High Noon (1952, Fred Zinnemann)
What intrigued me most about High Noon was the story I had heard about how John Wayne and Howard Hawks both hated it, and went on to make Rio Bravo as a right-wing response to it. Apparently, Wayne saw it as an allegory for blacklisting, which he himself had actively supported. In an interview, he even went so far as to say it was “the most un-American thing [he had] ever seen in [his] whole life”. Now, if that doesn’t make you want to watch these two movies, nothing will.
The story is that of Will Kane (Gary Cooper), the marshal of Hadleyville, who has just married pacifist Quaker Amy (Grace Kelly). They are preparing to leave town when Kane hears that Frank Miller (Ian MacDonald), a man he sent to the gallows, has been pardoned and is on his way back to town for revenge. Miller is due to arrive by train at noon, and his gang is waiting for him at the station. The townspeople urge Kane and his wife to leave, and they do, but Kane has a crisis of conscience and turns back.
Kane gets his badge back and tries to rally up deputies to help him against Miller and his gang, but he soon realises that no one is willing to help him. Most of the folks in town want him to leave, hoping this will dissuade Miller from wanting revenge. Kane, however, refuses to leave, even after his wife threatens to leave him. And all the while, noon is creeping ever closer.
This movie makes for fascinating viewing, especially when compared to the aforementioned Rio Bravo. In High Noon, Kane is begging people to help him, whereas in Rio Bravo, Wayne’s sheriff Chance wants to go it alone. Apparently, this was the main thing Hawks and Wayne despised about it; they felt a real man shouldn’t have to ask for help from the community.
It’s a brave step by Zinnemann and Cooper, to defy these conventions. My friend Gábor tells me that this is what made it possible for people like Sam Peckinpah and Clint Eastwood to use outlaws and as their protagonists, which I suppose is an excellent thing. Personally, I got a little bit annoyed at how much of a wuss everyone was, but perhaps I have been conditioned over the years to think as Wayne clearly did.
All that aside though, there is much else to admire about this movie. For one, this is one of the first movies to successfully use real-time as a device to further the tension. The suspense mounts relentless as all the clocks (and there are plenty of them) tick on. The movie also sports an excellent cast, with supporting turns from Lee Van Cleef, Jack Elam, and a very young Lloyd Bridges, amongst others. The score is brilliant, and finally, Kane’s last act before leaving town forever, is alone worth 85 short minutes of your time.
This is a movie I can warmly recommend, for fans of the Western genre as well as others. I do urge you to watch Rio Bravo after you’ve seen this though, just to get the full picture and form your own opinion. There seems to be just as many people who prefer Rio Bravo over this (like me) as vice-versa.
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