Good movie but grossly overrated

For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

I first saw this in the early 90s on a vhs. Revisited it few days back on a blu-ray. Any time youre alone and you feel youre not getting the support you need, then watch this film. A retiring happy Marshall who is about to leave the town around 10.40 a.m. with his newly wedded wife gets a tragic news when he is informed that a man he sent to prison years ago, has been released and is coming to town on the 12:00 noon train for a revenge showdown with him. The Marshalls honour and pride wont let him run away inspite of being insisted by his wife n townsfolk to leave the town. It is not the arrival of the criminal which troubles the Marshall but the lack of help from his friends n townsfolk leaves him all nervous. The haggard n tired looking Cooper did the perfect portrayal of the Marshall in distress. This is a superbly acted and directed film. The editing is top notch. The tension is maintained throughout. Cooper utters no long dialogues, yet his expressions and movements are those of a man resolute in his lonely duty. The character of Cooper writing his last will and testament before the final showdown looked like as if the character is expecting his doom for sure. Another highlight is the song, Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darlin by Dimitri Tiomkin. The film begins with this song and we get to see a very young Lee Van Cleef with his menacing nose.

To celebrate my 1700th review for IMDb, I turn to another of my favourite films. Will Kane is the Marshal of the small Western town of Hadleyville. The action takes place on what should have been the happiest day of his life. He is newly married to Amy, a beautiful, much younger woman, and is preparing to retire when he receives two pieces of news. Firstly, his successor as Marshal has been delayed on his way to the town, meaning that Kane will have to remain in office for a day longer. Secondly, Frank Miller, a dangerous outlaw whom Kane once arrested, has been released from jail and is on his way back to Hadleyville, swearing revenge. He is due to arrive at the station, where the rest of his gang are already waiting for him, on the noon train- hence the title.Amy, who is a Quaker and a pacifist, begs Kane to flee before Miller arrives, but he refuses; he has never run away from his duty and does not intend to start now. In any case, if he flees the gang will only come after him. He attempts to recruit a posse, only to find that the townspeople are unwilling to help him. Most are too afraid; others worry that a gunfight might harm the town's reputation or its commerce. Kane's deputy Harvey, resentful that Kane will not support him for promotion, resigns his office. Kane only receives two offers of help, both of which he declines, one from a one-eyed old man, the other from a teenage boy.Upon its release in 1952 the film was highly controversial. Given that it came out when the Korean War was being fought, its political meaning seems clear. Kane represents America as the "world's policeman". Miller represents Stalin, and the rest of his gang are Mao, Kim Il-sung and other Communist leaders. The townspeople represent peaceniks and others in the West who are too cowardly to stand up for democracy. The film is therefore an allegory of the need for a strong stand against international Communism.Well, actually, I don't suppose that screenwriter Carl Foreman, a well-known Hollywood Marxist, had that particular interpretation in mind, but it seems to me to fit rather better than the one many people, both on the Left and on the Right, have tried to give it, both at the time and later, namely that it is an allegory of McCarthyism. (There is a certain breed of film historian for whom every film from the fifties was secretly about McCarthyism, every film from the sixties and seventies about Vietnam and every film from the eighties and nineties about AIDS).The McCarthy allegory never works for me because the situation in the film is the precise opposite of the one which confronted America in the fifties. McCarthyism was all about an abuse of state power; the film is all about an unlawful challenge to legitimate state authority, and it is Kane, the upholder of that authority, who is its hero. If Foreman really did intend an anti-McCarthyite message, it seems to have been well hidden- so well hidden, in fact, that it even eluded the film's politically conservative star, Gary Cooper, who always denied it was a propaganda piece.The real reason for this film's greatness lies not in its supposed political message but in the power of Cooper's acting and Fred Zinnemann's direction, with special mention going to Dimitri Tiomkin's musical score, based around his song "Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darling". Cooper is now so firmly identified with this film that it is strange to think that he was not the first choice for Kane- that was John Wayne, who indignantly refused because he despised Foreman's politics. Nor was he second choice- that was Gregory Peck, who declined (something he later regretted) because he did not want to get typecast after playing a similar role in "The Gunfighter" the previous year. Nor was Cooper even third choice- Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, and Charlton Heston also turned it down. We cannot, of course, know how any of those actors might have played the role, but Cooper makes it his own, playing Kane as the embodiment of courage and integrity.It has been said that Beethoven's Fifth Symphony does not contain a single wasted note, and I have similar views about Foreman's script and Zinnemann's direction. There is not a single wasted line of dialogue, not a single wasted shot. Everything seems to contribute to a perfect whole and to a sense of unbearable tension as time inexorably ticks away, leading to the inevitable shoot-out between Kane and the outlaws. The tension is increased by depicting events in real time, with frequent shots of clock faces emphasising the passing of time between 10.40 am, when Kane first learns of Miller's impending return, and noon."High Noon" was nominated for seven Oscars and won four, including "Best Actor" for Cooper and two ("Best Score" and "Best Song") for Tiomkin, but lost out on "Best Director", "Best Screenplay" and "Best Picture", something which has been blamed on the political controversy surrounding it, although it may also have had something to do with the Academy's traditional snobbery about Westerns. (DeMille's "The Greatest Show on Earth", which did win "Best Picture", is a decent enough movie but not in the class of "High Noon"). Although the likes of Wayne and Howard Hawks (who were later to make "Rio Bravo" as their reply to it) attacked the film, not all political conservatives disliked it- President Eisenhower showed it at the White House and Ronald Reagan ranked it among his favourites. Sixty-five years on we can see just how right Ike and Ronnie were and that Wayne and Hawks, for all their talents, on this occasion made themselves look foolish. 10/10

I cannot fault this movie and can't imagine the film industry today being able to produce such a minimalist and beautiful film that is also entertaining to watch rather than a chore.Cooper is superb as timeworn Kane, about to retire with his new wife but unable to leave the town he protected from evil for so long when it's safety and the safety of those he thinks of as his friends is threatened. He stays to defend the town against the arrival of the outlaw Miller but is abandoned by all those he fights for, and all the values he holds true are questioned.The direction, editing, music etc. all add to a tense and nail biting experience even if you've seen it several times before.I'm not altogether sure why length is the way one judges whether a review is adequate for submission and is the reason I write so few no doubt. Rather sad IMDb. I am incapable of finding anything to add that does not merely replicate all that has already been said a million times or filling this little box with waffle and irrelevance. It really is very frustrating. And I'm still not even anywhere near the length required

'High Noon' is one of the most acclaimed, respected and influential films not just within the Western genre, but in all of American cinema history. Along with a handful of other films, 'High Noon' paved the way for a new wave of films called 'Revisionist Westerns' which subverted the conventional clichés of past Westerns along with blurring the distinctions between good and evil.The screenwriter Carl Foreman wanted his screenplay to reflect the demons of McCarthyism which was prevalent in Hollywood at the time. On watching the film with this prior knowledge, one can easily see that it has those allegorical subtext in it due to the extensive presence of betrayal and isolation. But the film can easily resonate with anyone even if the viewer doesn't see any connection with McCarthyism, this is because at the heart of it, 'High Noon' is a tale of moral dilemma.The director Fred Zinnemann and screenwriter Carl Foreman have actually kept the door open for multiple interpretations. Yes from an idealistic viewpoint, the viewer will certainly put himself/herself in Marshal William Kane's shoes and sympathise with him. From that perspective the town folks who backed out on him and refused to support him will look ever so cowardly. However, this film can be easily watched from the perspective of the town's folks. From this perspective, one can easily see why they wanted Kane to leave as soon as possible so that the blood loss could be avoided. Kane could have escaped with his wife and allowed his succeeding Marshal to deal with Frank Miller and his gang. Even though Kane was a great Marshal, but even then Kane's zeal to stick to his 'code' can be easily seen as a machismo fueled act of foolishness to retain his own ideas of masculinity and heroism in his own eyes. The excuses given by the people who refuse to side with Kane in this encounter for the most part actually seem plausible and understandable. I also understand the Mayor when he asks the people to veer off from any potential violence as he thought this would steer away all the investors up North who might be viewing this town as potentially investment worthy. So this is morally ambiguous and the viewer can view the themes in any way he/she feels. It is a heavily cynical film about the human spirit and our inherent selfishness. This is why I think this film will work as a great companion piece with either Billy Wilder's 'Ace in the Hole' if you want similar cynicism or Frank Capra's 'It's a Wonderful Life' if you want to undercut 'High Noon's cynicism with a touch of unity.'High Noon' is majestically directed. The intro to the film with the three horse-riders riding into the small town and the onlookers reacting to them was breathtaking and utterly evocative. This intro heavily reminded me of 'Yojimbo'. Zinnemann is masterful at composing frames be it POV shots, unbroken shots, still shots,etc. The film takes place in real time and it moves along with great pace. Zinnemann brilliantly uses the 'High Noon Ballad' to raise tension, but he also knows exactly when to remove background music and let the visuals and real sounds take over to accentuate the emotional effect. The director brilliantly handles the mythic aspect of the character of Frank Miller. The concept of the unseen and invisible but ominous evil is beautifully done through the use of clocks, momentary shots of the railway, tracks, etc. with the music adding to it.Gary Cooper is a bit like Jeff Goldblum in my eyes, his acting style can be a bit jarring, but the tentativeness and vulnerability that is a fixture in his gestures and mannerisms is perfect for the role William Kane as the character himself feels extremely vulnerable under pressure of the adverse circumstances that he finds himself in. Kane's character itself subverted the concept of having the all powerful, idealistic, stoic hero, instead we get a human being who although being idealistic is prone to feelings and emotional vulnerability. We even see him break down at one point in the film after being overwhelmed by the fear of ominous adversity. Everyone else like Lloyd Bridges, Katy Jurado, Grace Kelly, Thomas Mitchell,etc. are great too. 'High Noon' in my opinion thoroughly deserves its reputation as a masterpiece. It is multi-layered, its cynicism has depth, and it dared to do something different in terms of character representation within the Western genre at a time when it was almost unheard of. Well written, brilliantly directed and well acted, this is an essential watch.