I have said before that Westerns, in general, are not my type of film. I know a lot fo people grew up watching endless western movie on televisions, but that was not my childhood film experience. Even from an early age I tended towards science-fiction and horror as my preferred movies.
In my collection of DVDs and Blu-ray I have but three westerns and it is no surprise that they are considered to generally anti-westerns in tone and story.
High Noon is a classic of American Cinema. It is the story of one man, Will Kane, and his dilemma caught between duty, honor, and love. These are timeless themes, expertly handled albeit in a cynical setting and plot.
Five years before the opening of the story the setting, Hadleyville, is a violent dangerous town run by a near psychotic criminal, Frank Miller. As people often says during the film, and ‘You know what kind of man Frank Miller is,” clearly they have read the Dark Knight Returns.
With a small army of experienced gunmen acting as deputies, Marshall Will Kane, Gary Cooper, cleans up the town sending Miller to prison to hang for murder. With the town quite, prosperous and a place with families and children thriving, Kane, ready to give up his violent career and marry his fiancé Amy Fowler, Grace Kelly, a Quaker and a devout pacifist is about to turn storekeeper instead of lawman. Word suddenly arrives that elements of Miller’s old gang are hanging about the train station and are mightily concerned about the arrival of the noon train. Concurrently a telegram arrives, not only had Millers execution been converted to prison time, Miller’s now been pardoned. (Apparently comic book writer make the kind of bucks that can buy pardons.)
Kane feels his duty compels him to stay and deal with Miller wt all, as the new Marshall will not arrive in town until the next day. Nearly everyone in two disagrees. Amy stands by her faith and belief that violence is not an answer and refuses to wait around and find out if she will be wife or widow. Kane’s deputy, Lloyd Bridges, thinks this should be his moment to shine and become marshal, Kane old love, and also an old flame of Millers’ Helen Ramirez, Katy Juardo understands Kane, but burnt as a jilted woman she refuses to render any assistance.
With the clock ticking towards noon, Kane finds fewer and fewer friends at his side. A town cowers as the murderous men approach. High Noon is the story of a man pleading for help and finding no one willing to give any.
High Noon is a very cynical story. At heart people are no damn good and will turn on their friends to save themselves. In part it is an allegory for the Red Scare and witch hunts of the period. The writer had been through the wringer as an unfriendly witness before the HUAC and learned that many of the people whom he had counted on as friends deserted him when times became tough and dangerous. Whether you agree with this assessment of humanity or not the film is near perfect and powerful in the dramatic tension. Filmed with a stark black-and-white palette this is not a lovely western composed of sweeping vistas and awesome nature, but rather this is a setting that is bright, washed out, and dry. Running in nearly real time, the story start 10:30 and ends with the arrival of the noon train, about the same amount of time as it takes to watch, the story piles on tension and reversals with very little action until the final reel.
Even if Westerns are not your cup of teas, or coffee, or vodka, or whatever is in your cup, this is a movie everyone should see at some time.
