'High Noon' (1952)

Never really been interested in westerns as a genre but I prefer the European westerns to "American" ones I have seen and tried to figure out why--I think it is because they feel more truthful to behavior. Not that there aren't political messages in the European ones--there often is, but they do not feel so phoney in depictions of character to make a point. In the US ones (or rather Hollywood) the characters are usually guided by a kind of moral theme that requires adjusting behavior to fit the message. It can be very artificial.


IMO a film that presents behavior in a natural way--that corresponds to experience and observation, will stand the test of time more so than one where a specific controlled behavior is engineered precisely to reinforce a theme.

I think the point with Hawks's and Wayne's criticism ---the "left" (that is most of Hollywood then and all of Hollywood today) champions a message where the society is bad and the outsider is good, the "right" champions a message where the society is good and the outsider is bad, or at least not to be trusted unless they show loyalty to the society and know their place, or live separately.

The only Hollywood (ignoring United Artists ) western where I didn't feel hit over the head with the message was Chuka, but maybe that was because the ending is kind of ambiguous.