Distinctly Montana Magazine

45 w w w. d i s t i n c t l y m o n t a n a . c o m Harvard, which enabled him to study writing there for a year; Guthrie later credited this experience with facilitating his begin- ning as a fiction writer. Even as he wrote novels he taught creative writing classes at the University of Kentucky, which is where he was when Stevens approached him about adapting Shane. He was initially reluctant about signing on, but an offer of $1,500 per week for four weeks' work with additional week-by-week pay was doubtless helpful as persuasion. Guthrie was also fortunate to be given a copy of Schaefer's book annotated by Stevens with cine- matographic suggestions as a guide to crafting the screenplay. Guthrie's script follows the contours of the book faithful- ly, though specific details are different throughout. Character names are altered—"Bob" becomes "Joey," for example—Joey is younger than he is in the book, and the already present ele- giac tone is more prominent. One of Guthrie's additions is the funeral of "Stonewall" Torrey (Elisa Cook, Jr.), the hotheaded but outmatched homesteader shot down by Wilson in the mud- dy town street. As Guthrie put it, "I had always wondered about the absence of grief in Western pictures. Here would be bodies strewn all around but where were the funerals and where were the mourners?" The scene in the film not only acknowledges the human cost of the conflict, but also bolsters the complexity of the living farmers; some want to pull out and leave, others feel obli- gated to stay, and the film is capacious enough to show the points both have. This surprising complexity is extended even to Ryker; a crucial confrontation occurs at the Starrett homestead at night, where the powerful rancher lays out the trials and sacrifices he and others of his ilk went through to get where they are. He's still the antago- nist, but never one without his motivations. As Guthrie, a student of Western history, put it, "There was no complete right or wrong taken by open-range ranchers and homesteaders. Each side had its case." The film deliberately evokes the 1892 Johnson County range war; it makes for a striking counterpoint with another, very different movie depicting this conflict, Michael Cimino's Heav- en's Gate (1980). Shane was filmed on location near Jackson Hole, Wyoming, in 1951, with its release delayed until 1953. Ironically, at one point Howard Hawks's production of The Big Sky was shooting in the neighboring valley. Guthrie later went on record saying he re- garded the Hawks film as a "turkey," and he never had complete satisfaction with any of the other film treatments of his books. At least his screenwriting debut went well; in addition to being a resounding commercial success, Shane was nominated for five Academy Awards, including for Guthrie's screenplay. It may have lost the statue, but it won out with cultural longevity. A S G U T H R I E P U T I T, "I HAD ALWAYS WONDERED ABOUT THE ABSENCE OF GRIEF IN WESTERN PICTURES. HERE WOULD BE BODIES STREWN ALL AROUND BUT WHERE WERE THE FUNERALS AND WHERE WERE THE MOURNERS?"

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