Deep Roots

 

Deep Roots - 1953 - George Stevens.

The original title of this 1953 film is Shane, and it was directed by George Stevens. In Hispanic America, it was titled Shane el desconocido (Shane the Unknown); and in Spain, Raíces profundas (Deep Roots). That habit of changing titles—although any of the three fits well, ultimately they are not far from the film—is what it is, but be that as it may, the original is Shane.

It is categorized as a Western, and also as a Drama as well as a Romance, or a Dramatic Romance.

Plot summary: "Wyoming territory, late 19th century. Shane, a weary gunfighter, arrives at the farm of the Starretts, a married couple with a young son who, like the other homesteaders in the valley, are in grave difficulties because the powerful cattle baron Rufus Ryker intends to seize their land. When Ryker learns that Shane is a skilled gunfighter, he offers him a job. Upon his refusal, Ryker hires Jack Wilson, a dangerous hired killer." (FILMAFFINITY)

Now then, what seems like just another Western among the many that were filmed is not quite so; this film has its particularities.

In terms of awards, it won the 1953 Academy Award for Best Color Cinematography.

Also at those 1953 Academy Awards, it garnered 6 nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director.

It was nominated for Best Film and Best Foreign Actor (Heflin) at the 1953 BAFTA Awards.

It received the 1953 NBR Award for Best Director. NBR is the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures.

The film is based on a novel of the same title, written by Jack Schaefer (1907–1991).http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shane_(novelhttp://books.google.com.ar/books/about/Shane.html?id=gDB3pAQcezcC&redir_esc=y

In 1993, Shane was included among the films preserved in the National Film Registry of the United States Library of Congress, being considered "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

Ladd, Alan (1913–1964) (...) The film for which he is principally remembered is Shane (1953), by George Stevens, a Wild West story in which he confronts a bandit that gives Jack Palance the opportunity to play one of the most suggestive roles of his career. (Page 197)

Palance, Jack (1920) (...) In Shane, thanks to his performance, we feel more complicit in his outlaw than in the conventional hero embodied by Alan Ladd. (Page 270)

Stevens, George (1904–1976) (...) Shane (1953), the Western that saved Alan Ladd from oblivion. (Page 323) Érase una vez el cine: diccionario. Written by Jacqueline Mouesca.

"Of critical resonance and esteem, Deep Roots (Shane, 1953) portrays the skeptical itinerary of a gunfighter who is preceded by his fame and who will never be able to hang up his guns. The protagonist of Deep Roots is presented with a glimmer of redemption, as he draws his gun once again to help defenseless farmers in their struggle against the authoritarian cattle baron." (Page 84) Películas clave del western. Written by Quim Casas.

" Deep Roots (Shane, 1953), by George Stevens, utilizes all the typical elements of the genre with great skill and beauty, but the hero played by Alan Ladd feels like part of a dying breed, representing a nostalgic version of values that are vanishing from the rugged yet domesticated landscape." (Page 97) Diccionario técnico Akal de cine. Written by Ira Konigsberg.

"The consolidation of democratic institutions which, engendered by the vitality of expansive frontier individualism, were ironically to restrict this individualism in favor of an increasingly industrialized society that justified its existence in terms of 'civic spirit,' was the philosophical subject of many Westerns. These films stimulated in the twentieth-century American citizen a nostalgia for their legendary progenitor, that free man who is both good and bad, the vigilante and the avenger, the one who, pistol in hand, dispenses justice by breaking the law. Beginning in the fifties, against the backdrop of the Cold War, this nostalgia became more evident in films such as Shane (1953), and became critically politicized, as in High Noon (1952).

Shane, a former gunfighter, returns one last time to draw his weapon for the integrity of an isolated Wyoming community, to exercise a violence necessary in cathartic terms, in the name of a justice beyond the law. Shane feels nostalgia because he knows with certainty that his function as a vigilante has lost validity in a society already founded on the rule of law yet failing to resolve community problems. Shane's nostalgia is set against the hopeless horizon of Cold War American society, and intensifies in the eyes of a child, Joey, who pays homage to an extinct lifestyle.

The myth alluded to by Turner in his historical narrative: the democratic utopia born from the thriving individualism of the frontier. In Shane this myth subsists, but solely as a nostalgic image, since the gunfighter's vigilante mission has already lost its foundation in the rule of law. If the emblematic free man, Shane or Kane, has lost the justification for his heroism because modern society has institutionalized his antisocial character, if the Old West is a wasteland because the criminal is no longer just an individual but the entire society, then a new place had to be found where action and the ritual of identity could make sense once again." La revolución mexicana en el cine: Un acercamiento a partir de la mirada ítaloeuropea. Edited by Bernd Hausberger, Raffaele Moro.

The quotes I selected from books devoted to cinema reflect the idea and message that form the backdrop of the film, which can be further explored by reading the text specifically dedicated to the movie on pages 309 to 312 of the book Las grandes películas 2, Volumen 2, written by Roger Ebert.

According to comments expressed on a blog, the gunfighter character was "softened" in the movie compared to the book. I haven't read the novel, but it is very likely that it was so; for example, in the movie Rambo, exactly the same thing happens.

The film is exceptionally well-crafted in its recreation of what we might call "the countryside," highlighting the motivational "spirit" of the early western settlers and the romanticism of those pioneers.

Immediately, as in all social matters, problems arise—no longer the natural difficulties they faced (nature, isolation, communication, etc.), but those difficulties driven by land and the power it generates. A space won by arms, by illegality (hiring the gunfighter), with a law that does not reach everyone or is insufficient (if it exists at all).

This film served as an inspiration for another very good one, directed by and starring Clint Eastwood, titled Pale Rider, which thirty years later revitalized the Western genre.

With a mythical beginning, where the rider arrives riding alone facing the immensity of nature—the trees, the forest, the mountains, the plain, the clouds, the water, the swamp, the deer—it is a fine beginning to set the stage for the story that follows.

When he arrives at the cabin, his very first words are a defensive phrase: "I suppose you don't mind me passing through your property." This phrase in itself is an introduction that portrays the kind of gunfighter he embodies. Is it a defensive and invasive phrase? I do not know; what is known is that he does not ask for permission and that he assumes what "the other" thinks.

And then he establishes a very brief dialogue with the child:

·         Hello, boy. Were you watching me come down the road? Hmm?

·         Yes, sir.

·         That's the way I like it. A man who gets used to being a good observer will always get wherever he sets his mind to.

Which leaves this final phrase as a continuation of the character he represents.

The film is carefully polished in its recreation of the period, the characters' attire, and the structures (cabin, stable).

And then many more moments unfold until reaching the final outcome: from the moment Shane sets out toward the saloon, the boy following him on foot with the dog, crossing the cemetery, the appropriate music, the night, the dialogue, and the final gunfight full of action and suspense inside the saloon—all combine to achieve a fitting conclusion.

This is a film that many view the first time as a classic Western—which it indeed is—yet later, when one reads references and writings about it, one finds an invitation to watch it again with a different perspective, deeper due to its transcendence.

Bibliography containing information (already cited) about the film:

·         Érase una vez el cine: diccionario. Written by Jacqueline Mouesca.

·         Películas clave del western. Written by Quim Casas.

·         Diccionario técnico Akal de cine. Written by Ira Konigsberg.

·         La revolución mexicana en el cine: Un acercamiento a partir de la mirada ítaloeuropea. Edited by Bernd Hausberger, Raffaele Moro.

·         Las grandes películas 2, Volumen 2. Written by Roger Ebert.

Links to the entries on IMDB and FilmAffinity:http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046303/http://www.filmaffinity.com/es/film221448.html