Shane: History, Fiction, Film

What makes a movie “great”? Which films would you describe that way? Historian Bruce Kuklick’s account of the 1953 Western Shane explains how history, fiction, and movie making combined to create truly great art. The script was based on the novel Shane by Jack Schaefer which drew from historical happenings in Wyoming’s Johnson County in the 1880s. The acting of Alan Ladd, Jean Arthur, Van Heflin, Brandon DeWilde, and Jack Palance was just right. The cinematography captures the extraordinary...