Shane

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Another K2K selection here.

I'm not a Western fan by nature, but I have seen a number that I thought were great. They just aren't like horror movies, where I can watch all kinds and enjoy them. The genre doesn't inherently interest me.

So I'm always amused on Netflix when I will seek out a specific western that is considered a classic, watch it, love it, give it a high rating, and then find my recommendations inundated with other, shitty looking westerns. I mean, I've only rated a small handful of westerns, but my Netflix recommendations list is full of them. Meanwhile, I watch and rate about a billion horror movies, and while I don't always give them 5 stars, they have a higher likelihood of getting at least a 3. Yet Netflix can't seem to sense that I'm a fan, and never recommends any to me.

That's what happened with Shane. And with my goal to watch more (universally considered classic) westerns, this will probably happen more.

This was a pretty great movie. Beautifully shot, entertaining but with darker themes under the surface, good acting with complex character relationships. OK, Alan Ladd may not be the most convincing tough guy in the world, but all his dramatic scenes are good. And Van Heflin is great, especially the way he slowly realizes that his wife has a thing for Shane, but is too good of a person to get nasty about it. He's a lot more likable than Shane, really, and I thought was really the heart of the film. Shane is too dark, and maybe not as noble or heroic as the little boy sees him as. And the little boy is just too fucking annoying to be the heart.

Anyway, five starts, Netflix! I look forward to hearing about a million other forgotten westerns that I don't want to see.