Three criminals wander into a Western town to wait for the 12:00 noon train to arrive. Their leader, Frank Miller, will arrive on it and together they will get revenge for Miller's jail time (he was supposed to be hanged). The man who put him in jail is Will Kane (Gary Cooper). He has just been married (to Grace Kelly) and is about to leave town, but he figures he can't while those criminals are there to start trouble. He goes back to raise a posse to take the outlaws before they can do anything. No can do, though. Everyone else is out for him/herself, and they all either refuse or ignore Kane when he asks them to be deputees.
High Noon telegraphs its every move ten minutes in advance. There's nothing special about it, and its themes are rather trite. It would be passable if any of the performers were good. It's actually kind of depressing, considering how good some of them are elsewhere. I loved Gary Cooper in Meet John Doe, but he seems really uncomfortable in High Noon. We never really learn anything much about Kane, and Cooper only helps us know less. Grace Kelly is particularly bad. To tell the truth, she was never a great actress. One year later, in John Ford's Mogambo, she gave an equally neurotic and unbelievable performance. Only in Hitchcock's films, in particular Rear Window, did she shed that nervous quality. Lloyd Bridges - well, maybe it's just me, but I can never find him effective in a drama. He was so much better when he got older and started to do comedy like Airplane. Perhaps the only one on par with the rest of his career is Thomas "Doc Washburn" Mitchell.
The villains are particularly pathetic in High Noon. I know, the "real villains" are those who refuse to fight, but the film would have been infinitely stronger if Frank Miller and the other three thugs had some personality. When a movie talks about a villain for 3/4 of its run, and then he appears without any bells or whistles, it's sure to disappoint. When the obligatory gunfight arrives, it's nothing if not boring. I longed for the dramatic effectiveness of the shootout in My Darling Clementine.
High Noon is a film made with some skill. The cinematography is good. For some reason, it always got really good when they would cut over to the three outlaws waiting for Frank Miller. Those three actors always seemed to be standing in some clever composition. The only thing about High Noon that I would rate as exceptional would be the music. It's quite good, if a bit overused (especially during the gunfight sequence; again, I think back to the beautiful and harrowing silence of My Darling Clementine). Overall, I don't hate High Noon, but just feel it is weak and definitely overrated. 6/10.
High Noon telegraphs its every move ten minutes in advance. There's nothing special about it, and its themes are rather trite. It would be passable if any of the performers were good. It's actually kind of depressing, considering how good some of them are elsewhere. I loved Gary Cooper in Meet John Doe, but he seems really uncomfortable in High Noon. We never really learn anything much about Kane, and Cooper only helps us know less. Grace Kelly is particularly bad. To tell the truth, she was never a great actress. One year later, in John Ford's Mogambo, she gave an equally neurotic and unbelievable performance. Only in Hitchcock's films, in particular Rear Window, did she shed that nervous quality. Lloyd Bridges - well, maybe it's just me, but I can never find him effective in a drama. He was so much better when he got older and started to do comedy like Airplane. Perhaps the only one on par with the rest of his career is Thomas "Doc Washburn" Mitchell.
The villains are particularly pathetic in High Noon. I know, the "real villains" are those who refuse to fight, but the film would have been infinitely stronger if Frank Miller and the other three thugs had some personality. When a movie talks about a villain for 3/4 of its run, and then he appears without any bells or whistles, it's sure to disappoint. When the obligatory gunfight arrives, it's nothing if not boring. I longed for the dramatic effectiveness of the shootout in My Darling Clementine.
High Noon is a film made with some skill. The cinematography is good. For some reason, it always got really good when they would cut over to the three outlaws waiting for Frank Miller. Those three actors always seemed to be standing in some clever composition. The only thing about High Noon that I would rate as exceptional would be the music. It's quite good, if a bit overused (especially during the gunfight sequence; again, I think back to the beautiful and harrowing silence of My Darling Clementine). Overall, I don't hate High Noon, but just feel it is weak and definitely overrated. 6/10.