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Andrew decided to put on High Noon, which we’ve both watched before, but never together.
What strikes me this time is that the Thomas Mitchell character’s suggestion — that Kane get out of town, since he’s the one Miller is looking for, and in his absence Miller won’t know what to do and will likely be an easier arrest for the new marshall — is presented as one of the cowardly options; but “confusing the attacker by not following the script he expects” is really a pretty good strategy, even if it requires the hero to swallow his pride. But I guess that wouldn’t have fit with the “most humans are weak and a man’s gotta stand alone” theme.
What strikes me this time is that the Thomas Mitchell character’s suggestion — that Kane get out of town, since he’s the one Miller is looking for, and in his absence Miller won’t know what to do and will likely be an easier arrest for the new marshall — is presented as one of the cowardly options; but “confusing the attacker by not following the script he expects” is really a pretty good strategy, even if it requires the hero to swallow his pride. But I guess that wouldn’t have fit with the “most humans are weak and a man’s gotta stand alone” theme.
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Date: 2018-06-19 12:45 am (UTC)From:I just saw that for the first time last month. I meant to write about it, because I both liked it and found it interesting, but then June happened.
but “confusing the attacker by not following the script he expects” is really a pretty good strategy, even if it requires the hero to swallow his pride. But I guess that wouldn’t have fit with the “most humans are weak and a man’s gotta stand alone” theme.
I'm not actually sure the film believes a man's got to: it seemed very important to me that Will Kane doesn't stand alone against Miller at the climax, because Amy comes back for him, and just that one ally—all he's been asking for—makes the difference between his life and his death. I agree that part of the problem with the mayor's advice is that it's a cheerful encouragement to Will to betray his ideals, right after he's made a clear plea for help upholding them; it's like being told he shouldn't even have asked. But I think the other part is that the mayor may be confident that Frank Miller won't make any trouble if he doesn't find his sworn enemy in town, but Will isn't confident, and he's not willing to risk the town's safety over his ability to persuade himself that the mayor is right, because then the consequences aren't that he gets killed, but that people for whom he still feels responsible get hurt, and that would be worse.
[edit] I have the theme song stuck in my head now; I had never heard it before seeing the movie and it is both catchy and significantly weirder than I had expected from its reputation.
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Date: 2018-06-19 12:58 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2018-06-19 01:01 am (UTC)From:If we're talking Doylistically, I suspect it was important to Fred Zinnemann as well. (I know he made all sorts of movies, but High Noon really played like a mirror-flip of Act of Violence for me: what people will stand up to, what they'll stand up for.) But I do think it works on the Watsonian level, which is probably more important.
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Date: 2018-06-19 01:30 am (UTC)From:Yes, that occurred to me just after I posted my previous comment — Andrew was playing the documentary included on the blu-ray, I heard the director’s accent and the penny dropped.
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Date: 2018-06-19 03:51 am (UTC)From:Most of his films were American, but in Germany he was part of the explosion of talent involved in Menschen am Sonntag (1930). He was Austrian himself. Both of his parents died in the Holocaust. I don't know about the rest of his family.
What was he saying in the documentary? I have never actually heard Zinnemann's voice; just read interviews with him.
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Date: 2018-06-19 10:39 am (UTC)From:He also had an anecdote about himself and the cameraman almost getting run over when they lay down on the tracks to get a shot of the train arriving, and thought the driver’s attempts to signal that the brakes weren’t working was just particularly dramatic and camera-friendly clouds of smoke....
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Date: 2018-06-19 03:55 am (UTC)From: