looking to overtake the livelihoods and homes of the good townspeople. In his employ is the second
bad man – a notorious, cruel gun-fighter hired to intimidate the townspeople into following the first bad
man’s rules; under pain of injury or death.
The plot line in both Shane and Pale Rider is extremely similar. This plot line is also very typical
to the Western genre. But the difference is in the telling. In the film Shane, the characters are typically
good or bad. Shane is a character in control of his demons; he has even created moral lessons from
them. He shares these lessons with Joey, the child of the family he befriends: "Right and wrong is a
brand and a brand sticks."3 This is simple way of categorizing good and evil. In the film Pale Rider
things are not this black and white. To begin with, our hero is, surprisingly, a Christian preacher. This
2 Ibid
3 Shane, George Stevens, Paramount Pictures, 1953.
film tells that a man of faith can be a gunslinger in search of retribution: a very good example of good
and evil duality.
Not only do each of these films contain settings, characters and plot typical to the Western genre; they also contain the costumes and items used so commonly in Western films. There is the distinctive Western clothing, horses and carts, hand guns and rifles and the all important bottles of liquor.
A major difference between Shane and Pale Rider is that of the gender roles played in particular by the members of the family that the hero befriends in each film. In Shane, the child of the family that our hero befriends is a small; innocent boy named Joey. In Pale Rider, that boy is replaced by a blossoming adolescent ingénue, the gender change dramatically altering the tensions between the
characters. Whereas in Shane the boy compared his father to Shane and found his father lacking, in
Pale Rider the girl competes with her mother for the Preacher's attention.
The family members in Shane each fit into the stereotypical symbol of stability and traditional
values for the time in which the movie was made. The father, Joe Starrett, fits into a character-type
typical to western films. A good, decent man who is hard working, moralistic, and not overly bright. The mother, Marian Starrett, also fits into a certain stereotype – however hers is one more commonly used for women in movies made in the 50s – that of the ‘dutiful wife’; who is meek and mild; stays in the home; knows her place. A softly-spoken, soft-faced lady, whose life is wrapped around caring for her family.
The child Joey is a starry-eyed, golden haired boy who enjoys playing on the land and does his
best to please his parents. He represents pure innocence, and is the first to develop a close bond with
Shane, who takes him under his wing and shares his moralistic wisdom with him. Joey develops a love for Shane, despite his mother’s warnings that he shouldn’t love someone who will probably leave. This; a warning both to her son and seemingly to herself; as she appears to grow to love him too; although the most evidence the audience ever receives of this love is a distant look in Marian’s eye. For a woman of this particular stereotype – the ‘dutiful wife’ - could not morally be capable of any more. 4
4 Laura Mulvey, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” in Will Brooker and Deborah Jermyn (eds) The Audience Studies Reader (London: Rouledge, 2003), Ch. 13, pp 133 - 142
Where in Shane, the family is a symbol of stability and traditional values, in Pale Rider the
family is presented in a very contemporary fashion, much more acceptable and palatable in the era in
which this film was made. Barret and Sarah are not married, yet live together. Sarah has been a one-parent family since her husband ran off, many years earlier. The power-play between Sarah and Barrett is the reverse of the parents in Shane, in that Barret tries for Sarah’s affections and Sarah, the more powerful within their relationship; keeps him at an arms length. Into this comes Pale Rider. Where in Shane, the relationship between him and Marian was one of unspoken attraction, here that relationship is fairly open, consensual and ultimately, consummated.
In Pale Rider, the mysterious ‘Preacher’ (a role which could be described the antithesis of sex)
creates sexual tension with both female leads, the widow Sarah Wheeler and her daughter Megan. Due to the previous trauma from her husband running off, the widow has a dead love-life and her interest in a new love is reborn with the arrival of Eastwood. Megan, a precocious child of fourteen is ready to give her young love to the answer to her prayers, the Preacher.
Turning Joey into a teenage girl makes the hero to child relationship extremely different. When
Joey tells Shane he loves him, it is a statement of respect and admiration; a belief in Shane as a role
model and an endorsement of the pure frontier values he represents. In Pale Rider, such sentiments
are replayed, but in a highly sexualised tenor. Megan even goes so far as to ask Pale Rider to marry
her when she turns fifteen, and to show her the ways of physical love. In this way, she seeks to learn
from the Preacher in the same way as Joey does from Shane but the child-like innocence of the boy’s
gaze is lost amidst an adult interest in sex. In one sense, what is displayed is perhaps a comment upon the effects of the sixties, that family values and traditional sensibility has suffered because of the
because of free love and rebellion. However, another reading of this would suggest that this concern
with family offers a version of America that is in chaos, a place where traditional roles, whether they are gender roles or heroic models, are no longer stable. The simply mythology of the Western is now more complex, the mythology is no longer as universal, innocence is no longer a given. These specific differences in the gender roles of the characters between the films could be seen as a direct result of the era’s in which each film was made. The film makers of each film had to appeal to the sensibilities of audiences in two extremely different eras. 5
5 Bruce A. Austin Immediate Seating: A look at Movie Audiences (Belmont, Cal: Wadsworth), Ch.3, pp
44-58
The early 50s were known for many things: post-war affluence and increased choice of leisure
time activities, conformity, and middle-class values. Most of the films made in the time were idealized
with conventional portrayals of men and women; as can be seen in Shane. The film industry was on the verge of some very big changes. The stability and profitability of theatrical exhibition were severely threatened by the shift in the population out of the big cities, the Justice Departments rekindled interest in breaking up the studio trusts, and the development of a competitive audiovisual pop culture on television. Film makers were under pressure not only to create good films, but to maintain reputations for making goods films in order to draw and keep audiences interested in their creations. The American audience seemed to have an enduring penchant for nostalgia. Also, the strict censorship laws of the time pressured film makers to keep their characters moralistic. It was a time, for instance, when not even married couples were allowed to share a bed on screen. The deeply conventional family presented in Shane was developed to appeal to the audiences and sensibilities of this time.
The 1980s marked a resurgence for Hollywood. The decade opened with many predicting a
grim future for the film industry. In the Seventies, production costs had soared while ticket sales
declined. When audiences returned in the 1980s, multiplexes, or theatres with multiple auditoriums,
became the norm and mushroomed in suburban shopping malls and urban centres. The audiences of
the 1980s had a great impact on the films that were being made. Audiences grew larger and came to
cinemas more regularly. Films became more exciting, more marketable.
After the sexual revolution of the 60s – 70s; society was pulling back to a more circumscribed
and reactionary mentality. The 1980s welcomed back family values and films had a certain morality
about them. This was, however, an extremely different time to the 50s. Society was far more liberal.
For one, the feminist movement had a great effect of the female characters portrayed in films. This can be seen most notably in Pale Rider in the widow Sarah. In contrast to the stereotypical ‘dutiful wife’ of the 1950s portrayed in Shane, Sarah in Pale Rider is tough. She holds power over her suitor Barret, by keeping him at a distance. Further, she, like the men in her town, is lean and muscled; hardened from years of physical labour, unlike the soft-faced, gentle Marian from Shane. This is a good example of the change in the mentality of audiences in the 1980s. It was a new era, in which the old archetypal characters were replaced with new, tough, rebellious character types given more realistic and multilayered personalities.
The technology available to the filmmakers of Shane and Pale Rider meant that the making of
each film had a radically different process, and the result is two very different visual styles.
Shane was made by Paramount Pictures and produced and directed by George Stevens.
Shane was the first flat widescreen (Aspect ratio 1.66:1) colour western film to be produced. It was
actually shot for 1.37:1 Academy ratio, but Paramount pictures dictated that it be cropped in the movie
projector to compete with the CinemaScope format which was released in 1953 – the year of the
release of Shane. 6
The colour process used for Shane was Technicolor – a dye transfer process, where the
colours are mechanically printed from gelatine relief matrices onto blank film. Three matrices are made from separation negatives for yellow, cyan and magenta. The soundtrack is printed by itself onto black and white stock. This process required the use of a three-strip camera; a large, heavy, and complex device; which was difficult and complicated to use at the best of times. Technicolor Three-strip cameras were only rented; due to the monopoly that Technicolor maintained on the film colour processes of the time. Technicolor maintained a camera rental department and a number of well-trained cine-mechanics that serviced and prepped the cameras.Technicians from Technicolor were part of the package when the studios rented the cameras. 7 The three-strip camera had openings on both sides of the body in order to facilitate threading of the three component films, which was difficult to use. These cameras weighed more than 500 pounds and required a substantial amount of light to get proper exposure. The resulting visuals in Shane are the highly-contrasted, soft-glow images; which give the film a cleaner; more vintage appeal. This George Stevens picture features meticulous attention to detail, the thorough exploitation of a scene's visual possibilities and ingenious and innovative editing that creates many layers of meanings. The shots in Shane are generally still – the heavy Technicolor cameras did not allow for a lot of movement; so where modern cameras can easily take sweeping shots over scenery, in Shane, the expanse of the western frontier is often shown by long-distance shots, fitting as much of the horizon into a shot as possible to indicate expanse; with a slow movement sideways to create a sweeping panoramic view. The fighting scenes are shot from a still camera-position; but George Steven’s adopted the use of shooting from several different angles; and editing between those perspectives; in order to achieve a more ‘frantic’ feel to the fighting scenes.
6 Shane, George Stevens, Paramount Pictures, 1953 (Technical specs from DVD cover)
7 J. Belton Glorious Technicolor, Breataking Cinemascope and Stereophonic Sound in Tino Balio (ed),
Hollywood in the Age of Television (Boston: Unwin, 1990, Ch. 7, pp 185-211)
Pale Rider was produced, directed and starred in by Clint Eastwood. Eastwood not only had
creative control over every aspect of the film, he also had access to modern technology in order to
achieve the visuals he was after. Pale Rider was shot using the Panavision (anamorphic)
cinematographic process, to an aspect ratio of 2.35 : 1. Interestingly, the colour laboratory used for Pale Rider, like Shane, was Technicolor – however the colour process these days has become
commonplace and extremely simplified. The camera used was a 35mm camera.8 A remarkably lightweight, moveable, versatile camera. The use of this particular camera allowed for fast and fluid
movement to pick up entire sets and scenes easily. Eastwood made good use of the cameras ability to pick up detail; as he used it for many close-up shots on himself; to show the subtly-intense feelings of the Preacher he portrayed. The resulting visuals in Pale Rider are deeply realistic; the appeal more
grotesque. In contrast to the clean, bright visual appeal of Shane, in Eastwood’s Pale Rider the visuals are dark and realistic – the characters dirty; the settings harsh and dangerous.
The films Shane and Pale Rider are easily comparable because of their extremely similar plot
lines. The similarity between the stories makes the differences in the gender portrayals; the different
appeals of the films and the different visual styles more prominent. Results of the eras in which they
were made, these films are marks of the progression of the Western genre over time.
Western films are a major defining genre of the American film industry. They are one of the
oldest, most enduring and celebrated genres and one of the most characteristically American genres in their mythic origins. The earlier Western films were generally made with a family-appeal; as can be
seen in Shane; and over time have become more edgy and gritty; with an emphasis on violence and
realistic character-depth; as can be seen in Pale Rider. Though the makers of Western films over the
past century have had to appeal to different audiences and had the use of different technologies, the
Western film genre has maintained its original purpose as a nostalgic eulogy to the early days of the
expansive, untamed American frontier.
The Western film genre is one of American’s most enduring film genres, with a wide base of
appeal through portrayals of a time that although brief, made a huge impact on the fermenting of the
American state. Both Shane and Pale Rider, though made in different eras of film history, share closely aligned plot and story arches. Although the films utilise similar plot lines there are distinct
8 Pale Rider Clint Eastwood, The Malpaso Company, 1985 (Technical specs from DVD cover)
difference in gender issues such as the role of women in the western, women as mere devises for story in Shane or as characters who impact on the dramatic qualities of the film Pale Rider. The eras of the films origins also make the appearance of the films distinct, the homely quality of Shane in comparison to the gritty, grotesque appearance of Eastwood‘s Pale Rider. As a result, the two films appeal to different audience bases, one more in touch with a simper methodology of storytelling, the other more mature and more ready at accept the brutality of the west and its sometime uncertain morality. These two films highlight important milestones in the progression of the western genre as it has matured and moved away form the mythology of the moralistic cowboy, enacted through simple family orientated storytelling, to a more complicated and realistic set of films that represent a more honest re-enactment of this important part of American history.
Bibliography
Austin, B. A. (1989) “Immediate Seating: A look at Movie Audiences“ Belmont, California,
Wadsworth Publishing Company
Belton, J. (1990) “Glorious Technicolour, Breathtaking Cinemascope and Stereophonic Sound”
Boston, Unwin
Dirks, T. (18th Aug 2007) “Western Films” http://www.filmsite.org/westernfilms.html
Eastwood, C. (1985) “Pale Rider” The Malpaso Company
Mulvey, L. (2003) “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” London, Rouledge
Stevens, G. (1953) “Shane” Paramount Pictures