Synopsis: Gary Cooper won the Oscar for the Best Actor in this classic tale of a lawman who stands alone to defend a town of righteous cowards in the greatest showdown in the history of cinema. The film also stars one of Hollywood’s most beloved and prolific actors, Lloyd Bridges, and marks the first starring role for a beautiful young actress and internationally adored screen legend–Grace Kelly.
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High Noon 8.0

‘High Noon’ is one of those movies that I would have skipped if it hadn’t come highly recommended by someone with good taste in films: to me, it looked like a conventional western, and nothing more. I had seen it around before, but swiftly ignored it. Suddenly, it was on my radar.

Then I discovered that it was an award-winner, having been nominated for 7 Oscars and winning 4 of those!!!

Wow! And I was going to miss this?

Admittedly, not all Award-winners are a sure-fire good time. I can’t stand the overly lengthy ‘Ben Hur’ (Charlton Heston may have something to do with that! ) and I found ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ brutally boring, being the only David Lean picture I’ve seen that I don’t love (and, um… Peter O’Toole may have something to do with that ).

But it turns out that ‘High Noon’ has cause for high praise. Sure, it’s from a pre-Method Acting era, which says a lot right there, but there’s enough charisma on-screen to get by. The acting is very standard for the era, though – it’s not realistic, but it’s not totally over-the-top like it usually was in previous decades.

It’s a very standard Western from a production standpoint as well – there’s hardly any grit (heck, I don’t even remember seeing a tumbleweed! ) and you have to wonder if real frontier people would look so clean and put together as these people are. Mind you, that was also normal for the pre-Sergio Leone era.

What makes the film so good is that it’s a suspense Western, instead of a drama or action piece; it has an edge to it that I don’t think is too conventional. My buddy felt that the film picked up its pace as it went along. He noted, in particular, the shots of the countdown on the clock as being more frequent as time went on.

He may be correct in saying that it picks up the pace, but I didn’t notice or feel it for some reason. As for the countdown itself, it’s such a cliché that I didn’t even bother to note it. I will on the next viewing, however.

The core of the film, for me, was our lead’s struggle against the people he’s vowed to help and the emotional roller-coaster ride he must have been on, trying to reconcile his ambition and the response he’s getting. The situation couldn’t have been more wrenching for the man.

Although the suspense didn’t grab hold of me (I was having an unusual out-of-body type of evening, so maybe it was just me), I loved watching Gary Cooper’s character try to do the right thing, but finding out that it’s not wanted by anyone. And slowly discovering just how isolated he is. He’s a stoic one, though, so he doesn’t really express his disappointment to his friends. Obviously, we gradually see the discouragement build, but he tries very hard to keep it from the other characters.

Meanwhile, he also isn’t really doing so well with his new bride either: she wants to leave town together, believing that distance would protect them, but he finds himself incapable of explaining that the danger would inevitably follow – so he might as well do what he feels is right for the townsfolk. Her inability to understand this must have been another load on his burdened shoulders, knowing that she would leave him over this.

*Spoiler warning*

I especially liked the ending, because it was quite different from the way you’d expect such a film to end these days.

It was an action sequence, yes, but it lacked the amped brutality we find now (where everything gets broken, everyone’s running around, there’s a massive amount of blood, …etc.). It was all very casual, and the deaths were simply a matter of fact, nothing more.

I quite liked this quality, because it made the situation feel more realistic, in the sense that our hero’s only true concern at that point was surviving the encounter – not being heroic, looking good or showcasing dead bodies for his audience.

…not to say that he’s an anti-hero or that he plays dirty in order to win. Hardly. It’s simply that his concern -if not fear- is palpable, shadowing his every step. One can easily understand why he doesn’t do anything grandiose or dare to celebrate his victories.

*Spoiler warning*

‘High Noon’ is not only an excellent Western, but it’s a memorable film to boot. It’s a terrific human drama with just enough edge to push it ahead of its peers. I wholeheartedly recommend it and definitely plan on watching it again.