Knowing that a dangerous criminal is out of prison and seeks revenge, Will Kane, a former marshal. He prepares for leaving the town with his new bride, but he has to confront his enemy alone in the high noon.
Some of the results ring false, but the memorable theme song and some equally memorable character acting (by Thomas Mitchell and Lon Chaney Jr. more than Lloyd Bridges and Katy Jurado) help things along.
High Noon reflected the heightened fear of the Soviets in the '50s, now similar to the xenophobia that has been raised and further inflamed by our political leaders.
High Noon isn't really a masterpiece, and if you're a fan of more honest Westerns, it's hard not to notice Zinnemann's general lack of interest throughout. But it is a tense, effective little film.
High Noon won a fistful of Oscars, but in these days of pasteboard screen machismo, it's worth seeing simply as the anatomy of what it took to make a man before the myth turned sour.
More than a half-century later, Foreman was right after all: High Noon is a scorching and sour portrait of American complacence and capacity for collaborationism.
rec.arts.movies.reviews
January 03, 2016
Deserving of its classic western status... although for a movie predicated on its titular twelve o'clock showdown, the gunfight itself is oddly anticlimactic.
