High Noon (1952)
Directed by Fred Zinnemann
Will Kane, the sheriff of a small town in New Mexico, learns a notorious outlaw he put in jail has been freed, and will be arriving on the noon train. Knowing the outlaw and his gang are coming to kill him, Kane is determined to stand his ground, so he attempts to gather a posse from among the local townspeople.
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What critics compared High Noon to
It draws on an entire library of westerns, most obviously “High Noon” and the Clint Eastwood-Sergio Leone spaghetti epics, but it also draws on “ Chinatown ” and many other movies featuring reptilian bad guys.
Rango is best enjoyed by those over 10 who have an idea of what "existential" means and can appreciate a surreal mashup of Chinatown, Gladiator, High Noon, and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
The central mystery is a straight-ahead, surprise-free slog (a bit similar to Chinatown, minus the sex and the story twists, though with the murder intact); the characters are familiar tropes, and the tone and imagery come courtesy of countless Westerns, from Sergio Leone to High Noon.
With its fast draws, distinct settings, close-up shots and slower pacing, Verbinski pays perfect tribute to such classics as “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,” “High Noon” and “Once Upon a Time in the West,” and even Hans Zimmer's score should conjure up memories of Ennio Morricone's finest work.
Individual sequences and images scattered throughout are intentionally reminiscent of famous pictures like High Noon and Sergio Leone's spaghetti Westerns.
The smart screenplay by John Logan pays homage to many classic Westerns, such as High Noon, while simultaneously poking fun at the genre.
It's that wit that propels a great deal of the surface pleasure of Cowboy Bebop with the archetype of the gangly American cowboy prophet/warrior, one referenced in a mid-film drive-in movie of High Noon attended by Jet and lent a certain degree of poignancy by the slow understanding that the picture (and the series that spawned it) is in love with nostalgia for a post-war age that, particularly for the Japanese, was fraught with ambiguity, shame, and tragedy.
The plot in this feature-length film (released in Japan in 2001) involves bioterrorism, which conveniently anoints it with an especially up-to-the-minute feel (especially poignant when Jet watches a grainy old print of High Noon and waxes nostalgic about the "days when you faced your enemy").
He's Angel Eyes, played by veteran movie heavy Lee Van Cleef, the same Van Cleef whose credentials as a baddie go all the way back to "High Noon" in 1952.
Estreara-se com o clássico western High Noon , em 1952, num papel secundário, algo que o perseguiu durante mais de 10 anos.
In the opening scene, Leone parodies High Noon, but he also goes beyond parody into myth and imagination.
The point made may be overly obvious to an adult, but Gary Cooper makes an appearance in the western “High Noon,” with the voice of Tex Ritter’s pleading “Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darlin’.”
Hill is unaffected and charming, and while Dornan is rather understated—perhaps too much of the Gary Cooper from “High Noon”—he carries off the final confrontation with Clanton steadfastly, even if the situation seems a bit melodramatic and contrived.
The film is crammed with eccentric neighbors and memories of TV shows: Raquel Welsh in fur bikini in “One Million Years B.C.”, John Wayne’s comforting machismo in “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence,” episodes of “Star Trek,” and especially “High Noon” (Buddy can’ help but see his own father as a Gary Cooper character faced with a deadly choice).
From Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968) to oldies such as High Noon (1952), the boy sat in the cinema wide-eyed with wonder.
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Its themes are courage (where it comes from, how it is used), responsibility, and the necessity to place duty above personal pleasure or contentment – the subjects, in fact, of such enduringly popular movies as Casablanca and High Noon.
Along the way, Eli comes across a little town pretty reminiscent of those old Western towns in movies like "High Noon" or "Unforgiven."
Gleeson is pitch perfect as Father James, as stoic as Gary Cooper in High Noon, so innately upstanding that his attendance on the day is never in doubt.
There are hints of High Noon, the classic Gary Cooper oater, in that dramatic scenario, especially considering the less-than-positive stance both films take on the virtue of small-town people.
At times, Gleeson’s character resembles Gary Cooper in High Noon: a man who refuses to turn his back on his town even though they have abandoned him.
Basically the movie is structured into a series of "High Noon" face-offs featuring MacFarlane trying to talk his way out of them.
Maybe he’s trying to recapture the spirit of Mel Brooks’ “Blazing Saddles,” but that movie was made in 1974, when everyone watching it had grown up with “Shane” and “True Grit” and “High Noon.”
From John Ford's patriotic visions to the allegorical dimensions of the Cold War-era "High Noon" and the Vietnam analogies of Clint Eastwood's best efforts, the Western has always offered meaty fodder for wresting with relevant attitudes.
In fact, his "Million Ways to Die in the West" plot could fuel any number of classic Westerns: A mild-mannered, recently jilted resident of the Western frontier (played by MacFarlane) gets caught up in a moment of poor judgment and commits to a "High Noon"-style showdown with his ex's dandy of a new beau (a mustachioed Neil Patrick Harris , characteristically hilarious).
A Million Ways to Die in the West establishes its classy and sophisticated comic strategy with an opening High Noon face-off between Albert and a disgruntled, trigger-happy cowpoke.
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He had better rip off his badge like Gary Cooper in High Noon and get into that jockstrap —fast.
Some writers have called "Unforgiven" Eastwood's "High Noon," but it's really closer to being his "Billy Jack."
Even Gene Hackman, as the marshall who tries to maintain order in the revenge-mad town, has a sadistic streak that stains his "High Noon" image as a man protecting a community from killers.
"High Noon" it isn't; it's more like the darkest midnight of the American soul.