High Noon Review
Fred_Zinnemann's High Noon was described by John_Wayne as the most un-American movie he'd ever seen. It offered an in-your-face story about responsibility, private and public, and some truths about the archetypal American community that would have been unpleasant in any era, but were even more so during the Red Scare of the early 1950s: the spectacle of town marshal Wil Kane (played by a too-old Gary_Cooper), abandoned by his friends and neighbors and having to face down outlaws alone, was a pretty raw statement about where some people (including liberal producer Stanley_Kramer) feared we were heading in 1952. It was the soundtrack, completed by Dimitri_Tiomkin and Ned_Washington with a song sung by an off-screen Tex_Ritter, that helped turn the movie into a huge box office hit. This was a double irony, and an indicator of just what a miraculous conjuring trick Kramer and Zinnemann and screenwriter Carl_Foreman had pulled off: Ritter was a reactionary Republican, Cooper an avowed anti-communist, Foreman an avowed Communist sympathizer (who left Hollywood before the movie was released), the movie had two blacklistees in major roles (Lloyd_Bridges and Howland_Chamberlain), and Kramer was Hollywood's one respected liberal voice. They came up with a film that opened the way for a generation of serious westerns, including The_Bravados, The_Big_Country, and The_Searchers. Bruce Eder, Rovi
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