High Noon could have been one of the greatest films of our time. It could have reached out from its niche as a Western Classic, and anchored a spot in the minds of movie fans everywhere. Instead, this movie is relegated as something of a critical favorite, but in my humble opinion, not as a classic film. To be sure, there are some highlights to this film, and I will get to those, but I must say that with everything great I had heard about High Noon, this film just did not live up to those expectations. Being a black and white film, and having come out in 1952, I guess a lot of time has passed since this film came out, and I will also admit that many of its themes have been done again, but I must say it was missing something.

High Noon, opens in a fashion by which I thought the film chose well, with a lone rider out in a prairie. With a melody playing in the background, he is joined by another man, and later they are joined by a third. They exchange words, but the music is all we hear, as they ride off towards a town in the distance. I love when films start off by not laying down what is happening. Instead, we are given the chance to get into the story, and decide for ourselves just what is up with these characters. Are they good? Are they bad? Are they just part of the scenery? All of these thoughts go through your mind, and you try to come up with your own conclusions. Such is the format that I like best with films, and especially ones where you aren't that familiar with the actors. Gary Cooper is the star of this film, and I haven't seen an abundance of his films. So, seeing him act in this one was a treat for me.

As much as my delight was for the opening scenes, it was soon hit with a water balloon as the story started to unfold. The story started to falter when it tried to get me interested in the main characters and what their plights were. I understand what the Director intended, with the twists and turns of allegiance in the film, but it was far too rushed, and due consideration wasn't given to whether the audience would find it believable. With a wedding taking place, and many people overjoyed that the town Marshall (Cooper) is finally finding happiness, you would think that he would have friends to stand behind him later on in the film. We are also introduced to Kane's (Cooper) new wife, played by Grace Kelly. We are shown how much they love each other in less than a minute, and they soon are no longer in best of terms with each other. Maybe it was simply my disdain for this turn of events, or maybe I thought the character would have done something different, but in any event I immediately stopped like Kelly's character.

Having put in the film at shortly after 10:30, I was surprised by something about the film I had not learned. This one was going to play out almost in real time. As the clocks dwindled in the film, so did they in my own living room. If they had kept this format, I think the ending would have been more dramatic to me, but it strayed away from real time after a while. The title High Noon comes from the plot at the heart of the story. A man who Kane has sent away for murder is going to be coming back to town on the Noon train. He has vengeance in his heart, and Kane knows that something is going to happen in the town. Having already stepped down as Marshall earlier that day, Kane is faced with the decision of staying to fight, or heading off to a different, possibly better, life. But, if he leaves, who will defend the town against this man they call Miller and his three mysterious riders.

The town is not supportive of having an altercation within the city limits, and it seems as if nobody is going to support Kane if he decides to face Miller. The new Marshall isn't due in town for another day, and that will cause more problems if Miller decides he is going to break the law. Kane would have little time to put together a posse' that will stand up to this gunman, and he is faced with the life-altering choice of whether to stay or go. During his decision making process, we are introduced to many other characters that Kane has come to know in the town. Many resent the fact that Kane has cleaned up the town, simply because there is less business now that the rough crowds don't come around anymore. Even his friends are hesitant to put their own necks on the line for something they think is not their problem to deal with.

One of the problems I have with the film, is the way that the supporting characters are introduced, and how they interact with Gary Cooper. He was a great actor, and that goes without saying. But, he wasn't surrounded by anything great in this film. Grace Kelly was wasted as an unapproving wife who could have instead been used for more dramatic moments. Katy Jurado plays the other female lead as someone from Kane's past, and ends up with as nearly as many lines as the main character. Unfortunately, this was not a good film for her, as she never convinced me of her dramatic dialogue. With the other supporting roles, there are a bunch of famous people that make appearances; Lloyd Bridges, Otto Kruger, and Thomas Mitchell, but they too aren't given anything to work with.

With a story that was built to depend on the drama of the situation, this film didn't have anything to fall back on. If you didn't like the main characters, then you were already lost for the duration of the film, and caring about the outcome becomes second string to just getting the film over with. For me, I was waiting for something big to happen that would save the film for me. That one thing that would tie everything else together, and make the entire running time of the film worth sitting through. If the Director had just thought more about giving the supporting characters important dialogue, or if there had been more time spent developing the relationship between Cooper's and Kelly's characters, I think this film could have gone up a notch in my book.

High Noon is always going to be one of those films that will hang around as a classic, simply because of the simple nature of the story, and the aspect of good standing up against evil. The mystery surrounding the "bad-guys" in the film was an interesting one to me, and actually did add drama, but I think that it became anti-climactic as the story came to an end. The film just didn't do it for me, because in the end it was just too simple for me. All of the build up for something great made me just want more, and I think that many Directors learned things from this film which made a few later Westerns so great. When it comes down to a recommendation, I cannot say that this was a terrible film, because it did keep my attention. Cooper earned his academy award for best actor, but the film needed a supporting character to keep up with him. In addition, because of what this film leant to many after it, I give it a few extra points for simply doing that. On the whole though, I find this film to be average at best, and I do recommend seeing it, because it isn't boring. But its place in greatness isn't deserved, and should be reserved for other films.






Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD