Real Time with Gary Cooper

When it was originally released, High Noon faced its fair share of controversy.

Hitting theaters during the Red Scare and the Korean War, many conservatives saw the film as condemnation of the blacklisting that was happening in Hollywood at the time.

John Wayne hated it, going on to tell Playboy years later that it was the most un-American thing he’d ever seen.

Bold words from the Duke, especially about something as American as a Western.

The film’s screenwriter, Carl Foreman, was a former communist and a witness for the House Un-American Activities Committee who refused to name names. It’s not too big a leap from there to High Noon being an allegory for blacklisting.

Marshall Will Kane (suspected Communist sympathizer) is left out to dry by his friends and community (Commie-fearing citizens) when Frank Miller and his gang come looking for him (HUAC). Kane could run, and everyone wants him too, but his own safety is trumped by his sense of duty (standing for what he believes in/has nothing to hide).

Comparing the HUAC to a pack of ruthless thugs is certainly provocative, as is having their target be a well-respected man of the law, but that’s all sort of the point. Spinning it from the other side, how much more American can you get than standing up for what you believe in no matter what the odds?

Deleted scenes have them dragging Commies through the streets

There are lots of other forces at work here as well. Beyond his questionable metaphorical patriotism, Kane’s role as a Western hero is something that took a lot of heat. He was called a coward for going door-to-door asking for help and even for leaving in the first place.

As for defeating Miller only after his wife intervenes, he may have been wearing a frilly white bonnet himself. Unlike John Wayne, Gary Cooper doesn’t strut down the dusty streets of High Noon with a sneer and a swagger, six-shooter perpetually cocked and ready to rock.

It takes a different sort of courage to ask for help and a different sort of cowboy to make it work on screen. Had John Wayne played a character like Will Kane, it would probably be unanimously—and rightfully—declared that he was a huge pussy and should never do something like that again.

Also, he should probably stay away from Mongol warlords

Fortunately, history has been kind to High Noon.

Stripping away the context, which is easy to do twenty years after the Cold War officially ended, Kane is just as noble a Western hero as any. Kane stood his ground and single handedly defended a town that had effectively thrown him to the wolves.