Benefit
Bluelighter
Starring Gary Cooper, this seminal 1952 film has to be one of the best Westerns ever made. The climactic showdown between the good and bad guys isn't as overtly dramatic as some other Westerns, but the atmospheric build up throughout the film is a classic example of superb editing and filmic pacing. Unusual for the era, the film plays out in real time; one minute in the film corresponds roughly to one minute in the real world. This is further emphasized by prominently featuring a clock in many scenes so the audience can keep track of the time.
The basic premise is that a small town sherif, Will Kane (played by Gary Cooper), has just married a Quaker and is about to start his honeymoon when he gets word that a criminal who he sent to prison 5 years ago was pardoned by "the North" and will be arriving in town on the 12 o'clock train to settle the score. He has about an hour to round up a posse to face the criminal and his 3 henchman. Not a single person in the town will aid him, and he ultimately has to face the gang by himself.
Apparently the film was intended to be a criticism of the House Committee on Un-American Activities turncoats who had been deserting their friends in Hollywood, and of McCarthyism in general and the failure of the American public to oppose it in any substantial way. You can interpret the film that way if you want, but to me it stands out more as a great example of masterful filmmaking which relies on character, pacing, visual techniques and editing to establish tension as opposed to gimmicks or other special effects.
There is not a lot of action in this movie, until the final showdown. Up until that point, it's basically 1 hour of Gary Cooper walking from place to place and talking to people. Sounds boring right? But it's not. There are numerous shots of a swinging clock pendulum that visually express the time limit Kane is up against, and the clock motif in general is employed very effectively. As it nears 12 o'clock, you feel the pressure mounting, and since it is rendered in real time, the pressure is even more enhanced. There is also a neat crane shot that pulls back on Will Kane to show him standing all by himself in the middle of the street.
I don't like most Westerns because it became such a formulaic Hollywood genre that almost all the films are carbon copies of one another. But I would definitely recommend High Noon, as it is just a superb example of atmospheric craftsmanship within the world of a film, and it makes use of a lot of the most basic filmmaking components to achieve this effect.
The basic premise is that a small town sherif, Will Kane (played by Gary Cooper), has just married a Quaker and is about to start his honeymoon when he gets word that a criminal who he sent to prison 5 years ago was pardoned by "the North" and will be arriving in town on the 12 o'clock train to settle the score. He has about an hour to round up a posse to face the criminal and his 3 henchman. Not a single person in the town will aid him, and he ultimately has to face the gang by himself.
Apparently the film was intended to be a criticism of the House Committee on Un-American Activities turncoats who had been deserting their friends in Hollywood, and of McCarthyism in general and the failure of the American public to oppose it in any substantial way. You can interpret the film that way if you want, but to me it stands out more as a great example of masterful filmmaking which relies on character, pacing, visual techniques and editing to establish tension as opposed to gimmicks or other special effects.
There is not a lot of action in this movie, until the final showdown. Up until that point, it's basically 1 hour of Gary Cooper walking from place to place and talking to people. Sounds boring right? But it's not. There are numerous shots of a swinging clock pendulum that visually express the time limit Kane is up against, and the clock motif in general is employed very effectively. As it nears 12 o'clock, you feel the pressure mounting, and since it is rendered in real time, the pressure is even more enhanced. There is also a neat crane shot that pulls back on Will Kane to show him standing all by himself in the middle of the street.
I don't like most Westerns because it became such a formulaic Hollywood genre that almost all the films are carbon copies of one another. But I would definitely recommend High Noon, as it is just a superb example of atmospheric craftsmanship within the world of a film, and it makes use of a lot of the most basic filmmaking components to achieve this effect.
