Parents need to know that this is a serious-minded Western, not one of the charming but silly singing-cowboy fantasies that stampeded by the hundreds out of old Hollywood. Death is a serious thing here, and gunplay is realistic, not cartoonish or gratuitous. There's also a sense of the harshness of frontier life. The possibility of an adulterous love triangle is present but tastefully handled. Some viewers may be more troubled by the hints of Hollywood's longstanding Gone With the Wind sentimental representation of the Confederate South (the movie takes place shortly after the Civil War), or the equating of drinking whiskey with being a "real man."

Families can talk about how the characters seem unable to escape their social roles. Though it's not spelled out in detail, Shane is a veteran gunfighter trying to put his violent past behind him, but he winds up pulled back into killing, even if he is supposedly defending innocent people. Even the villains seem to be offering a last-minute compromise solution, which is declined. Did the conflict have to turn out the way it did? What do you think would have happened if Shane stayed with the Starretts?