Showdown at High Noon: Witch-Hunts, Critics, and the End of the Western [Paperback]

Argues that High Noon was seminal in anticipating the new, darker Western, and that the film's realist aesthetic was particularly undervalued by auteur critics...fundamentally evaluative...Upon its release, the film High Noon was hailed as a masterpiece. Some film historians and theorists have since reviled it as pretentious social realism inspired by its screenwriter's victimization by the House Un-American Activities Committee. This study explores how and why the film has elicited such disparate reactions, looking at its political, cultural, and thematic implications. B&amp;w film stills are included....Upon its release, the film High Noon was hailed as a masterpiece. Some film historians and theorists have since reviled it as pretentious social realism inspired by its screenwriter's victimization by the House Un-American Activities Committee. This study explores how and why the film has elicited such disparate reactions, looking at its political, cultural, and thematic implications. B&w film stills are included.This is a study of one of the most enduring Westerns, High Noon, a film whose political, cultural, and thematic implications have had a profound influence on not only the genre but on filmmaking itself. Author Jeremy Byman examines the film's origin, its production, and the continuing debate over its significance in American cinema.For more than fifty years, High Noon has been a touchstone in the popular imagination and a source of endless controversy about film art. On its release it was hailed as a masterpiece. But film historians and theorists have also reviled it almost from the beginning as pretentious social realism inspired by its screenwriter's victimization by the red-hunting House Committee on Un-American Activities. Showdown at High Noon is the study of a film caught between popular admiration and critical disdain. In order to understand how and why High Noon has elicited such disparate reactions, author Jeremy Byman explores all l3<