High Noon (1952)

"In the end, he must meet his chosen fate all by himself, his town’s doors and windows firmly locked against him. It is a story that still happens everywhere, every day" ~ Fred Zinnemann.

"...The beauty of High Noon is that its themes are universal. On the surface it may be a western, but its themes of conscience, fearlessness and a sense of both what is right and of duty – not just to the law, a cause, or even to others; but to yourself and how you wish to live and be perceived –  transcends the trappings of the genre to connect with audiences who perhaps would never consider themselves as horse opera aficionados. That High Noon has been uprooted from its old west setting time and again to effectively be remade or paid homage to in everything from the 1981 sci-fi actioner Outland to a 2010 episode of the Jimmy McGovern Manchester-set drama The Street starring Bob Hoskins, serves as a testimony to the strength and continuing relevance of the film’s human story of a man who feels compelled to fight rather than flee..."

Read my full review at The Geek Show

High Noon (1952)

The beauty of High Noon is that its themes are universal. On the surface it may be a western, but its themes of conscience, fearlessness and a sense of what is right and of duty, not just to the law, a cause, or even to others, but to yourself and how you wish to live and be perceived, transcends the trappings of the genre to connect with audiences who perhaps would never consider themselves as horse opera aficionados. That High Noon has been uprooted from its old west setting to be effectively been remade or paid homage to time and again in everything from sci-fi actioner Outland (1981) to a 2010 episode of the Jimmy McGovern Manchester-set drama The Street, starring Bob Hoskins, serves as a testimony to the strength and continuing relevance of the film's human story of a man who feels compelled to fight rather than run.

The film's screenwriter Carl Foreman intended High Noon to be an allegory of the McCarthy witch hunts that plagued Hollywood and destroyed the lives and careers of many involved in the business at that time. The House Un-American Activities Committee sought to investigate 'Communist propaganda and influence' in the film industry and declared Foreman, a former Communist Party member who declined to identify any of his colleagues and contemporaries of being fellow members, to be an 'unreliable witness'. He was subsequently blacklisted and moved to the UK. 

However, when you add Fred Zinnemann to the mix as the film director, you get a further resonance to the metaphorical aspect of High Noon and one that supports the theory that the film is a film that just so happens to be set in the west, rather than being a western. As Zinnemann said; "High Noon is not a Western, as far as I'm concerned; it just happens to be set in the Old West". His shooting style certainly supports this too - out goes the traditional landscapes and painterly panoramas of John Ford, in favour of tight close-ups and crisp newsreel style footage in keeping with the social realist approach the director worked in, which reaches its zenith here with the real time setting that makes the tense atmosphere really palpable. 

The critic Stephen Price believes that the Polish-born Zinnemann progressed the anti-McCarthy allegory by allying himself to the core values of Gary Cooper's character, seeing what he represented as being the physical embodiment of his greatest wish for all his films to be about "trying to preserve our civilisation". Price argues that it is easy to see the outlaws arriving to wreak terror and revenge upon the town as a threat to their way of life akin to the fascism of the Nazis who killed Zinnemann's parents in the Holocaust in the previous decade.

Such resonance has run throughout the intervening years and rightly continues to do so to this day, as Zinnemann himself said in his autobiography "In the end, he must meet his chosen fate all by himself, his town's doors and windows firmly locked against him. It is a story that still happens everywhere, every day" This was certainly proved in 1989 when the then 22-year-old Polish graphic designer Tomasz Sarnecki adapted the original Polish language poster for the film by Marian Stachurski as part of the campaign for Solidarity in the first partially free elections in Communist Poland. Referring to his very own High Noon on 4th June, 1989 Solidarity leader Lech Wałęsa discussed the metaphor the film presents and its relevance to his politics; "Cowboys in Western clothes had become a powerful symbol for Poles. Cowboys fight for justice, fight against evil, and fight for freedom, both physical and spiritual" Call me an idealistic Corbynista (which I am) if you will, but Labour wouldn't go far wrong if they adopted it for their campaign now - like Gary Cooper, Corbyn seems to stand alone, shunned by a soft and self serving, blissfully and blithely ignorant society but compelled to do what is right for them nonetheless, as an encroaching dangerously fascistic menace appears over the horizon.

Rightly regarded as a classic film, not just a classic western, HUAC poster boy John Wayne hated it, calling it "the most un-American thing I've ever seen in my whole life" and went off to make Rio Bravo with Howard Hawks (who also detested High Noon, disparagingly believing that no good Marshall should "run around town like a chicken with his head cut off asking everyone to help", only to be saved by his 'Quaker wife' in the final reel) as a direct result. And if the likes of John Wayne hating High Noon and believing it to be unpatriotic doesn't immediately make High Noon a five star film then I don't know what does.

Solidarity in the Labour Party

It was High Noon for Jeremy Corbyn on Saturday, but he needn't have been afraid. Jezza triumphed for the second time in a year, increasing his mandate with a bigger margin than that of 2015 and proving, hopefully once and for all, that he is the right man for the job.

But wait, predictably the likes of Hilary Benn and Angela Eagle were out in force yesterday claiming that they must stand together, and 'stay and fight' for what they believe in in the party, with Eagle announcing that she believed people were trying to force them out.

It's funny isn't it how the Blairites (I'm aware that Labour now view that term as abusive - seriously, I'm not making that up - so let me be clear, I'm using it in its traditional meaning; ie those MP's of the New Labour ideal, but was there ever another meaning? No. So get over yourselves and stop trying to claim you're being bullied when people use a term to sum up your ideals and position - you keep calling us trots, after all) saw nothing wrong with pushing out anyone who believed that socialism wasn't a dirty word back in the mid '90s, yet claim they are being victimised now when finding it is them who are currently out of step.

I don't know about you but I'm getting a little sick and tired of this battle from within for the spirit of Labour. I am sick of seeing Blairites take to social media to claim that anyone pro-Corbyn isn't really Labour at heart, and I am sick of this not just because its the kind of sneering snobbish bullying they claim Momentum and the Corbynistas do, but because it is primarily just a stupid notion. Pardon me, but I actually think any member who wishes to reinstate Clause 4 is a damn sight more Labour than anyone who saw no problem with removing it twenty years ago.

So here's the thing; we're all paid up Labour members. We don't agree on everything, but then do we really expect complete universal agreement? We should unite behind the things we are in complete accord over, which should be to oust the Tories from government and to end the austerity measures that is crippling this country. So it's actually really very simple, if you agree with the Tory austerity policies, and if you voted for them, then you are I am sorry to say not a Labour supporter and there ought to be no place for you in the party. There, I've said it. That's the only true way to measure it. The rest of us should band together and stop this detrimental internal snobbery and bickering. Now.

For Whom The Bell Tolls (1943)

This adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's Spanish Civil War epic novel For Whom The Bell Tolls suffers from being heavily sanitized (removing much of the political message in a manner which I think, if watched now by someone wholly ignorant of 30s Spain, would leave people confused and in the dark) and unnecessarily overlong at 170 minutes (it feels like an eternity when watched on TV complete with ad breaks!) but remains likeable enough. 

Gary Cooper's capable screen persona may mean that Hemingway's hero, US college professor turned International Brigade soldier Robert Jordan, loses some of the intensity (and youth) on display in the book but he remains, as ever, an enjoyable enough lead nonetheless. 

Ingrid Bergman looks stunning with her curly sunkissed locks, her olive tan and wide teary pale blue eyes, but her María seems to happy for the horrors she has endured, which again is the fault of the sanitised Hays Code era the film was made. 

It's a shame that the interesting relationship Hemingway depicted on the page - along with its characters preoccupation with mortality - is all but excised to become a more traditional and therefore jarring boy meets girl tale on the screen, albeit one that occurs whilst hiding out in the guerrilla camps of the Spanish hills, waiting to blow up a bridge.

The Spanish guerrillas are played by the likes of Akim Tamiroff, Mikhail Rasumny, Arturo de Córdova and Katina Paxinou to name but a few, the latter securing an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress - the film's only win despite featuring in all the major categories. The characterisations are drawn well enough, though perhaps suffer from the Hollywoodisation of such amiable peasant roles; all comic relief and strong spirits, but its perhaps in director Sam Wood's assured visual style that they flourish and impress the most, capturing their dark, dirty and rugged features peering out with determination for the cause from the depths of the caves like figures from classic oil paintings.

Ultimately For Whom The Bell Tolls is more indicative of the time the film was made than the novel and its themes itself.

Solidarity

High Noon, June 4th 1989

Utterly iconic poster for Solidarity Citizen's Committee

by Tomasz Sarnecki