High Noon (1952)

Please don't spend money on this.

One of my all time favorites.

Critics,are you kidding us

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

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.

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')

I fail to see how "High Noon" gets such a high rating. It certainly isn't in the same league as such masterpieces such as "Red River", "Shane", or "The Searchers".Part of the problem is that there's no real character development so one doesn't really understand their motives. For that matter, most of the characters, such as the one played by Grace Kelly, are irritating and annoying. By comparison, one can see how, for example, in "Red River", Tom Dunson (played by John Wayne) slowly evolves into a dictatorial cattle baron and Matt Garth (Montgomery Clift) matures when he stand up to him.In addition, the plot of "High Noon" is a thinly-disguised political statement about the anti-communist campaign led by American senator Joseph McCarthy and that diminishes what could have been an excellent story.I didn't like it when I first saw it many years ago. I watched it again earlier this evening and, unfortunately, it didn't improve with age.

Marshal Will Kane (Gary Cooper) has just gotten married and is about to resign from his post. But then he learns that a notorious outlaw he imprisoned many years ago has just been set loose and is heading his way, revenge and the return of his power in mind. And he's only a bit over an hour away.What makes this such an unusual western is the story. Sure, the setting is pure western as is the confrontation at high noon. But the majority of the film is simply Kane going around, trying to gather allies and to rally people to stand up against their one-time tyrant. It's more of a social study then it is a western.And for what it is, it's really good. Events are shown in real time. As minutes pass for the viewer, so does the train approach. All the townsfolk are interesting and each have their own personal reasons to stand with Kane or not. Even the final confrontation, which most closely resembles the supposed genre of the film, has some good twists and things you don't see in these films so often.An easy film to recommend.