Another model: _Shane_ centers on the family, which is not normative for a
Western---is it? The usual Western either concerns a movement to home where, for
example, young men sow their wild oats and ultimately marry prostitutes in order
to settle down and start a family or a movement away from home to fight a war,
save a kidnapped relative, find gold, . . . . Other Westerns take place in town
(in the saloon, in the hotel, in the jail, in the main street, in the in the
town store, in the dentist office) or out on the plains (for war, revenge,
robbery).
In _Shane_, the re-positioning of the anti-family element (the gunfighter) in
terms of the family makes for a very interesting Western. (Later TV shows such
as _Bonanza_, _The Big Valley_, and _Dallas_ carried the idea of the
family-oriented Western forward, but in these shows the family is a kind of
corporation as it is in most Westerns (_Big Jake_ . . .) . . . . We might
consider a relatively recent romance like _The Bridges of Madison County_ as a
kind of Kate Chopin and non-Western version of _Shane_: an intruder offers a
threat to the family, but no love triangle emerges, just a relatively simple and
secret fulfillment.) This centering makes _Shane_ distinct from most Westerns
(but not all) because it takes place on the farm and in town and because it
makes the simple family (not the large corporate family like that in _The
Godfather_) the center of the conflict (threatened within and without). As
Jeremy Bowman notes, the gunfighter saves the family but also threatens to
destroy it.
What can we make of this?
. . .
JMC
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