Day #48 - High Noon

IMDB Link

High Noon is a Fred Zinnermann directed Western starring Gary Cooper - according to John Lithgow (yay TCM!), this movie came about at a time, in the early 50's, when bravery and courage were much valued at the box office. Gary Cooper won a Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of Marshal Will Cane. The movie opens with Will's wedding to Amy, played by Grace Kelly. It seems like all is well until 3 shady looking men stride into town. This immediately puts the town into uproar, and we find out that these three men are waiting on their leader, Frank Miller, to arrive on the noon train. Frank threatened to come back and kill Will after being sentenced to hang for murder - little did Will know that he would be pardoned and come back looking for him. The rest of the movie basically consists of Will going around to the men of the town asking for deputies to help him take down Frank. When no one will step up to help, Will must fight on his own. At the beginning of the movie, Amy decided to leave town, disgusted with Will's desire to stay and fight. At the very end though, she comes back and helps him kill Frank and his men. The movie ends with Will throwing his deputy badge down at the townspeople who wouldn't help him and leaving with Amy.

When the movie was over, Chris said, "well, that's the most concise movie I've ever seen" - which is true, haha - it was only 85 minutes long, not much time for froo froo. Overall, I thought it was a fine movie - not great or bad, just fine. The Mexican woman who played Mrs. Ramirez drove me CRAZY. I didn't care for the acting much and am surprised Gary Cooper was called out for an Oscar. I find that I'm often times not impressed with acting in Westerns - is it like watching action movies today, knowing they aren't made for their great acting?

Throughout the movie, clocks are shown often as the movie is shot in real time. This reminds me a lot of 3:10 To Yuma, a Western remake from a couple of years ago with Christian Bale and Russell Crowe - that movie also was centered around the arrival or departure of a train and relied a lot on time.

Though I didn't care for his acting, I really like the look of Gary Cooper - he looks like a real man :) I would pick him for my side on a fight :)

According to IMDB:

"This film was intended as an allegory in Hollywood for the failure of Hollywood people to stand up to the House Un-American Activities Committee during the Sen. Joseph McCarthy Red-baiting era."