AFI #27: High Noon (1952)

This is a version of a review airing on ABC Radio Ballarat and South West Victoria on September 18, 2020, and ABC Radio Central Victoria on October 19, 2021.

This is part of a series of articles reviewing the American Film Institute's Top 100 Films, as unveiled in 2007. Why am I doing this? Because the damned cinemas are closed and I have to review something.

(PG) ★★★★★

Director: Fred Zinnemann.

Cast: Gary Cooper, Grace Kelly, Thomas Mitchell, Lloyd Bridges, Katy Jurado, Otto Kruger, Lon Chaney, Harry Morgan, Ian MacDonald, Eve McVeagh, Morgan Farley, Harry Shannon, Lee Van Cleef, Robert J. Wilke, Sheb Wooley.

Bourke Street in Melbourne wasn't the same during lockdown.

There's a shot in High Noon that is one of the all-time greats. It comes in the lead-up to the shoot-out that marks the film's crescendo, right after Marshal Will Kane (Cooper) has just had a down-and-dirty fist fight with his former deputy (Bridges). Battered and bruised, Kane realises he must face the impending stand-off with Big Bad Frank Miller and his men on his own. As his eyes dart around the empty main street of Hadleyville, the camera pulls back and up until Kane is an awkward, small figure, very much alone. 

"It’s still a haunting and gorgeous shot that really emphasizes Kane’s loneliness and abandonment," writes wonderfully named film reviewer The Love Pirate. "It’s the only shot of its kind in the film, the only technical trick, and it’s used perfectly as both a moment of artistry and performance and as a way to further explore the story."

In a single wordless shot, the peril and reality of Kane's situation is demonstrated beautifully. It's a powerful moment in one of the high watermarks of the western genre. 

Unlike many westerns, High Noon was about more than just cowboys and bad guys, right and wrong. It shows a town struggling on its day of reckoning, wandering in the grey zone of its own morality, sense of justice, and responsibility. The townsfolk make fine arguments for and against supporting Kane, as symbolised by the game of tug-of-war taking place among the children outside the church as these very arguments take place. In the end though, they all fall down, and one man is left standing by himself to face the storm.

So resonant is the story, the film has been seen as a metaphor for the Cold War, US involvement in the Korean War, and Hollywood's blacklist era. The latter is probably the closest to the intended allegory - screenwriter Carl Foreman was blacklisted after refusing to name names in front of McCarthy's communist witchhunt AKA the House of Un-American Activities Committee. While the blacklisting happened after the script for High Noon was written, Foreman probably knew the sharks were circling, given he'd been a member of the American Communist Party a decade earlier. All his concerns - about being a "man of principle, deserted by his erstwhile friends" as critic Barry Norman put it - came to fruition when he was forced to sell-up and flee Hollywood part-way through production of High Noon.

"Zinnemann's film is at once a great suspense western and a stark allegory of the climate of fear and the suspicion prevailing during the McCarthy era," wrote critic Kim Newman in 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die. 

But Zinnemann himself was less concerned with any allegorical notions of anti-McCarthyism and more enamoured by his preferred theme of the protagonist who stands alone against forces bigger than they are. In the director's eyes, Kane "merely represented a man prepared to do what a man had to do", according to Barry Norman. Zinnemann would mine a rich seam of individuals doing just this in From Here to Eternity (1953), A Man For All Seasons (1966), and Julia (1977), but High Noon was the first and best exploration of this theme.

The film's assessments of violence and responsibility continue to see High Noon so deliciously open to discussion almost 70 years on. A pacifist Quaker sees a need to resort to violence. Townsfolk argue that Kane could flee, but Kane's pride makes him stay. Indeed, despite Kane's adherence to his lawful duties above all else, even in the face of having handed in his badge and gotten married, some saw the film as "un-American". 

After all, here's a hero who admits he needs help and is scared. He's afraid to die, but is compelled to pick up his gun and tin star one last time for a town of patriotic Americans that have turned their backs on him. "(This) was what made the portrayal of the character of Will Kane so jarring," writes author Jesse Schultz. "In movies we’re accustomed to seeing the hero face down and defeat armies of opponents as if it were merely a day at the office - alone and betrayed, Kane is understandably terrified."

Its biggest critics were director Howard Hawks and John Wayne (who turned down the lead role), and ended up making (the also excellent) Rio Bravo in response. "I didn't think a good town marshal was going to run around town like a chicken with his head cut off asking everyone to help," scoffed Hawks. "And who saves him? His Quaker wife. That isn't my idea of a good Western." This assessment is at odds with many US presidents - it was a favourite film of Eisenhower, Clinton and Reagan.

High Noon's influence is huge and diverse. It wasn't the first feature film to use the real-time narrative device (that credit is believed to belong to 1949's The Set-Up), but it drew attention to the idea due to the film's widespread success at the box office (US$12m) and winning four Oscars, four Golden Globes and many more awards. The film wouldn't be as powerful without its countdown to the midday train - the tension rises alongside the growing odds that are stacked against Kane, enhancing the already palpable tension of the situation. 

High Noon also helped popularise the notion of westerns having a theme song. Alongside the occasionally ticking Oscar-winning score by Dimitri Tiomkin, the melody of The Ballad Of High Noon (AKA Do Not Foresake Me, Oh My Darling) drifts through the film to help articulate its mood and tension.

The other unwitting influence of High Noon is on what's known as the "Die Hard Scenario". The idea of the one-vs-many shootout was inevitable (and High Noon wasn't necessarily the first to use it), but it's one of the best early examples of the action sub-genre. The film's finale is Die Hard In An Old Western Town, in the same way Passenger 57 is Die Hard On A Plane, and Under Siege is Die Hard On A Boat.

Cooper won his second Oscar for this, but it's a weird performance. His line delivery is constantly offhand, or through gritted teeth with minimal facial movement. It makes Kane a tightly wound spring of a man, and when his emotions get the better of him later, such as in a quiet moment by himself in the sheriff's office, they really burst out. But it's definitely not a conventional performance. 

Better is Grace Kelly (age difference between her and Cooper = 29 years), who is magnetic in a tiny but pivotal role as Kane's new Quaker wife Amy. Even better again is Katy Jurado, who rightly won a Golden Globe for her turn. Helen Ramirez is a fascinating character who is part of High Noon's more progressive view of the west (and maybe part of John Wayne's beef with the film) - she's a businesswoman and an ex of the hero. She's smart and shrewd and has no time for bullshit. Oh, and she's Latino, though nothing is made of that in the film, which is pretty forward-thinking for 1952 and waaaaay different than the type of roles typically offered to Latino actors at the time.

Also of note is a silent Lee Van Cleef in his first role, especially given the way it would typecast him in the future. A boyish Lloyd Bridges (though he was 39 at the time) makes the most of his moments, bringing bravado, bluff, bluster and brashness to his slighted deputy sheriff. And there's Thomas Mitchell again, doing is usual best as a perpetual also-starring, and making his fourth appearance in a film in the top 27 on this list (see also Gone With The Wind, It's A Wonderful Life, and Mr Smith Goes To Washington).

From its wordless introduction to its bad-ass mic-drop ending, High Noon is tense yet thoughtful. It walks a high wire between building to a balls-to-the-wall shootout while still carrying a moral weight. It's a western that dares to whistle its own tune and it's a memorable, influential, and powerfully enjoyable tune at that.