Template:Featured film (Week 26, 2006)

Shane, released in 1953, was the first bigscreen (Vista-vision) color western film ever produced. (The format offered bigger, brighter images, but only slightly wider than standard films) It is the story of a gunfighter who comes to a recently settled farm area near a quiet town and fights for the farmers against the hard-bitten cattlemen who control the majority of the land. Based on a 1949 novel by Jack Schaefer, some of the story is tied to Wyoming's Johnson County War. The physical setting is the high plains near Jackson Hole WY, with the spectacular Grand Teton massif looming in the near distance. The beauty of this film's setting was unprecedented in earlier western films. The music was stereophonic, and lent an additional grandeur to the Vista-vision presentation.

Shane won an Academy Award for Best Cinematography, Color. It was nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Brandon De Wilde), Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Jack Palance), Best Director, Best Picture and Best Writing, Screenplay.

The film had an enormous cultural impact, especially the iconic and mysterious final scene. The original film has been deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.

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