It had been decades since I saw this film but decided to revisit it again
last night. I knew it was a great film but I had forgotten just how great
it was - the manner in which the director Fred Zinnemann paces the film in
real time with shots of the clock, the train tracks bringing fate to the
forefront, the waiting killers, the town's men bowing their heads in shame,
the two women Katy Jurado and Grace Kelly and of course the rugged determined
but no longer young mythic form of Gary Cooper walking the streets alone
of this dusty hollow town waiting for death or redemption is magnificent.
I had forgotten that the film begins with a shot of one of the killers, Lee
Van Cleef, waiting for the others - with the theme song High Noon being sung
by Tex Ritter. I had forgotten how nuanced Cooper's performance was as he
is divided between doing his duty or listening to his young Quaker wife and
leaving town. I had forgotten how little action there was - it was all about
the building of the suspense second by second. I had forgotten the emotional
impact of his last action in the film as he grinds his badge into the ground
before all the town's citizens who had not backed him up.
The reason I decided to watch this old classic was that I bought the book
"High Noon: The Hollywood Blacklist and the Making of an American Classic"
and began reading it but thought it would make sense to see the film again.
The film was produced by the Stanley Kramer company - an independent film
company that was gaining a reputation for small socially relevant films.
Actors such as Cooper who was 50 at the time but looked a lot older were
willing to work for much less than their usual asking price. Grace Kelly
was a complete unknown having worked only in television to this point. Zinnemann
had been one of the many Jewish film artists in Europe who immigrated to
America in the 1930's to escape fascism. High Noon was his first great film,
but he would go on to direct From Here to Eternity, A Man for All Seasons
and The Day of the Jackal.
The social relevancy of the film has to be placed in the context of the times
- primarily the Red Scare, McCarthy and the HUAC investigations into Communists
in Hollywood. One of those Communists (or ex-Communist by this time I think)
was the scriptwriter Carl Foreman who watched in horror as fear and cowardice
spread through much of the filmmaking community, as people gave up names
to protect themselves (one of these later being Lloyd Bridges who plays the
deputy in the film) and as people from the studio heads down tried to justify
their actions of silence or active participation in the witch hunt. His script
was a pointed arrow at this under the guise of the most American of film
genres - a Western. One man alone stands up to a group of thugs who have
come to kill him and likely terrorize the town. The gang leader arrives on
the noon train. The town's people all find excuses to back away leaving it
to the Marshall to handle it. The author Glen Frankel makes clear where his
politics stand as he compares those days in the 1950's to today's political
climate where so many of our politicians choose expediency and cowardice
over country and pride. We see it n ow in the Republican Party. Some things
don't change. A masterpiece.
