HIGH NOON a petit film essay by Sean Lee
Directed by Fred Zinneman Written by John Cunningham and Carl Foreman Will Kane: Gary Cooper Amy Kane: Grace Kelly Helen Ramirex: Katy Juardo Harvey Pell: Lloyd Bridges
Evaluation **** (out of ****)
High Noon is a Western. Yet while comfortably residing in this cinematic niche, it transcends the typical spaghetti Western by creating a story far more intricate than cowboys and Indians. The Western as a film medium is by its very nature a remnant of America's dirty little imperialist past. As a result, the idea of the Western seems to connote ideas of prejudice and perhaps even genocide. High Noon, however, does not pander to the audience's expectations of a Western; instead, we find a revisionist film with a female Mexican shopkeeper, few shootouts, and a hero whose intentions are unclear.
Perhaps the most obvious stereotype-breaking element in High Noon is found in the character of Helen Ramirez. Helen is the strongest person in the town. This fact may be overlooked by her decision to leave the town. But in her relationships with people it is clear that she is the more powerful. There are also more subtle ways in which she shows her strength – for one, she is the only character in town who accepts and understands Will Kane's decision to stay. It is also important to note that while the character of Helen Ramirez is certainly uncommon in the films of High Noon's era and genre, her role is effortlessly convincing, unlike some politically correct presidents appearing in movies lately.
One should not overlook other ways in which High Noon defies conventionality, either. The character of Will Kane seems to break just as many rules as the character of Helen Ramirez. Kane never chases his enemies in the film; enemies chase him. Even in the movie's lone gunfight, Kane is always in retreat throughout the scene (though this may also be attributed to the fact that he is outnumbered). This retreat, the unwillingness to confront the other members of the gang before Frank Miller's arrival, is both a result and reflection of the town's own withdrawal.
There's a poignant scene near the end of the film when Will Kane essentially awaits his execution. The camera starts with a close-up of Kane and then cranes dramatically away form him, heightening the sense of Kane's desolation/abandonment. What is particularly stunning, however, is the exaggerated movements of Will Kane; his eyes are wide open and dart back and forth, he blinks involuntarily, he makes a feint to his guns, and wipes the sweat from his brow and with a deliberate movement, flicks his fear into the ground. Kane in this scene shows a great amount of fear, and we find our hero is full of doubt. High Noon does not let us take the hero for granted; instead, it questions whether the hero did the right thing by staying.
Copyright 1998 Sean Lee
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews