Sheriffen
There are a
number of film that, deserved or not, have won some sort of immortality by
entering pop culture and today’s movie “High Noon” is one of those. It is high
noon in Hadleyville and the sheriff is standing alone in the street faving four
bandits in a showdown that not all will leave alive. See that is a scene that
everybody knows and high noon is, I believe, now more a label of a showdown
than a time of the day. Well, at least in my world. I never saw this movie
before, but this is where it comes from.
This is a
great movie, but this iconic scene is not the reason. In fact that is just the climax
of a lead up that is some of the most interesting film making I have seen in a
long time.
Let me
start by the beginning.
Will Kane
(Gary Cooper) is the marshal of small town Hadleyville, a nowhere place in the
old west. He is getting married to Amy fowler (Grace Kelly) and about to resign
his job as marshal when news arrive that Frank Miller will be arriving on the
noon train. Frank Miller it turns out used to terrorize the town and Kane made
an enemy of him by arresting him. Everybody thought that he would hang, but for
some reason he was pardoned and now he is coming back, obviously to settle a
score.
Will has
quit his job and married a pacifist Quaker, so he leaves town in a hurry, but
he has not gone far before he realizes that there is no hiding. Sooner or later
he has to face Frank Miller, so better be done with it than live in fear. He
returns, picks up his tin badge and figures he will gather a posse and turn him
in again, this time for good.
Here is
where the movie turns interesting, because Kane is apparently the only one who
think that way. We learn that Kane is the reason Hadleyville is safe from
bandits yet nobody seem inclined to stand by him.
The first
one to abandon him is his newly wedded wife. They are not even married for two
hours and she is giving him the choice of her or facing Frank Miller. Will sees
this as something that must be done. Frank is a menace and he is coming for
him. Frank needs to be stopped and the Marshal is the logical one to do it.
Instead of shying away from it Will feels duty bound to face the thread. Amy
does not understand that. For her it is much simpler: you do not fight and you
do not kill, end. We later learn that both her brother and father were killed
in gunfights, so she has some reason to think as she does, but she is singularly
unable to see beyond that and is willing to force the issue by walking out on
him.
From then
on they all flee like rats do a sinking ship. Deputy Harvey Pell (Lloyd
Bridges) is convinced that Will not leaving town is a personal attack and
criticism on him and is for that reason sore and unwilling to help. Rarely did
I see a person less fit to hold an office. The Judge leave town in a hurry. This
piss-pot town is not worth risking your neck for. The former sheriff and a man
Kane considered his friend considers it a lost cause and refuses to help.
Fuller, another “friend”, pretends he is not home when Kane comes calling at
the door. In the saloon they miss the good old times when the town was all
party and celebrate Frank Millers return rather than fearing it and the
minister is sore that Kane chose not to be married in the church.
But the
biggest backstab comes from what I believe is the mayor of the town. At first
it seems he is supporting Kane, getting people to remember all the good he has
done for the town, but then he turns around and essentially says that a
gunfight is bad for business and that if Kane leaves so will Frank Miller.
It is
interesting how each of all these people have their own excuse for not facing
the menace. Principles, cowardice, jealousy, vengeance or ignorance. This may
be a western, but the allegory is unmistakable. When a menace arise what do you
do? Do you deal with it and do what needs to be done or do you find excuses to
avoid dealing with it? This could be Hitler in 1938, Stalin in 1949 or
Korea/China in the early fifties. It could be difficult issues in domestic
policies or personal problems. This I think is what this movie does
exceptionally well. Even if Kane cannot formulate why he is doing it we know he
is right. He could have run a way and it might even have been the smart thing
to do, but it would not have been right and it would have solved nothing. We
also understand all the excuses for not joining the fight, but even the best of
them are flawed. Frank Miller will not just go away and closing your eyes does
not protect you, tempting as it is.
But the
movie does not stop there. As the clock approaches 12 the tension rises and
noon itself is like doom. It is effective and dramatic and it is totally Sergio
Leone. No, sir, Leone did not invent the high intensity western, he just
perfected it. Zinnemann was there a decade before.
With this
gorgeous build up the actual gun fight is almost anticlimactic. It is not bad,
but it is also not as intense as it could have been and the reason is likely
that this scene has been copied and copied well so many times since that we
just know what is coming.
Only one
person redeems herself and that is Amy. Principle, schmintciples, she cannot
just leave Kane and when in the end he needs her that is more important than a
principle. For the rest of the lot Will Kane has only disgust expressed
perfectly by throwing his tin badge in the dust. A gesture saying more than a
thousand words.
Whether or
not you agree with the sentiment expressed by the movie it difficult not to be
touched by it. Rarely has this very defining American position been told so
eloquently and that I think is the real legend of this movie.
That does
not change that the movie has so many other things going for it. Gary Cooper
was never better as the stoic but fragile marshal. Grace Kelly in her first
role on The List presents her role beautifully, but is almost overshadowed by a
very dramatic Katy Jurado as Helen Ramirez who is the only other person in town
with backbone and a demeanor to match. We have Thomas Mitchell, Lon Chaney Jr
and Lee van Cleef in supporting roles, so yes, I feel spoiled.
And just as
icing on the cake “High Noon” boasts one of the best soundtracks of its era.
Dimitri Tiomkins theme was recently voted as the 45th best
soundtrack ever on Danish National Radio which is very impressive as very few
soundtracks on that list were more than forty years old. Personally I cannot
get that song out of my head and I hate country and western music…
Another
movie that confirms that this is a great and worthwhile project. Definitely top
marks from me.
I love this movie and I loved your review. Gary Cooper- a profile in courage.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much. I can only repeap that Gary Cooper was never better. It wass the part he was born to play.
DeleteHigh Noon ranks pretty high for me on my list of Westerns. I think it's great all the way around and I wouldn't change a frame of it. I love especially that it plays virtually in real time.
ReplyDeleteYes, the real time part adds a lot of intensity to the movie. We feel the slow, but unstoppable creep of the clock and it just gets more and more unbearable to watch a frustrated Kane. Excellent film making.
DeleteAs the others said, this is one of my favorite westerns. Watch for a parallel between this and Seven Samurai when you watch it.
ReplyDeleteAnd people at the time also saw High Noon as an allegory for the McCarthy hearings that were going on. He was a U.S. Senator who saw communists under every rock in Hollywood and persecuted many people before he was finally stopped. Some Hollywood people stood up to him...and were pretty much abandoned by all of their friends who feared McCarthy coming after them, too. Ever heard the term "blacklisted" in regards to Hollywood writers and directors? That comes from the McCarthy hearings.
I am well aware of the McCarthy hearings but I missed the connection with this movie. Somehow I have a hard time seing McCarthy having a problem with this movie. As a criticism of the hearings it is very subtle.
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