A Comparison Of High Noon And Shane

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Westerns have been around for many years. Some would consider westerns to be American classics because they describe early life in a mostly undiscovered America. In class two western films were watched and discussed. These two westerns were High Noon and Shane. On the surface, these movies are categorized as the same genre and look very similar but after further inspection it can be determined that the movies have a lot of differences. Of course, both movies share the same central theme of law versus social order, but the way each movie portrays this central theme is very different. This universal theme between the two movies can be investigated through, setting, violence, view of family, how women perceive guns/violence, and the choice of …show more content…

High Noon was released only about a year before Shane and could have been produced in color as well. This choice to keep High Noon in black and white as opposed to color leads back to the two fundamental purposes of film: documentation versus dazzle. High Noon was left in black and white to portray a sense of reality, as if the movie were a true documentation of something that had occured. Shane, being entirely in color, is meant to dazzle the audience. The opening scene of Shane says it all with the beautiful blue sky and the gorgeous mountainous background all displayed in technicolor for the audience’s enjoyment. Besides the fact of color, the settings of boths movies are quite …show more content…

These two main female characters, Amy Kane and Marian Starrett both have the same view on guns. In both movies the women dislike the idea of guns and gunfighting. Both Marian and Amy beg and plead their husbands not to get involved with gun fighting. Although they both have a similar view on guns, they have different reasons for not liking them. Amy Kane is a quaker and typically quakers are pacifists that do not particularly like fighting/violence. Amy Kane also had a bad experience with guns. She lets the audience know that she lost both her brother and father to guns. Marian shares a similar view and believes there should be no guns in the valley. Marian dislikes guns because she believe they put her family in

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