He will not sit by and allow another man to be murdered. He tells Shane “Starrett is up against a stacked deck” (to “stack the deck” means to arrange the cards so you can cheat). Calloway goes from being one of the main bad guys in the film to a good guy. We had just a hint that he might not be all bad when he went into Grafton’s store to call the bartender before his fight with Shane. He smiles at one of the farm girls who is trying on a hat (and she blushes and takes the hat off). If we noticed that exchange between the cowboy and the farm girl we might have thought,” Hmmm, maybe there is hope that these two sides could come together”. We can easily imagine that after he says “be seeing you” to Shane, Calloway might just ask that girl out for a date.

It doesn’t seem like Chris Calloway’s change of heart is a very important part of the story, but let’s consider what he has done. He has changed his ways. Instead of continuing to be what he was, he has chosen a new path. He has taken his second chance. Isn’t that what Shane is trying to do throughout the film? Shane has taken off his gun and tried to become a farmer.

The fight is terrible and reminds us that George Stevens wanted his audience to understand the horror of violence. The animals scream and run away, while Mrs. Starrett also screams and cries out and Joey watches. Joey once asked his father, “Could you beat Shane in a fight?” It was a silly little boy question, but now the reality is that Joe has almost beaten Shane. He has pushed him up against that old tree stump that we know symbolizes the stubborn old man Riker who is the cause of all this conflict. But, Shane knocks Joe out with his gun. It is certainly a dishonorable way to win a fight, but Shane doesn’t care about that so long as he can save Joe.

She is attractive, but not in a sexy way. She projects a warmth and love for her husband and child in the film that is completely nurturing and attractive. She extends that care and attention to Shane as well. Yes, there is a sexual tension between Mrs. Starrett and Shane, but in the end, it is resolved into motherly concern for him. Does that mean it isn’t love? Which is stronger; a woman’s love for her husband or a mother’s love for her son?

Moreover, when she tells Shane that she doesn’t want Joey to play with guns because that isn’t going to be his life, I believe she is also scolding Shane for letting guns be his life. It is a gentle, motherly scolding. She is also reminding him that she and her family are giving him a chance to start over again.

The terrible irony of the film Shane is that the only way Shane can protect these people he has come to love so deeply is to go back to being the thing they don’t want him to be.

It is the first and only time anyone calls Shane a gunfighter, even though almost everyone in the movie has known that is what he is. It has been the one thing that has gone unsaid throughout the movie. There is a superstitious belief that calling something by its true name will evoke that thing. That is why superstitious peasants don’t use the name of the Devil. They fear they may summon him. Riker has just called Shane a gunfighter.

As soon as Riker calls Shane a gunfighter, Shane loses interest in talking to Riker and turns to Wilson saying, “We haven’t heard from your friend here”. Wilson has been sitting with his coffee quietly coiled up like a snake, but listening to every word.

Earlier I said that Joey sees the world as being made up of “white hats” and “black hats” but that the conflict between his father and Riker isn’t really black and white. Joe Starrett and Rufus Riker both have good claims to the land and in history, the solution to the conflict between farmers and ranchers was that compromises were made. I also said that one reason Riker hesitates to use violence against Starrett is that he sees some of himself in Starrett. But it was Starrett who asked Shane to stay in the valley shifting the balance in favor of the farmers. Riker has responded by bringing Wilson to the valley. My question for you is this: what is Wilson? He is a gunfighter, of course, but what I want you to think about now is what he symbolizes? By the way, if you get the answer right I think you have really started to understand how symbolism works.

So, what does Wilson symbolize?

In that moment Shane has the eyes of a killer. Then he is all kindness and gentleness again. Joey never saw Shane’s eyes, but we did. Throughout the film, we have had hints of what he is capable of. The fact that when Shane stands behind Mr. Starrett he isn’t the slightest bit worried about the six armed men on horseback in front of him lets us know he is brave…but it also lets us know he is deadly. Then there is the scene in the bar just before Shane and Chris Calloway fight. The cowboy sitting with Calloway says “deal me out” and leaves quickly saying, “Let’s just say I’m superstitious”. Don’t call the devil by his name. He might appear

When George Stevens chose Alan Ladd to play Shane he was doing something called “casting against type”. Ladd was a handsome man who exuded a kind of personal warmth and gentleness that was nothing like what we would expect a gunfighter to be like. We expect a gunfighter to be like…well, Wilson! They appear to be opposites, yin and yang, good and evil, light and dark.

But when it comes time to fight Wilson, Shane tells Joe Starrett that “this is my kind of game”, and it very much is Shane’s kind of game. Only Shane can fight Wilson. In fact, it is Shane’s destiny to have to fight Wilson because, in the end, the one person you cannot escape is yourself, that devil in the mirror. Let’s find out what happens when Shane faces himself.

In contrast, the final gunfight in Shane is, in most ways, a textbook gunfight by the rules. Stevens takes far more time building up to the fight than Ford did in Stagecoach. He creates more and more tension just before the men draw by using a series of increasingly rapid cuts from one to the other, Shane…Wilson, Shane …Wilson, Shane …Wilson! Twenty-five different shots in all!  

The rapid editing is in contrast to the way they both continue to talk slowly and quietly. In a gunfight only a frightened man shouts or becomes angry with his opponent. Neither of these men is frightened. They are both professionals who know exactly what they are doing. Wilson even seems to be enjoying himself.

But, in order to follow the rules, they have to go through the ritual of one or the other of them offering an insult to give them a reason to draw. Shane knows what he is going to do, but he has to have an excuse to do it. So, he says he has heard of Wilson. Wilson almost pleasantly asks what he has heard. Shane then stops leaning against the bar and takes his stance (Wilson knows what this means). Shane then repeats Torrey’s words: “I’ve heard you are a no-good Yankee liar”. He is paying tribute to Torrey by saying this but he is also giving Wilson no way out. The insult is so strong and clear it is obvious Shane is telling him: “We are going to fight now” and Wilson is happy to take up the challenge by smiling and repeating what he said to Torrey, “Prove it”. There is a pause and then Wilson does the one thing you must never do in a gunfight — he draws first. Remember that in Westerns, as in jidaigeki,  drawing first means you have lost your nerve, your will has broken, you have panicked. A gunfight is a test of wills and Shane has won as soon as Wilson tries to draw.

It isn’t even close. Shane is so much faster than Wilson he shoots him twice before also killing Riker who tries to draw a gun on him from the side. I doubt Wilson knew Riker would try this. Wilson is far too arrogant to believe he would need any help, but Riker was prepared to cheat if necessary and it gets him killed.

Shane then twirls his gun back into his holster. That is pure showmanship and I have to say it also seems arrogant to me. For that moment Shane is back to being the gunfighter he was determined not to be for most of the film. Remember, Riker called him a gunfighter and that is what he is when he kills Wilson and Riker and then twirls the gun back into the holster. As he starts to walk away, Joey sees Morgan with his rifle and shouts a warning to Shane. Both men fire at the same time, but it is Morgan who is killed even though he wounds Shane.  Before he walks out of the saloon, Shane looks back at Wilson and the Rikers — three more dead men. Does Shane keep count of how many men he has killed?

Time for us to see the ending.

Shane tells Joey to tell his mother it is safe in the valley now because there will be no more guns once he is gone. Just as Shane saw his own shadow self in Wilson, I believe he also sees his younger innocent self in Joey. He does not want Joey to become what he is, he wants Joey to be like his father, Joe. He tells Joey to take care of his parents and grow up to “strong and straight”, in other words, to be a man like his father.

It is a curious thing, but like both Stagecoach and Red River, Shane has a secret. In Stagecoach, the secret was that Dallas was a prostitute while in Red River the secret was the true love between Thomas Dunson and Mathew Garth. Now we come to the secret of Shane which some of you have already figured out.

When a child watches the end of Shane they cry because they feel what Joey feels, the loss of a hero and a special best friend who “goes away” and will never come back again. But the adults in the audience saw that Shane was not just “going away”. Shane has killed Wilson, but Wilson was Shane’s shadow. Can the shadow die and the man remain alive? Shane was wounded by Morgan’s rifle shot but tells Joey he is okay. However, as you watch the very last moment of the film you see that Shane has ridden into the cemetery, the same one where Torrey was buried, and you also notice that Shane’s body is upright but stiff and unmoving…he is dead. Now you can cry, too.