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High Noon
1952
Gary Cooper is Hollywood's perfect hero, the very embodiment of integrity and grace in this greatest of all Westerns. As a newly married town marshal, he must balance an innate sense of justice and duty with loyalty to his beautiful new--and pacifist--bride (Grace Kelly). When he is left by an ungrateful town to face a gang of .. Read more
| Starring | Gary Cooper, Grace Kelly, Thomas Mitchell, Lloyd Bridges |
|---|---|
| Director | Fred Zinnemann |
| Genres | Action/Adventure |
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High Noon
Gary Cooper is Hollywood's perfect hero, the very embodiment of integrity and grace in this greatest of all Westerns. As a newly married town marshal, he must balance an innate sense of justice and duty with loyalty to his beautiful new--and pacifist--bride (Grace Kelly). When he is left by an ungrateful town to face a gang of deadly outlaws alone, the hands of the clock move in real time as one of the greatest showdowns in movie history draws ever closer. Frequently interpreted as a parable about artists left to stand alone and face persecution during the McCarthy-era Hollywood blacklistings, the film was declared un-American by none other than John Wayne--apparently he was offended by the film's ending, which shows Sheriff Kane removing his badge and tossing it in the dirt.
| Starring | Gary Cooper, Grace Kelly, Thomas Mitchell, Lloyd Bridges, Katy Jurado, Otto Kruger, Lee Van Cleef, Lon Chaney Jr., Lon Chaney, Harry Morgan, Ian MacDonald, Eve McVeagh |
|---|---|
| Director | Fred Zinnemann |
| Studio | UNIVERSAL PICTURES UK |
| Run time | DVD: 1 hr 49 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Collections | 100 Top Thrillers, 100 Wild Westerns |
| Genres | Action/Adventure |
| Language | DVD: English |
| Released | DVD: 01 Jan 2001 Production year: 1952 |
| Format | DVD |
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Critics' reviews (3)
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Whether it's viewed as a showdown western or an arch comment on Hollywood during the Communist witch-hunt, Fred Zinnemann's 1952 masterpiece could never be improved upon. So why Rod Hardy felt compelled to try is a question that persists throughout this redundant remake. Confronting Will Kane with six vengeful bandits instead of four might make Tom Skerritt a better shot, but it doesn't make him Gary Cooper. There's simply none of the disappointed dignity that characterised Coop's forlorn search for deputies and desperate attempt to explain duty to his new bride. With Michael Madsen in scenery-chewing support, this is downright poor.
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A minor Western with a soft-pedalled message for the world, this turned out to be a classic simply because it was well done, with every scene and performance clearly worked out. Cinematically it was pared to the bone, and the theme tune helped.
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Most helpful member's review
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9 out of 9 people found this review helpful
A classic
Will Kane (Gary Cooper) is retiring from a sterling tour of duty as town marshal to marry his beautiful Quaker bride (Kelly). As he leaves to pursue a gentler existence his past catches up to him in the form of news that Frank Miller, a psychopathic criminal he had imprisoned some years before, has been inexpicably pardoned and is on his way back to town. Knowing that Miller wants both to exact revenge on the man who arrested him and reinstate his reign of terror on the town, Kane feels compelled to finish a job he thought he had settled long ago.
What makes High Noon stand out is its insight into the fact that it sometimes requires bloodshed to preserve peace and that duty and principle are often unpleasant masters.
These points are starkly manifest in the fact that Kane is the only one who feels he should stay. His wife, with her pacifist views is distraught that he wants to stand and fight. Many of the townspeople fear the trouble his resistance will cause and the price that it may demand. The rest of them look forward to Miller's reinstatement anticipating the baser pleasures that will undoubtedly become more freely available.
The townspeople want a home where a decent woman can walk the street unmolested. Kane's wife wants life in a bucolic idyll. Both need Frank Miller dead to have their dream and neither can face this fact and are angry at Kane because his plain, pragmatic vision means he cannot pretend it isn't true and his morals mean he cannot leave it to another to do what is necessary.
Cooper's portrayal of Kane has depth, he clearly doesn't want to stay and die and he is given excuses to leave on every hand. His integrity makes him deny these opportunities but it is not an easy choice and by the end of the film he wears the strain in every glance.
High Noon is undoubtedly a classic. In the early establishing scenes some of the acting is of its period and seems dated and stilted. But as circumstances continue to hedge Kane about, his quiet dignified desperation makes for a compelling performance.
Miller, Kane's opponent, is absent for much of the film represented only by the tense expectation of his lackeys as they loiter about the train station. He therefore acquires an iconic place in the film which Ian MacDonald inhabits well when he finally appears onscreen as Miller. Katy Jurado is a powerful female character, an idealist constrained by reality. Lloyd Bridges as Kane's ambitious deputy alone seems out of place, his cocky attitude seems to be the behaviour of a brash young man but Bridges was fourty when High Noon was made. -
Most recent members' review
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5 out of 5 people found this review helpful
The clock's ticking
Daring for its day, 'High Noon' reinvented the Western as a landscape fraught with paranoia and cowardice; no wonder this struck a chord with a public in the grip of Senator McCarthy's witch-hunt.
Unlike Arthur Miller's 'The Crucible', which focused on the horror of oppressive institutions, 'High Noon' follows a sheriff (Gary Cooper) who is unable to restore the values of law and order to a town that would sooner let criminals take over than take risks.
The film carries with it a superb sense of tension and despair as Cooper spends his morning trying to recruit anyone willing to help in the fight against the approaching gunmen. The townspeople are not in the world of myth or romance: they have children and businesses to protect. The question is a moral one, and one to which there is both a realistic and idealistic answer: 'High Noon' dangles both in front of the viewer.
As well as featuring one of the most haunting film themes ever recorded, 'High Noon' is visually spectacular. The images of ticking clocks and railways show the film's true genius as a psychological thriller - while Howard Hawks would take an opposite view with the equally enjoyable 'Rio Bravo', 'High Noon' is a brave, yet bleak, deconstruction of American ideals. -
News and features
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The Good, the Bad, the Weird: Ji-woon Kim interview
- 07 Feb 2009
Korean director Ji-woon Kim is best known in the west for the small but perfectly formed horror, A Tale of Two Sisters. That's about to change, however, with the release of his latest film, noodle western The Good, the Bad, the Weird, which just happens to have the largest budget of any live action film in Korean history. As the title would suggest, The Good, the Bad, the Weird is a remake of Sergio Leone's spaghetti western masterpiece The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, but given an Asian... Read more
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High Noon
Gary Cooper is Hollywood's perfect hero, the very embodiment of integrity and grace in this greatest of all Westerns. As a newly married town marshal, he must balance an innate sense of justice and duty with loyalty to his beautiful new--and pacifist--bride (Grace Kelly). When he is left by an ...
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