Excellent post.
A few years back, I did a short review for a Reformed magazine of High Noon:
A Western classic, High Noon portrays a town sheriff who has to face an unrepentant criminal just released from jail; the sheriff finds himself increasingly isolated, as the townspeople turn away in fear. Not a Christian movie per se, High Noon nevertheless should strike a chord with Reformed viewers, with its portrayal of the universal wickedness of humanity (shown as afflicting even the most upright and decent citizens, in terms of their moral cowardice in the face of evil), but also, in terms of the sheriff’s heroic unwillingness to compromise with evil, standing on principle, regardless of the cost. An entertaining, thought-provoking movie.
But I don’t think I gave much thought to the wife’s character, just seeing it as part and parcel of the general cowardice of the townspeople, though still remembering that ‘a man’s foes shall be they of his own household’, as well. Whereas I think if I saw the movie for the first time now, that might be the first thing I’d notice, the wife’s refusal to stand by her man, to be a proper help-meet.There are indeed many lessons to be learned from ‘High Noon’, as well as it being an entertaining Western.
Another in a series of posts where I attempt to undo the damage of feminism
One of my favorite movies for explaining the differences between men and women is “High Noon” (1952).
Here’s the summary from IMDB:
Former marshal Will Kane (Gary Cooper) is preparing to leave the small town of Hadleyville, New Mexico, with his new bride, Amy (Grace Kelly), when he learns that local criminal Frank Miller has been set free and is coming to seek revenge on the marshal who turned him in. When he starts recruiting deputies to fight Miller, Kane is discouraged to find that the people of Hadleyville turn cowardly when the time comes for a showdown, and he must face Miller and his cronies alone.
The main theme of the film concerns Amy’s decision to break her wedding vows the very day that she makes them. She tells her new husband that…
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Marc Bahn
November 2, 2015 at 12:36 pm
John Wayne on “High Noon”:
Will S.
November 2, 2015 at 12:58 pm
Interesting.
Maybe he had a point, but OTOH, surely there were some folks who, having come through various hardships, finally living the ‘good life’, would prefer to not ‘rock the boat’, as it were.
IOW, I wonder whether his gut feeling was based solely on reason, or more on ideology.
rednig
November 2, 2015 at 8:58 pm
When he died, the Tokyo times did a front page, 4 inches high letters, Mr. America is dead. In the former USSR and Asia, he’s still in the top ten actors. A friend from Azerbaijan told me she would go with her family to an open-air theater to watch him.When he was being played, you had to get there early to get a seat, yet people would stand at the back for two hours to watch and cheer. He, more than any other, led Russia to freedom and he is still fighting for freedom from the mafia and socialists for them.
Will S.
November 3, 2015 at 1:20 am
A larger-than-life symbol, Mr. Wayne certainly was.