Rating: 
Summary: masterful
Review: it don't get much better than this for classics. great acting, great score, great story, great mood. very moving.
Rating:
Summary: High Drama
Review: Seeing this in the movies as a child I was bored to tears waiting for the action to start. Coming back to it as an adult, my perspective has changed considerably. It now draws me in completely with its relentless tension that builds from the start to the inevitable climax. This film holds up really well after all this time, and is perhaps the finest morality play of the 50's. Gary Cooper is at his best as a man who reluctantly must face his demon alone against the odds. It is impeccibly transferred and a pleasure to watch. Well worth having in any video geeks library.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic Cooper performance (spoiler warning)
Review: Gary Cooper is terrific in this story of a man alone with his courage. Right after his marriage to his new wife, news comes that an old enemy of Will Kane's (Cooper) is coming to town to settle an old score. So, instead of going on his honeymoon, Kane decides to stay in town, intending on getting help to defend against the man and his three goons. But everyone turns him down, and the more people back out, the harder it is to get help. Even a man who had volunteered, upon finding there was no one else to assist, crawls back home to his wife and kids. Kane is left to defend the town alone against four men who mean for him to die. Not that you ever wonder if he'll triumph, but the film is very suspenseful when it comes time for the showdown. This is presented in 'real time' and there are clocks all over town to let you know how long until 'high noon.' The suspense builds as the minutes tick away. Another problem Will has is that his new wife (Grace Kelly) is a converted Quaker, and is therefore against violence in any form; so she does not support his decision to stay and fight, hoping he will at last choose to leave with her. Cooper is wonderful and deserved his Academy Award for this role, as he shows us the myriad emotions that a man deserted by his friends and faced with his imminent death experiences. In a probable first for a western, he even lays his head down and cries at one point in despair. And throughout the film he wears a mixed expression of worry, anger, and defiance. My one beef with this film is the ending. There is all this drawn-out suspense building throughout the film and after the gunfight is over, the film ends too quickly. There is no chance for us to assimilate what has happened or to be relieved at its outcome. I felt jarred and wanted a bit of a tie-up with the events. We should have at least been able to see him ride off in the coach for a while before the 'The End' jumped up at us. So, I remove one star for the ending, but then add it back for Gary Cooper's amazing performance of a real human being, not a caricature of a western hero. A really excellent experience on the whole.
Rating:
Summary: do not forsake me, Mr. Cooper
Review: From it's opening and splendid score right through it's last frame this is Gary Cooper's finest performance! I'm not a fan of Western films but this is so much more than a Western...Along with "The Searchers", "The Unforgiven" and the rousing and rollicking "McClintock" you have, just about the best Westerns ever filmed!
Rating:
Summary: "...one of the most harrowing films of all time."
Review: On his wedding day, Marshal Cooper learns an old foe is coming for revenge. Few films move at such a brisk pace, wtih suspense that never lets up from beginning to end. Excellent direction, performances, and script make it a truly unforgettbale 113 minutes. A legendary western that remians one of the most harrowing films of all time.
Rating:
Summary: Cooper and Glorious Black&White!
Review: Buy this DVD! First of all it is absolutely gorgeous to watch. It is the sharpest, clearest black and white you will see. Superb direction, great story, great score by Dmitri Tiomkin and the cast is to die for, from the staunch Cooper to the virginal Kelly to the exotically beautiful Katy Jurado (has any other actress ever had such a combination of eyes and lips?), to the very recognizable baddies.
And then again, there's Gary Cooper. The man was the real thing! Raised on a ranch in Montana, he was an expert marksman, winning trophies for his prowess with a shotgun (he and his wife bird hunted with "Papa" Hemingway and spouse). Just buy this movie, you won't be sorry. Too bad that they couldn't pair it up with "Sergeant York" my other all time favorite Cooper movie. They should make it available on DVD!!
Rating:
Summary: Best Ever?
Review: There are several movies that might vie for the title of "Best Western Ever Made." This is one that can stake a viable claim on the title. The plot line is simple. The sheriff (Gary Cooper) has just married a Quaker (Grace Kelly), and promised to retire. That same day the "bad guy" gets out of prison and arrives in town. We all know the rest of the story, the sheriff stays, defeats the bad guys, retires, and leaves. If that was all there was, it would be a good western. It's the rest of the story that makes it great, not only as a western, but also as a classic. The story is told in close to 'real time'and yet it covers years of history. The woman who has been associated with three main characters (the bad guy, the sheriff, and the current deputy) and helps us understand all of them. The town fathers who are suddenly unavailable when the sheriff could use help. And through it all, one of the most unforgetable theme songs this side of 'Rawhide'. If you want, there's plenty of room for application to other social issues od the time too (this was the era of the blacklist, and the HUAC afterall). This movie has everything, and yet has nothing that's unnecesary. If you want a well written, well acted, and well filmed movie, this is the one.
Rating:
Summary: On a 'High Noon'
Review: I first saw this film when I was about fifteen, my dad said I'd like it, but as with the attitude of so many 'youngsters' today my view was - " its in black and white and released forty years ago ", to say the least I wasn't interested. Fortunately though, I managed to put aside my reservations and watched what is now one of my all time favourite films. It proves that a good story well acted can capture the imagination probably far better than one todays sci-fi blockbusters. Fantastic conclusion, superb soundtrack, great film.
Rating:
Summary: High Noon Does Not Foresake the Viewer
Review: Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly are spectacular in what is considered one of the best westerns ever made, but should be ranked as one of the greatest films ever produced because it easily transcends its genre. A morality play that was deliberately produced in stark black-and-white to heighten the mood, the story revolves around Cooper's character, the aging Marshal of Hadleyville who, when the film begins, weds Kelly's character. Cooper has retired and plans to return after his honeymoon as a store keeper because his wife is a Quaker and a pacifist. Plans immediately go awry, however, when it is discovered that a notorious killer whom Cooper had arrested and was expected to have been executed, was instead pardoned. The killer is expected to arrive back in town on the noon train to take revenge on Cooper. Three of his equally savage gang have already arrived and are waiting for him at the train station. The townspeople urge Cooper to flee with his new wife, but as he starts out of town, he stops, then returns, convinced that he has a responsibility to protect the town and bring the outlaws to justice. Pinning the marshal's badge back on, Cooper tries to deputize residents, but no one will help him and he is forced to stand alone. In powerful scenes, Cooper is forced to ask for help time-after-time but is turned down by residents who refuse to accept civic responsibility or acknowledge the debt they owe Cooper, rationalizing their decision not to act. Kelly doesn't understand her new husband and threatens to leave on the same noon train if he persists in remaining as the marshall this one last time. Kelly eventually begins to understand what drives Cooper but only after forming an unlikely friendship with his former girlfriend, who teaches Kelly about loyalty and character. Ironically, it is Kelly the pacifist who saves Cooper's life by picking up a .45 and killing one of the gunmen. In the last scene, the steets are utterly deserted until the gunmen are killed, then the townspeople, who had been hiding, flock around Cooper and Kelly. Without a word, Cooper removes his badge and drops it in the dirt. He and Kelly leave together. Throughout the movie, the stirring music and the real-time focus of the minutes ticking by until High Noon, serve to increase the movie's tension. The film combines elements of love, trust, duty, honor and courage in unexpected ways that are both thought-provoking and entertaining. The DVD version is crisp and clean, the story as powerful today as when it was filmed. If you have never seen this movie, you owe it to yourself to pick up this DVD.
Rating:
Summary: Possibly the Greatest Western, Along With "The Shootist"
Review: Gary Cooper, in a performance that deservedly won him an Oscar, plays Will Kane, a sheriff who just got married and retired from being the sheriff, only to find out that a gunslinger he put in jail is on his way to get his revenge. Does he try to leave with his new bride, Grace Kelly, and seek peaceful anonymity elsewhere? Does he make a stand against a ruthless killer who belongs back behind bars? The town believes in Kane and wants him to stay and face the gunslinger, but they will do nothing to help. They want to look away and pretend this unpleasantness doesn't exist, while Kane stands alone to eradicate the problem or die. In a tough-decision situation if there ever was one, Kane decides to stay and fight alone. The movie moves in real time (an 84-minute movie covers 80 minutes of Kane's life), which was innovative and avant-garde then, and is still uncommon. Cooper plays the sheriff as only he could: stoic, moral, stubborn, righteous, stalwart. Watching this move is like reading "Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck: absolutely nothing is wasted, everything is loaded with meaning, and you'd better not blink. This is the quintessential classic Western, with "The Shootist" being the perfect end-of-the-Old-West movie, and "Quigley Down Under" being a prime non-Western Western. Film-making craftmanship at its finest!
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