High Noon ****1/2

 

I'm embarrassed that I never saw this film until now. It is one of the classic westerns, and I don't really know how I avoided it. What finally brought me around to it was a “Sopranos” episode, where Tony asks, “What happened to the strong, silent types, like Gary Cooper in “High Noon”? … He just did what had to be done.” I figured an endorsement from Tony Soprano was a sign I should check this one out.

Cooper plays Marshall Will Kane, whom we meet as he is marrying a hottie named Amy (Grace Kelly). After the ceremony, Kane hands over his badge and gun. Amy, a Quaker, is a pacifist, and she has convinced him to give up the lawman's life to move away and run a store. Just as the happy couple are about to get on their way, Kane learns that Frank Miller, whom Kane had arrested for murder, has been pardoned. Miller is coming to town on the noon train, and everyone reasonably assumes that he and his gang will be coming for Kane.

Everyone, including Amy, wants Kane to hightail it out of town before Miller arrives. Something in Kane just won't allow himself to be run off, so he defies his wife, straps his guns back on, and sets about raising a posse. Only problem is, the townsfolk aren't so interested in risking their lives to help him face the Miller gang. Everyone has different reasons for begging off, but as an hour and a half ticks off to noon, Kane finds out just how alone he is in the town he had loved and protected.

“High Noon” is so rich in themes that graduate theses have probably been written on the film. For one, it's a criticism of civilization's tendency towards decadence. Will Kane found Hadleyville a wild place run by killers and rapists like the Millers. He tamed the town and made it safe for women and children, and he did it with the help of ordinary citizens who were willing to risk their lives to build a decent home. Now, those same townsfolk have gotten soft, and they reckon it's someone else's job to risk life and limb for their safety. The story is also a celebration of the kind of rugged individualism that is so out of favor nowadays, and don't get me started on the feminist themes.

I'll bet “High Noon” is popular in film classes as well. The movie is known for telling its story in more-or-less real time, meaning that the events all take place between 10:30a.m. and noon, and the movie itself is about an hour and a half long. This is a really effective way to draw the audience into the story. We are reminded of Kane's time running out by periodic shots of the clock ticking away towards noon, as well as by low-angle shots of the empty train tracks, which will soon be full of trouble. My favorite shots are those of Kane walking through the abandoned streets, looking for allies and finding none. He looks like the loneliest man in the West. Gary Cooper did without makeup, to enhance his character's look of haunted betrayal, and it works.

Cooper's haggard appearance also serves to emphasize my one complaint about the film, which is that Grace Kelly is badly miscast as Amy. The whole idea of Marshall Kane marrying a Quaker pacifist and retiring to be a shopkeeper is a bit far-fetched, and it requires a believable actress to sell it. The role needed someone who could hold her own against Cooper, like Katharine Hepburn did with John Wayne in “Rooster Cogburn.” Kelly just doesn't bring much to the role, and the age difference between her and Cooper is distracting (Kelly was 21 and looks about 17, while Cooper looked all of his 50 years.)

To my eyes, “High Noon” looks like a pretty classic story of a rugged, western hero, but it turns out the film was controversial. The film put off audiences with its lack of typical, Western-movie action until the very end. “High Noon” also got caught up in the Hollywood blacklisting movement. Screenwriter Carl Foreman was a former communist who refused to name names in front of Congress. I feel like today that should make him a hero to all decent people, but in 1951 it made him a traitor. John Wayne was originally offered the Kane role, but turned it down, refusing to work with Foreman. Blacklisted, Foreman ultimately sold his share of the production and moved to the U.K. Wayne called the movie “un-American,” which is ironic considering it was condemned in the Soviet Union as “glorification of the individual.” I figure any movie that managed to piss off both the Russians AND reactionary Commie-hunters here in the U.S. was doing something right. Not to mention, it got the Tony Soprano seal of approval!

4.5 stars out of 5