SPOILERS.I heard about this classic western movie my entire life and only tonight did I watch it in its entirety. It's possible that I may have seen the movie as a child but had forgotten it.Most reviewers describe the movie as a courageous, lonely town marshal standing up to a gang of four thugs, the leader of which is a vengeful gunman who was inexplicably pardoned while serving a life sentence for murder; returning to wreak revenge upon the marshal who arrested him. In the course of the movie, the townspeople, meaning the men, are described as cowardly and refusing to stand with the marshal.When I watched the movie tonight, it's not that simple a case of outright collective citizenry cowardice as most reviews describe.The men in the saloon are largely low-caliber men to begin with, many of which bore grudges against Marshal Kane in the past. One interprets that once upon a time gunman Frank Miller and his gang ran the town with lawlessness but with vice and excitement, probably gambling and other unmentionable pleasures. Marshal Kane cleaned up the town with the help of several citizen deputies and indicted Miller for murder. But the cleaned up town didn't sit well with citizens who previously benefited from Frank Miller's lawless, free-for-all town. Kane would get no help from the saloon's good-for-nothing patrons.It's the church scene which proves the historic explanation of the townsmen's cowardice is not cut and dried.When Marshal Kane first implores the congregation for help, about six to seven men stand up and walk-forward, ready to help Kane.However, bickering breaks out among the congregation. One of the more eloquent town leaders calls for order and helps lead a open forum discussion of the town's citizens sitting in the pews. It appears the congregation is split almost evenly between helping Kane and not.It is the eloquent town leader who tilts the balance. He launches into what seems to be praise and support for Marshal Kane but suddenly his speech turns on a dime where he convinces the good townspeople in the congregation to sit tight and do nothing. If Marshal Kane agrees to leave town, there will be no violence and no negative publicity about the town to ruin its chances of progress and advancement. Kane is stunned, taken by surprise at the sudden change of the town leader's support, and he is unable to respond to it other than leave the church in disgust.Others back away from helping Kane. The ambitious young deputy quits when Kane refuses to name him as successor marshal. Kane's mentor, a retired marshal pleads convincingly that he is too old and decrepit to help him. The one deputy who did show up at the marshal's office, gets cold feet when he discovers no one else is helping and it will be only two against four, ruthless gunmen. He backs out.Others who want to help Kane are useless. One is a town drunk and the other an earnest but too young, 14-year old boy.Kane is at the point of despair but he musters his final courage and goes out to wait for the four gunmen striding into town. Kane is walking straight into the four men around the corner. By a stroke of luck, one of the gunmen breaks a store window to pilfer a woman's hat. The sound of breaking glass alerts Kane in time and he manages to conceal himself. This allows Kane to flank the four men and in a quick shootout kills one, lowering the odds, three-to-one.Using his intelligence, Kane takes the high ground by climbing up into the hayloft of a public horse stable. When one of the gunmen charges in shooting (the young Lee Van Cleef), Kane has the superior tactical position of height and shoots him dead.While the odds are down to two-against-one, it is no time for marshal Kane to celebrate. The two remaining gunmen include the leader.Both gunmen eventually corner Kane in a saddle sales and repair shop, covering the entrance from opposite sides, trapping Kane there.In a twist of the plot which has been greatly uncredited all these decades, marshal Kane's devout, reluctant Quaker wife, Amy, who had initially intended to leave him realizes her love for her new husband overshadows her devout, non-violence Quaker beliefs. She runs back into the town and hides in the marshal's empty office. From there she sees and shoots one of the two remaining gunmen in the back at near point blank range.Alone now, the last gunman, the leader Frank Miller, is not deterred. He seizes Ann and forces Kane to exit the saddlery shop. Amy claws Frank's face, distracting him long enough for Kane to get in several shots, killing Frank immediately.Marshal Kane knows his ultimate salvation has been through the help of his newlywed wife, who among everyone else, came through for him in the nick of time, killing one of the remaining two thugs. Kane passionately embraces Amy, who reciprocates.As the townspeople come out to gawk at the dead Frank Miller laying on the dirt street just feet away from Kane and Amy, Kane pulls his marshal's badge from his shirt and throws it to the dirt, his job is now finished.It turns out the 14-year old stable hand boy did not load Amy's baggage onto the departed train but kept it on the horse wagon. He brings the wagon up the the couple. They board the wagon with Kane at the reins and depart the town, this time finally for good.My explanation shows that the plot was more nuanced than reviewers gave it credit for the last 69 years since the movie's debut. Very little was spoken or written about the marshal's wife, Amy, as if she was minimal to the storyline. As it turns out, Amy, played by the legendary Hollywood beauty, Grace Kelly, had a far more significant role in the storyline than publicly admitted. Perhaps at the time in 1952 she might have been credited but over the decades her role had been forgotten or minimized in the reviews.When you include Mrs. Amy Kane, the movie's storyline takes on new dimension, one of selfless love triumphing over fear and reticence. Amy Kane acted against her newfound Quaker beliefs of absolute non-violence when her woman's instincts intuited that saving someone you love from evil men is greater than unquestioning conformance to religious belief and indeed she is proven morally and ethically correct in the end.Without the good townspeople in the church convincing themselves it was better to do nothing, things might have turned out differently. Certainly it did not help that an influential town leader ended up speaking up persuasively against aiding marshal Kane. Had he not done so, Kane might have walked outside the church with six to eight men willing to help him, plus the one deputy waiting in the office.The movie would have then turned into a simple Western shootout in the streets film, with Kane most likely prevailing through superior numbers. Nothing to it.But then we wouldn't have the classic Hollywood Western, HIGH NOON, as it was and still is today.Olive Film's 60th anniversary Blu-ray edition of High Noon (1952) presents this critically lauded, still controversial western masterpiece in a Hi-Def transfer that renders all other home video versions obsolete.The Stanley Kramer production, tightly directed by Fred Zinnemann and written by the blacklisted Carl Foreman, earned the hatred of 1950s McCarthyists, including John Wayne and Howard Hawks, who were so outraged they made Rio Bravo (1959) as a right-wing response. Wayne went further than that, teaming up with Hollywood Gossip mogul Hedda Hopper and the House Un-American Activities Committee to run Foreman out of the country. Foreman moved to England and never returned. Wayne forever boasted of forcing the writer into exile. Kramer, responding to accusations that High Noon was anti-American, tried to get Foreman's name taken off the credits. Gary Cooper intervened on Foreman's behalf, making Kramer's effort unsuccessful, but Kramer had better luck forcing Foreman to sell his part of their company. So much for loyalty under pressure: ironic, given the film's theme of civic morality.The biggest offense of the film, for Wayne and his fellow extremist kooks, was the final shot of Will Kane supposedly dropping his marshal's badge in the dust and stomping on it. Wayne saw symbolism aplenty, but his faulty vision was filtered through a lens of Cold War paranoia and exaggeration.[1] Will Kane merely dropped the badge. He never stepped on it. The other offense was the portrayal of the townspeople as a greedy, self-cannibalizing lot, a hypocritical church community who argue their way out of communal (and personal) loyalty. Wayne and Hawks' Rio Bravo depicted, in sharp contrast, a town full of old-fashioned buddy-buddy camaraderie. If Wayne and Hawks were alive today they might have rethought their depiction, because High Noon could served as an apt snapshot of contemporary division. It's a good thing that actor/director team didn't live to see the 21st century, though, because despite the intent behind Rio Bravo, and despite its occasional tendency towards sentimental phoniness, it remains, along with High Noon, one of the standout westerns in the genre's greatest decade.[2]One cannot approach High Noon without addressing its political themes, both within the film's text and those raised in its aftermath. Along with writer Formean, co-star Lloyd Bridges and cinematographer Floyd Crosby were also awarded with temporary blacklists until the FBI cleared them of Communist affiliations. The fifty-one year old Gary Cooper was engaged in an affair with his twenty-three year old co-star Grace Kelly (putting an end to Coop's affair with Patricia Neal.) Kelly's fling with the long established Republican protected her from McCarthyism's scrutiny. Cooper was friendly with the HUAC, and testified before them (without ever naming names), but he only did what was expected of him, then returned to his top priority of resuming his romance with a future princess.Cooper was in Europe by the time the Academy Awards Ceremony rolled around and asked Wayne to accept the award of Best Actor on his behalf, should he happen to win. Of course, he did, and the Duke did a prompt, public about-face in his acceptance speech: "Ladies and gentlemen, I'm glad to see they're giving this to a man who is not only most deserving, but has conducted himself throughout the years in our business in a manner that we can all be proud of. Coop and I have been friends hunting and fishing for more years than I like to remember. He's one of the nicest fellows I know. And our kinship goes further than that friendship because we both fell off horses in pictures together. Now that I'm through being such a good sport about all this sportsmanship, I'm going back and find my business manager, agent, producer, and three-name writers and find out why I didn't get High Noon instead of Cooper."[3]The speech renders Wayne a hypocrite, since seeing potential red from the outset, it was he who first refused the role of Marshal Will Kane, thus paving the path for Gary Cooper in the part.[4] Yet, despite Wayne's standing as a precursor of Rush Limbaugh's pharisaical aggression, he can, perhaps, best be summed up in an assessment I was privy to in a screening of Red River (1948). The host, an erudite writer, had this to say about Wayne: "I met the Duke's son Patrick. Unlike his dad, Patrick is a thorough gentleman; pleasant and courteous. Unfortunately, he also differs from his dad when it comes to acting because Patrick's a lousy actor. His dad was a great actor and that's not really up for argument."However, as skilled an actor as he was, Wayne as Will Kane would have been a loose right-wing cannon. Gary Cooper's brand of authentic conservatism merged seamlessly with his marshal. Cooper's laconic, weathered portrayal of internalized integrity shines through Zinnemann's opulent artistry.[5]Ronald Reagan and Dwight D. Eisenhower were among the film's fans. Reagan saw positive American values in the theme of an individual placing the safety of his peers above his own personal interests. When I first saw the film in my youth, prior to readings of political allegories, my interpretation of the film paralleled Reagan's.If Wayne has come to embody our idea of the snarling, mythological Westerner, Gary Cooper is our moderate, amorous Rino cowpoke. We readily accept his pairing with Grace Kelly's Quaker Amy Fowler (the "darling Clementine" of the film's theme song). Amy is a model of another form of extremism. Amy's tragic past has rendered her a pacifist with a checklist, adhering to each dogmatic bullet point. Will cannot violate his conscience to succumb to any extreme ideology. We genuinely root for their reconciliation. Oddly, it is in its climax that we find High Noon is, in fact, a paradigm for conservative mythology. Once faced with physical threat, Amy's militant pacifism is, in fact, submitted as a futile, theoretical interpretation of Christian tenets. The townspeople, led by Mitchell, have their own ideological creeds, dictated primarily by the potential capital gains Frank Miller and his gang bring by their return to Hadleyville.Katy Jurado's Helen Ramirez is the literary female counterpart to Kelly's pure Virgin Mary. Helen, the tainted Magdalene, is, of course, a necessary contrast, and she steals every scene she is in, despite Zinnemann's efforts to highlight Kelly. Not unexpectedly, there was rivalry between the two actresses on set. Lon Chaney, Jr. shines in his role as the arthritic former lawman and Kane mentor, Martin Howe. Chaney acts with such effective pathos that one wished producers had realized his greater potential as a character actor, rather than as a B grade horror star. Lloyd Bridges' portrayal of self-serving deputy Harvey Pell is less effective, occasionally stiff in line readings, and a noticeable case of miscasting. Lee van Cleef, debuting here, was originally cast in the role of Pell, but he would not surgically alter his nose, which producers thought "too villainous looking." Instead, Cleef was relegated to playing one of the thugs, setting him on the path to a wonderfully typecast career.Editor Elmo Williams' work here is exemplary and, with much ballyhoo, he cut the film to play out in real time. Dmitri Tiomkin's score is perfectly synchronized, and Tex Ritter's theme song, which sold over a million copies, is so iconic that every singer tackling it since then has rendered a pale imitation.Zinnemann and Crosby intentionally shot High Noon in stark black and white. Zinnemann valiantly fought to keep media mogul Ted Turner's filthy colorizing hands off the film. Alas, Zinnemann lost and Turner, with Republic Pictures, produced an asinine colorized version for television. Therein lies the difference between celluloid and the corporal world. In the latter, sometimes the bad guys win.*Due to John Wayne's interpretation of this scene, he and fellow right wing extremist Ward Bond bullied Gary Cooper into backing out of a planned independent production company with Forman and producer Robert Lippert. [↩]*The American Film Institute lists High Noon second in its list of top ten westerns. First is John Ford's The Searchers (1956) with Wayne. Two other films starring Wayne made the list: Red River at number five and Ford's Stagecoach (1939) at number nine. [↩]*The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was as hypocritical as Wayne, awarding the Best Picture Oscar to Cecil B. DeMille's dreadful The Greatest Show On Earth (1952), in order to appease Joseph McCarthy and the right-wing campaign launched against High Noon. This snub is, justifiably, seen as one of the many examples of the Academy's irrelevancy. [↩]*Gregory Peck was next offered the role after Wayne refused it. Peck also declined the part, feeling it too closely resembled The Gunfighter (1950), which he had just made. Peck later counted the decision as his biggest career mistake. However, Peck, ever the gentleman, admitted he could not have played the part as well as Cooper. Charlton Heston, Montgomery Clift, Marlon Brando, and Kirk Douglas were also offered the role and declined it. [↩]*Zinnemann and makeup artist Gustaf Norin gave Cooper no makeup in order accentuate the actor's inherent sense of anguish. [↩]** my review originally appeared at 366 weird moviesClarity and sound.What else is there to say? This is a tight masterpiece, not a word wasted in the script. Gary Cooper is incredible, there are scenes where he is alone and speaks no words (spoiler: especially the scene where he starts writing his will), and his face alone speaks volumes. There might be (a very few) better movies overall, but none in such a tight package.I don't often dress a film with 5 Stars when I personally find it has flaws such as a less than perfect picture quality, less than perfect acting, cinematography that sometimes looks a bit flat. However this was made in 1952 in black & white and the central performance from Gary Cooper is outstanding and more than compensates for the flaws of the film, not least of which is the casting of Grace Kelly as the beautiful wife of Cooper who is old enough to be her father both in appearance and in real life (Kelly in her early 20's, and Cooper in his early 50's).That aside the plot of the film is the heart of the film and resonates. Not the tough guy, not the fast gunman, not in the usual macho image of other cowboy heroes played by countless big stars of the the western genre, Cooper is about to be faced by four killers, gunmen with history, and he pleads for help from the townspeople as he knows he may not be up to the task --- how honest in a western, and Cooper's role would have been spat at by the likes of Wayne, Murphy, Scott et al. Throughout Cooper is uncertain, afraid, reluctant but refuses to run and will face his demons unaided. A real solid performance from Cooper who made the character very believable and probably left many Americans wondering and uncomfortable with a western that appeared to examine the psychology of the characters and wasn't the usual shoot 'em up style that was the staple diet of the genre.Ideas from the film have been stolen by many, perhaps notably by Leone who made a film within a film using the sequence of the three gunmen waiting for the fourth at the railway station in 'Once Upon A Time In The West'. Perhaps Eastwood borrowed the idea of a town full of cowards and making the townsfolk paint their town red in 'High Plains Drifter'. Cooper settled for throwing his badge into the dust.Directed by Fred Zinnemann who made many very good films not least of which was 'Day Of The Jackal', a particular favourite of mine. Music by Dimitri Tiomkin, another classic score by a man who knew how to make music tell a story.My copy states it is digitally mastered, not perfect to my mind but it may depend on the source material as happens so often. English subtitles, a few extras that include a 24 minute documentary, film run time 85 minutes. It is yet another production that is still available in over a dozen variants of the disc format and continues to garner reviews, mostly positive.Right! this isn't a review on the movie because in my opinion High Noon is without doubt a stone wall masterpiece in the Western genre. This is a review on the DVD. I have to severely shake my head in total bewilderedment in a few of my fellow amazon reviewers opinions when discussing the condition of this print. The print I've got is the 2008 reprint of High Noon - Cinema Universal Classics. And to me the print is perfect, there's NO rips, tears, scratches of any kind when talking about this print. The spectrum of blacks and whites throughout this Black & White movie are very, very good. Secondly, the English Mono Audio track throughout the film is very clear and crisp.This edition of High Noon may not be as exquisitely gorgeous as say the DVD Collectors Edition of Sunset Boulevard which was totally and utterly amazingly good for a film released way back in 1950 film, but for my eyes this particular edition of High Noon (2008 DVD Edition) is very, very good.O' I have got a Bluray player but certain films you just can't get a reasonably priced - English speaking edition which may or may not guarantee you a immaculate picture as well as terrific sound production. So reluctantly I have to hope I get a reasonably happy print of the movie on DVD.For instance my DVD copy of The Big Heat (1953) another Black & White movie is totally terrible with scratches, rips, tears you name it, it is BAD. But because at present you can't get a reasonably priced bluray edition of The Big Heat you just have to put up with a unsatisfactory copy of a movie that you love.Anyway, back to High Noon. In a nutshell my opinion on the 2008 Cinema Universal Classic Edition of High Noon is it's well worth purchasing if a quality print is what you'll after.I hope this review of the DVD has helped.This is a great film. Gary Cooper is magnificent in his role as retiring Marshall Will Kane and dominates the entire film, even including his very beautiful co-star Grace Kelly. It was fortunate that John Wayne for political reasons turned the central role down. Although very good in a certain type of western film 'High Noon' requires a hero full of inner conflict and doubt rather than a macho super cowboy type.There is very little action until the last ten minutes or so. Until then we have Cooper attempting to persuade various townspeople to join him to fight against the newly released Frank Miller and his gang. Various rationalizations follow justifying the inaction of the 'law abiding' citizens. Nevertheless the build up of tension is relentless and in the end Kane's Quaker wife helps him to kill the Miller gang abandoning her own pacifist principles and possibly her religion in the process.Directed by Fred Zimmerman this is an 'existential' western that also has a touch of Greek tragedy despite the ostensibly happy ending. In every way a wonderful film.This 1952 Classic set the bar for what was yet to come -'Marshall Will Kane' (Gary Cooper) had cleaned up 'Hadleyville' (a small town in New Mexico territory) down the years making ita safe place to live, he is now set to retire and start a new life in another town with his new-bride 'Amy' (Grace Kelly) as theceremony and celebration conclude three riders come into town 'Ben Miller' (Sheb Wooley) , 'Jack Colby' (Lee Van Cleef) and'Jim Pierce' (Robert J Wilke) they are there to meet the noon train on which is 'Frank Miller' (Ian MacDonald)'Will' had arrested 'Frank' some five years or so back, the vicious killer had been sentenced for a life-term in jail but had beenreleased early and is returning to 'Hadleyville' with revenge in mind.When this news reaches the wedding party, 'Will' and 'Amy's' friends urge them to leave town immediately to start their new-lifetogether before the train arrives in little over an hours time.The three that wait for 'Frank Miller' are members of his old gang.'Will' and 'Amy' set off, however a short way into the journey 'Will' pulls up the carriage, he just can't leave the town open to thewill of 'Frank Miller' and his side-kicks, the new Marshall doesn't arrive until tomorrow.Back in town 'Will' is confident that he'll be able to raise a posse, he has many friends in town many of whom had stood with himduring troubled times in years gone by.However, even his deputy 'Harvey Pell' (Lloyd Bridges) throws in his badge upset that he'd not been appointed 'Will's' replacement,and his so-called friends refuse to join in the fight.'Will's' new bride not wanting to see her husband killed decides she'll leave town on the noon train 'Frank' is arriving on, the judgethat convicted the killer is also set to leave town.'Will' must question why he has returned, is it to protect those that refuse to help, is it because if the fight isn't finished now, 'Frank'will only hunt him down, or is it pride ?Because the three gunmen are at the station waiting, 'Amy' goes back into town to await the train joining 'Frank's' former lover'Helen Ramirez' ( Katy Jurado) who also intends leaving on the train..'Will' waits alone for the noon train and the inevitable show-down.This a tension-filled affair as the hour leading up to noon ticks slowly byA rousing conclusion to the film as 'Will' faces the four gunmen.Many of the stars included in the film are seen in many of the memorable westerns that follow this classic.Filmed and presented in Black and White with a 4.3 picture ratio.Much imitated but never equalled, this is the classic Western of all time. We all know the story - the Marshall of a small town is alerted that a gang of ruthless killers are out to get him. He could flee but decides to stay and fight it out, relying on the support of the towns folk that he has faithfully and bravely protected for many years. But his faith is misplaced and he has to go into battle alone.This is really a suspense thriller as much as a Western. Filmed almost in real time, we follow events from the moment the Marshall gets the warning through to the final thrilling shootout. Director Zinneman and star Cooper bring the fear and determination of Kane, as he tries to rally support and makes his preparations, to the screen vividly. Also nicely done is the character aspect as one after another the town's folk back away from Kane, with a variety of explanations and sophistries. Stand out is Thomas Mitchell (who won an Oscar for his portrayal of the drunkard Doctor in Stagechoach), Kane's friend who manages to desert him whilst giving the appearance of supporting him. It's masterful. Then there is Kane's wife, who he married only that day, who is a committed pacifist and cannot understand why Kane must stay and fight. The way her character grows as the film progresses is central to the piece, and done superbly.The final show down is simply iconic. The shot of Cooper walking alone through the deserted streets, in his instantly recognisable black waistcoat and tin star, as he walks towards what he knows must be his own death is one of the most powerful scenes in film.The score from Dimitri Tiomkin is especially worthy of praise. There are two main motif's, the song `Don't forsake me', sung by Tex Ritter and which appears throughout the film, and the score emphasising the ticking of the clock as time marches towards Noon and the arrival of the train with the head of the gang aboard. These work well to emphasise the building tension, and the loneliness of a man willing to stand up for right.This DVD release has a nice and clean picture transfer, which looks pretty sharp. It is a 4:3 aspect ratio with a mono sound track. There are no extras. It's a pretty decent release of a classic film, highly recommended.