High Noon (1952)
Review by HTQ4
Film:
DVD:

Directed by Fred Zinnemann
Written by Carl Foreman
Starring Gary Cooper, Grace Kelly, Lloyd Bridges, Katy Jurado, Lon Chaney

Features:

• “The Making of High Noon” documentary, hosted by Leonard Maltin including on-camera interviews
  
• Original Theatrical Trailer
  
• Production Stills
  

Anamorphic: N/A, appears in its original 1.33:1 format.

My Advice: Own It.

Marshal Will Kane (Cooper) has just gotten married to the love of his life, the former Amy Fowler (Kelly). He is about to retire and begin his new life, when he finds out that Frank Miller (MacDonald), a man that he sent away, has been pardoned and is returning to claim his revenge. He is going to be on the train arriving at, you guessed it, High Noon. He begins to scour the town looking for someone to help him with Miller’s posse, but the rest of the town doesn’t want to risk their own lives to help him. Kane is faced with the dilemma of whether to stand up to Miller, or possibly widow his new bride before their wedding night.

High Noon is a classic of the American cinema. It was one of the first films to break the mold of what the American Western Film ^TM was supposed to be: a story with a clear cut hero, a clear-cut villain, and the hero wins and gets the girl. In this flick, the hero starts out with the girl, but almost loses her, admits that he is afraid of what may happen, and proceeds to ask everyone in town for assistance--in essence, admitting that he is not up to this challenge. It is also told in nearly real time, with emphasis placed heavily on the passage of time. Zinnemann uses this beautifully, really taking advantage of temporal perception and the speed at which most events in our lives take place. Attempting to count the number of clocks in this film would be almost as impossible as attempting to count the number of pimples you’ve had since puberty.

Unfortunately, the DVD is not really a fair representation of how incredibly important this film is. The meat of it resides in the mini-documentary hosted by Leonard Maltin. Watching this, I got the impression that they were only showing the tip of a much larger iceberg beneath the surface. This film was made around the time of the McCarthy hearings and most of the artists involved with this film were blacklisted after it was made. However, the documentary only touches on this as one of the many interesting tidbits behind the making of this film. Keep in mind that I’m a history buff, and this felt more like trivia being rationed out in sips rather than gulps. And me, I wanted to drink deep. On the positive side, I always love looking at old theatrical trailers, if for no other reason than to see how much they have changed over the years.

Whether you are fan of Westerns or simply a fan of American cinema, despite its shortcomings, this DVD should be on your shelf.