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High Noon (Collector's Edition) Customer Reviews (16 - 18 of 21 Reviews)

Special Features - The Making of High Noon by Leonard Matlin
One of the best westerns ever made.
Dvd extras were average to sufficient but for Mr Matlin's final summation about the Academy Awards won by the film.
He makes a factual error that Gary Cooper won his only Best Actor Oscar for this. Actually, Gary Cooper is of one of 30 Actors/Actresses to win two Academy awards for acting - his first being for the title role in Sergeant York(1941)

multi-layered adult film
High Noon is a magnificent film. It is textually rich, multi-layered, incredibly well-acted (particularly Gary Cooper,) well-directed/edited, and portrays adults rather than adolescents-with-attitude, which seems to be the hallmark of so many modern American movies. The film was written by Carl Foreman and directed by Fred Zinneman, both highly intelligent and mature individuals with something quite important to say. That gets us to the multi-layered aspect of the film. Yes, it is a morality play about responsibility, fear, the vagaries of duty, and society's hypocrisy/cowardice. However, it is a great movie because when you get right down to the basics, it is a compelling, character-driven drama about a man making very difficult choices under very difficult conditions. It is particularly poignant when Marshall Will Kane (Cooper) is trying--and failing--to enlist the townspeople's help for the showdown that will occur at high noon when the train arrives carrying his mortal enemy. Kane's feelings are complex: scared, hurt, angry, vacillating, defiant and fatalistic. As he walks back to his office, a group of children are playing and one boy falls against him as another boy points a wooden stick and shouts, "Bang, bang, you're dead Will Kane." These children are his neighbors. He has known, and served, their parents for years. How would you feel? Well, unlike most movies that shy away from complex human emotions, Kane feels like most of us would feel--he feels those same complex emotions I mentioned above--and so does the viewer. A rare experience in film.

The Ultimate Showdown Western and one of The Best Ever!
No other western reaches this level of suspense in such little time. Gary Cooper is perfect as Marshall Kane who stands tall and alone against a bunch of outlaws. Grace Kelly, Thomas Mitchell, Lloyd Bridges, Katy Jurado and Lon Chaney Jr. are all excellent in support. Fred Zinneman directs this one in 'real time', repeatedly showing us faces of clocks to remind us that the showdown will begin at noon, this elevates the tension and suspense. The last shootout is also memorable. Dimitri Tiomkin's score is one of the greats and his song; 'Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darling' is the best theme song of any western. One of the all time greats. From a scale of 1-10 I give this film a 10!

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