The Series High Noon - Essay Example

The deliberate use of black and white automatically gave the film a sense of realism and drama as contrasted against spectacle and fantasy. The introduction of CinemaScope also introduced the use of framing and camera angle, techniques that were used in High Noon to emphasize the growing nervousness and uncertainty in Marshall Kane as well as the passage of time (a clock is featured in nearly every scene).

This ticking clock plays a central role in the plot as the hands move slowly but inexorably toward the high spot and the gunfight between Kane and Miller. The strong female character is somewhat surprising in this early film. According to Jackie Stacey (1994), women had already become recognized as the consumers of the household by the 1950s, a fact that gave them a new power outside of the home. Women were beginning to redefine their passive role in society and being “addressed as individuals and encouraged to reproduce their ‘individuality’ through the consumption of clothes, make-up and household goods” (Stacey, 1994: 186).

High Noon is exceptional in that it provides women with two opposing yet equally strong female role models, the angel Amy and the vamp Helen. Helen is understood to have had several lovers, including bad guy Frank Miller, good guy Will Kane and ex-deputy Harvey Pell. She owns several businesses – she is seen selling her store (in which she has been a silent partner) and it is her name on the saloon. She is fiercely independent, having no qualms about kicking Harvey out when he displeases her, and wise about the people around her.

Amy is similarly strong although this is not immediately apparent during the wedding ceremony. However, it is because of her religious beliefs that the ceremony takes place at the justice of the peace rather than in the church and she remains strong in her refusal to condone Will Kane’s choice to remain in town to face Frank Miller. When these women meet, they recognize each other as equals and are cordial to one another. The film throws subtle preference to Amy, by allowing her to get off the train at the sound of gunshots and rush to defend her husband while Helen stays on the train out of fear. Amy’s action in shooting one of Miller’s henchmen was particularly hard-hitting because of its unexpectedness.