High Noon
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High Noon
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This film has been preserved in the National Film Registry in 1989.
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High Noon is a 1952 American Western film produced by Stanley Kramer from a screenplay by Carl Foreman, directed by Fred Zinnemann, and starring Gary Cooper. The plot, depicted in real time, centers on a town marshal who is torn between his sense of duty and his love for his new bride and who must face a gang of killers alone.
Why It Rocks
- The film revolutionized the western film genre, and is rather unique among the entries. Instead of chases, Indian attacks or a siege on the jail, the film has sermons, moralizing and a sort of shorthand symbolism. There's a lot more dialogue than action, a hero who expresses fear and disappointment, and a flat, harsh visual look. Fred Zinneman himself stated that, the story was simply “about conscience. It’s not a western, as far as I’m concerned; it just happens to be set in the Old West.” It’s the most respected of the socially conscious Westerns that began to appear after World War II.
- As an early “message movie”, it's one of the most well-known films about standing up for what is right no matter what—even if you are standing all alone and your life is on the line.
- The film's central song, "Do Not Forsake Me" was well put together, and it encapsulates the strengths and weaknesses of the film (more on that in "Bad Qualities"). Both the song and film are piously simple and restrained, both remarkably fulfill the demands of their genres, but they also deliver blunt, artificial "messages". The song's as famous as the movie itself, plaintively expressing the loneliness of Will Kane’s situation. It recurs several times through the film as Kane walks around town looking for help. This was a very rare device at the time, as most films used instrumental scoring, in that manner, instead of songs.
- It's told in ostensibly real time, with clocks frequently visible to build suspense, and has a simple setup: Frank Miller is arriving on the noon train to come gunning with three henchmen for Marshal Will Kane. Kane has just gotten married and is about to leave town for a new life. But the new marshal won’t arrive till tomorrow, and noon is only 80 minutes away: Kane decides he’s got to stay and fight. The problem, as he discovers, is that not a single townsperson appears courageous enough to help him in what they see as a suicide mission. Instead, they come up with all sorts of excuses not to get involved and advise him to save himself and run while he can.
- The story is as much about cowardice and apathy as it is about courage and duty, with the spare situation lending itself to much symbolic meaning. Screenwriter Carl Foreman was forced into the House Un-American Activities Committee as part of its anti-Communist witch hunt, and he realized that the pressure he faced to do something that he felt was not right (name names before the committee) was similar the situation of Will Kane, who is pressured to leave town. Foreman finished the script with the analogy in mind and said certain scenes and lines of dialogue were taken from that real-life context.
- Gary Cooper does a good enough job as Will Kane, although there's room for improvement in terms of nuanced acting. Cooper’s genuinely pained facial expressions and movements enhanced his performance.
- 21-year-old Grace Kelly had previously been in an off-Broadway play, which landed her a role as Will's fiance-turned-wife Amy Kane. She holds her own opposite Cooper in just her second feature
- Katy Jurado had been a star in Mexican cinema for years, but this was her first major Hollywood part. Here she plays local saloon owner Helen Ramirez who's a very strong female character, as the former lover of both Kane and Miller.
- Lloyd Bridges is convincing as Will's former deputy Harvey Pell
- Lon Chaney Jr. is a cynical former marshal
- This is the feature debut for Lee Van Cleef, the first person onscreen in the film.
- There was also a deliberate washed-out "documentary" look for the film, based partially on photographs by Matthew Brady, as well as attempt to make the film resemble a newsreel from the Civil War—had cameras and newsreels existed back then.
- In terms of cinematography there are some adventurous traveling shots and an impressive overhead shot on a crane but with a low budget, these effects are limited.
- With a small budget of only $750,000, and 28 days to shoot, it's amazing on its own the film turned out as great as it did.
- Will Kane standing alone, fearful yet determined, driven by duty and morality, as the camera dramatically cranes up and back to reveal the empty town around him, is one of the most iconic images in Hollywood history. The shot sums up the story, the character, and, for many observers, the essence of the western hero and even the ideals of America.
- The film was driven by three major themes: the looming threat to the retiring sheriff Will Kane, symbolized by a static shot of empty railroad tracks; a victim searching for help, in constant movement but finding no one; and time shown in a succession of clocks and timepieces that gradually grow larger in the frame. These were visual ideas nearly anyone could grasp.
Bad Qualities
- Although Gary Cooper had won an Oscar for his portrayal in the film, he was capable of far more nuanced acting. Plus his moral choices in this film aren't quite as challenging or satisfying as in one of his later films.
- The overall message seems to be blunt and artificial at times.
- Frank Miller, the film's central villain, is a pretty forgettable antagonist who barely gets any screen-time or depth for why or how he became Kane's enemy.
- Frank's three henchmen are also very forgettable -- one of whom is Frank's brother, and yet, doesn't get treated any differently from the rest of his henchmen.
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