Oscar Martin, May 2019
High Noon (Fred Zinnemann, 1952) is a western that also features conventions associated with many other genres. Understandably, some critics at the time did not regard the film as a western. Kane is not the white hat wearing cowboy, loved by all, that characterised westerns in the ‘50s. Despite this, High Noon still has much of the classic imagery of a western: the wide streets of a frontier town, the saloon, the train. The emphasis on the icon of the tin star, seen outlined against Kane’s dark vest, is particularly effective — this is a symbol we understand to have cultural significance beyond the film. Indeed, the film is an adaptation of The Tin Star, a short story by John W. Cunningham.
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