. Stevens’ genius started with the casting: He chose 5'5" Alan Ladd, who wasn’t considered a great actor, and had him play the role blond. And unlike other directors, who typically made Laddie look like a normal-sized man, Stevens surrounded him with cattle baron Ruf Ryker’s tall, strapping thugs, so as to emphasize Ladd’s diminutive stature.

Stevens’ Shane is also very much a mortal. At picture’s end, we’re not told if he is going off to die, or to nurse his wound. I suspect he is dying, but doesn’t want little Joey Starrett to know, and possibly blame himself. (Kids are funny that way.)

Meanwhile, Stevens takes the dullest, most mundane aspects of farm work, clearing a tree stump and, with composer Victor Young’s wizardry, turns it into an epic battle pitting man against nature, and an occasion for male bonding that will become a matter of life and death, and last a lifetime.

People always say, “The book was better,” and they’re almost always right. Shane is one of the rare, grand exceptions to the rule.

Postscript, September 18, 2021

I couldn’t figure this out, but The Boss figured it out for me. During the gunfight, cattle baron Ruf Ryker’s brother, Morgan, lays in wait for Shane on the upper level, in case the latter should outdraw Jack Wilson (Jack Palance). When Shane prevails against both Wilson and Ruf, he turns his back, not knowing of the backshooter. Little Joey Starrett warns Shane, but not in time. He kills Morgan, but not before Ryker shoots him in the shoulder.

The wound is serious, requires immediate attention, and Shane cannot attend to it himself. Joey begs Shane to come home with him, so his mother can tend to his wound, but primarily because he never wants to see him go. All of the Starretts love him (Marian is in love with him), and he loves them, but he can’t stay. In part, that’s because of the bloodshed, but more importantly, because the unrequited love triangle of Joe Sr., Shane, and Marian cannot continue.

And so, Shane goes off to die.

Thus, the denouement of the picture is more tragic and heartbreaking than the book, and represents the peak of the career of “the Super-Chief,” George Stevens.

I rank Shane as the greatest Western ever made (ahead of 1956’ The Searchers), and the sixth-greatest sound picture ever, after:

5. It’s a Wonderful Life (1946);
3 (tie). The Godfather, Part II (1974);
3 (tie). The Godfather (1972);
2. Citizen Kane (1941); and
1. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946).


Amuggle15, whom I thank for preparing and uploading the (earlier) selections, writes,

One of the greatest westerns - both film and score. The selections are from the 1996 re-recording performed by The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra with Richard Kaufman conducting. Score arranged by Patrick Russ. The selections here are: 1) Prelude 2) The Tree Stump and 3) Cemetery Hill.