HIGH NOON
US, 1952, 87 minutes, Black and white.
Gary Cooper, Grace Kelly, Lloyd Bridges, Katy Jurado, Thomas Mitchell, Lee Van Cleef.
Directed by Fred Zinnemann.
High Noon is one of the classic Westerns, considered an intelligent suspense thriller on first release, but later seen as a serious film about justice and the individual in the West and social responsibility, the gunfighter and the pacifist Quaker tradition (also shown in Friendly Persuasion, again with Cooper). Another film of the 50s linked with High Noon Is Delmer Daves' 3:10 to Yuma (1957). Later, in the 60s, there was a move away upon the individual to groups and bunches. But High Noon will always stand as a concise masterpiece of the West.
Gary Cooper won his second Oscar for his performance (his first was for the Quaker in World War II, Sergeant York (1941)). Grace Kelly made one of her earliest appearances. Dmitri Tiomkin's Ballad of High Noon quickly became a well-known hit. Direction is by Fred Zinnemann who directed such fine films as The Men, The Nun's Story; he received Oscars for From Here to Eternity and A Man for All Seasons.
1. This film became a 'classic Western'. Why?
2. What 'typical' Western ingredients did the film have and how did it present them effectively? (Differently?)
3. What Western traditions and beliefs did the film incorporate? Which traditions did it criticise?
4. What did the 'Ballad of High Noon' contribute to the mood of the film. Is it a good song? Why?
5. The film opened with the happy wedding scene contrasting with the threatening words of the ballad and the gunmen waiting at the station. How did this tension increase throughout the film?
6. How heroic was the Marshall? How frightened was he? Did he do the right thing in leaving at first? Did he have any obligation to the town? Wasn't his first responsibility to his wife? Did he have any obligation to face Frank Miller and his men? Why did he go back?
7. Why did his wife refuse to support him? How important were her Quaker non-violent beliefs? How important were her feelings and pride?
8. Did the townspeople have any obligation to stand by the Marshall? Did they live in a "dirty little village in the middle of nowhere"?
9. How well, technically, did the film show the passing of time, the Marshall trying to build up support, his walking from one place to another, the gunmen waiting at the station?
10. Since the Marshall was the central figure in the film, his courage, fear, sense of responsibility and duty being the main theme, the other characters gain their meaning in comparison with him:
Amy - principles, fear, love, pride, her refusal to support him immediately after marrying him, her encounter at the station with the gunmen, with the hotel clerk, with Helen Ramirez and trying to understand her husband. She left the train when she heard the shots. Why?
Helen Ramirez - why had she loved the Marshall, why broken it off, why leave the town, was it the best for her? How much truth did she speak - to the Marshall, to Amy, to Harvey? Harvey - how did he contrast with the Marshall, why Was he so weak, why hadn't he grown -up, why didn't the Marshall trust him, was he jealous of the Marshall?
The old Marshall - law and order. The judge and his lesson in civics. Sam Fuller not at home. Herb volunteering and withdrawing.
The parson and killing,
The Church group, democracy, talk and fear, politics.
The friend of the Marshall and his speech in the Church, The hotel clerk wanting the Marshall hurt,
The men in the hotel and their despising of the Marshall (the only help offered from the old man and the boy),
11. Why did Amy and Helen Ramirez clash? How were they reconciled?
12. How well was the noon situation filmed? Why were the sequences so effective - the clock, people, music, train-whistle?
13. What was the dramatic significance of Amy's shooting one of the killers?
14. What was the tone of the film?
15. How realistic and important an assessment of the west was this film?
