Eclectic Cinephile
I really love High Noon. Second time is even better than the first time. It feel so perfectly shot, cleanly edited, well-timed; I just love the way Gary Cooper fits into his character Will Kane, and I get more and more attached to him the more and more everyone abandons him.The last few minutes of gun fighting feel very real. For the most part Kane is on the run and yet he fights back without any trace of cowardice. In contrast to another great Western The Searchers, where the heroes are the pursuers, the hero is the hunted one. I think that works very well; it also feels more satisfying to see his defeat of the bad guys in the final moments.Yet there's a real bittersweet thing going on here. Helen Ramirez is gone from the town, never to return. The town is full of corrupt and cowardly people. Only the young boy who was eager to aid Kane but was turned down gets a smile from Kane at the end of the movie. And Will Kane's wife had to abandon her Quaker pacifism to save her husband. Nothing comes easy here."Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling" felt a bit tacky at first, but I took a liking to it.Everything feels stripped down, meat-and-potatoes, and I think it surprised a lot of American moviegoers when they first saw it in 1952. Now it feels less strange, but it still feels "other" compared to the great Westerns of John Ford or Howard Hawks, or even the Sergio Leone spaghetti Westerns.I think this is one of my favorite 1950s films, alongside The Big Heat, The Searchers, The Ten Commandments, Seven Samurai, and Ben-Hur. Say what you will about the puritanism of the American 1950s era, but it was a really fertile period for American movies and even for other non-American movies.
Claudio Carvalho
On the day of his wedding with Amy (Grace Kelly) and simultaneous retirement of the position of Marshal, Will Kane (Gary Cooper) receives a telegram advising that the criminal Frank Miller (Ian MacDonald) had been released from the prison. Now he is coming to the town in the noon train to kill Kane, as he promised in the judgment. Kane arrested Frank five years ago and he was sent to North to be hanged. However he was sentenced to life and for some unexplained reason, Frank was pardoned and released. Three other gunmen are in the station waiting for Frank. Having less one hour and half to organize his defense, Kane tries to organize a posse but sees every citizen turns back to him, in a cowardly way and he stands alone against the killers."High Noon" is a low-budget western with a tense and suspenseful storyline. The tension is built in real time and Gary Cooper has an outstanding performance in the role of a Marshal moved by his duty to protect the town that does not deserve him. It is sad to see his former friends finding excuses to turn down his request for helping. The performances are top notch and the viewer gets tense while the clocks show the fatidic noon coming. Grace Kelly is astonishing beautiful and finds redemption in the conclusion when she saves Kane. The final scene when Kane drops his badge on the dirty floor is memorable. "High Noon" is certainly one of the most credible westerns of the cinema history and might be one of the best. My vote is ten.Title (Brazil): 'Matar ou Morrer' ('To Kill or To Die')
cartjos
I can always nitpick about some aspect of how the script plays out and think I can do a better job. When it comes to the camera stuff I will not pretend to know anything. Now that I have got that out of the way I have always felt the visuals in "Shane" were the best of any film I had seen. At over 60 I have finally taken the time to watch "High Noon" and was blown away by the way it was filmed. Black and white works here when I am sure it would have made Shane a poorer movie. Wilke, Cleef, and Wooley played their parts in what I would call an understated and very believable way. Grace Kelly has to be the most beautiful woman to ever have graced the silver screen. It could have been a silent film and still been a joy to watch, though the song "The Ballad of High Noon" and dialogue make it a much better experience. For different reasons High Noon now joins Shane at the top of my list of favorite Westerns.
PetarDuric
With it's short running time it was a weird to look at the movie that is western, drama and thriller at the same time but also it proved it can be very powerful if played correctly. As the word about man returning with noon train hit the small town everything just went down, people started to leave and overall fear kicked in for their lives and future. Marshall kept running around looking for help as everybody is turning him down and he realizes what has come upon him that he will need to face them alone and in all that his newly wed wife is leaving him because of his decision that he will stand for the town and fight those criminals. It was obvious that he was desperate but he was driven by the urge to protect everybody. Finally they arrived and chase around town started he fight them back and won after a turnover of events. Everyone is relieved and he is finally free to leave town as his wife is by his side. Music in the movie is absolutely fantastic with theme song playing over and over when tension is building. 3.5/4
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