One of the absolute classic American westerns, which opened up the doors for many more serious westerns later on, High Noon stars Gary Cooper, Grace Kelly, Lloyd Bridges and a small role for soon to be spaghetti western legend Lee Van Cleef. Marshall Will Kane (Cooper), about to retire and go on a honeymoon with his pacific bride Amy (Kelly), hears the news that the Miller gang, lead by a man he once put away, is arriving by train at noon with to exact revenge upon the Marshall. Amy tries to convince him to leave the town before they arrive but Will refuses and starts asking around for help to face the gang. But nobody wants to stand up to the feared outlaws and even his bride forsakes him, so ultimately he is forced to face the Miller gang alone. The movie is shot in real-time and therefore takes place about 80 minutes before the gangs arrival, counting down to noon. The subtext of High Noon is quite amazing. The story of a man left to his own devices by all those close to him was a foreboding of where many feared the McCarthy era was going during the second Red Scare, when filmmakers would be blacklisted and asked to testify against their colleagues and friends for having communist sympathies. In fact, Carl Foreman, the screenwriter of High Noon, was later blacklisted (and called before the House Un-American Activities Committee whilst he was actually writing High Noon), as were two of its stars (Lloyd Bridges and Howland Chamberlain). Ironically enough the star of the movie,Gary Cooper, was a renowned anti-communist and Tex Ritter, who sung the Oscar winning hit Do Not Forsake Me, O My Darling for the film, a staunch republican. The film was famously described as the most un-American movie hed ever seen by John Wayne, who was disgusted by the concept of a Marshall who needed to beg for help and was refused by his fellow Americans. Needless to say, its by far the best western of its era and went on to win both four Oscars and Golden Globes.
Posted on: Tue, 04 Mar 2014 11:50:12 +0000
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