High Noon – 2-Disc Ultimate Collector’s Edition / 2008 Lionsgate / 85 Minutes / http://www.lionsgate.com /
High Noon is a classic film, released in 1952 and directed by Fred Zinnerman (From Here To Eternity, Benjy, Act of Violence). The film, adapted from John W. Cunningham’s short story The Tin Star, focuses on Will Kane’s life. Will Kane has been a marshal of eir city, Hadleyville, for a number of years, and has just married a pacifist in Amy. Since Amy is a pacifist, Will has decided to become a storekeeper far away from Hadleyville. Frank Miller, an individual that Will had previously sentenced, is planning on coming back into Hadleyville for revenge.
This throws a kink into Will’s plans, as during the court proceedings, Frank had vowed to gain revenge on Will. While all of the inhabitants of Hadleyville try to get Will to leave (and briefly succeed in doing just that), Will ultimately decides to go forth and confront Frank. After taking back up eir badge, everyone drops out of supporting eir besides an old flame. Ultimately, Will is able to dispatch two of Frank’s gunmen, is wounded, and it is only Amy’s intervention that saves Will’s life. Since it was Amy, and not the townspeople, that ultimately brought the reign of terror to an end, Will decides to continue forward on with eir life. This black and white film needs nothing in the way of color to tell the story, and the additional features that are present during this 2-Disc Ultimate Collector’s Edition start to provide more in the way of context for a film that was released well over fifty years ago. The audio that had been restored just for this iteration of the film is clear as day, and in some sense, is better than the balls to the wall approach to sound that is present during many current films.
The audio commentary track that is present, featuring Maria Cooper-Janis, Tim Zinnemann, John Ritter, and Jonathan Foreman, gives individuals that may not have been alive during the first theatrical run of the film the proper information with which to properly understand the film. Further, there are a number of featurettes that further contextualize the film for younger viewers. Of particular note during this second CD would have to be â€Inside High Noonâ€, which is nearly an hour about the making of the film. If you like your Westerns dramatic, action-packed, and tense, make sure to pick up High Noon.
Rating: 8.0/10