High Noon (1952)

 Fred Zinnemann's "High Noon"

There seems to be a lot of external discussion about Fred Zinnemann's 1952 Western "High Noon." In fact, I feel as though there is far more interesting discussion happening outside the frame than inside. I found "High Noon" to be a moderate Western morality play, with occasional interesting elements that leave one pondering. Beyond that, I felt it was no masterpiece and certainly not up there amongst the all-time great Westerns (for me). However, that doesn't seem to be the case with many film historians and scholars, who consider "High Noon" to be an all-time great. I can recognize the value in the film and its moral questions. However, what's far more interesting to me is how the film was perceived after its release.

The movie stars Gary Cooper as a local town sheriff ready to leave town with his new Quaker wife and finally retire. However, when a dastardly villain is reported to return to town to wreak havoc at noon, Cooper's character must decide whether to stay and fight or leave with his wife. He stays, of course, and attempts to recruit a posse. However, none of the townsfolk join the posse, as they are two afraid. In the end, Cooper must face this man alone and meet his potential demise when the clock strikes.

While I did find the elements of "should I stay or should I go" somewhat engaging, as it denotes a sense of moral confusion, I found the ticking timebomb aspect far more intriguing. Everyone in town and everyone watching the film knows that chaos ensues at noon. The film takes place in 'real time,' so the countdown is felt rather literally. This creates an interesting atmosphere throughout the whole film, an atmosphere that seems to resemble the Cold War sentiment in which the film was made. What's engaging is how every character seems to cope with this inevitability. There is an air of dread surrounding everything and it seems that most of the townspeople would rather submit to the destruction than battle it. It is interesting to see how people show themselves in moments of crisis.

What was intriguing about how people respond to moments of crisis is how Gary Cooper's marshal responds. His resolution to stay is powerful and resonant of most Western heroes. However, what I found enriching was that notion that he was afraid and panicked, as this would be the reaction of any real human being. Rather than demonstrating a constructed architype of the Western hero, we get a far more vulnerable one. 

However, a vulnerable hero is not something many fellow filmmakers felt was appropriate for some reason. Hollywood giant Howard Hawks, for example, felt this notion was anti-Western due to his opinion that he "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.[...]That isn't my idea of a good Western." 

This wasn't the only reason many fellow filmmakers disliked the film. Many felt that the film was drenched in political themes regarding the current state of McCarthyism and Hollywood blacklisting. Scriptwriter of the film, Carl Foreman, had been a known Communist and submitted to interrogation by the House Un-American Activities Committee. Because he did not inform on fellow Communist sympathizers, he was deemed uncooperative by the committee and blacklisted by Hollywood. By the time of these events, the film was already in production so Foreman's producing credit was removed. However, many in the film community noted the film's themes seemed to resemble notions about 'standing up to blacklisting even when everyone else submits to it,' just as Cooper's character faces his own demise knowing he's doing what's right even if the entire town is too afraid of repercussions. It was for these reasons that Columbia Pictures president Harry Cohn, MPA president John Wayne, and Los Angeles Times gossip columnist Hedda Hopper all created the pressure to have Foreman blacklisted and succeeded. John Wayne even called "High Noon" "the most un-American thing I've ever seen in my whole life" and even teamed up with Howard Hawks to make 1959's "Rio Bravo" as a counter-point. 

This is why I find the extraneous elements of "High Noon" to be far more fascinating and engaging than the actual film itself. It is a product of its time, steeped in Cold War anxiety and rebellious to the McCarthyism of modern America. As a structural notion, "High Noon" is an exhilarating. As a film watching experience, it is a fine motion picture.