This film was loved by all the American presidents, the American western film has its very unique background and characteristics, this type of film also won the honor for the United States, so that the world began to pay attention to the American film.
The American Western “High Noon”, released in 1952, presents the story of Will Kane (Gary Cooper), a small town judge in the West, on the day he leaves office, with his fiancée Amy (Grace Kelly) held a wedding, the two are ready to start their honeymoon trip, the town ushered in three unexpected guests, they are Pierce, Kirby and Ben, the three in The three are waiting at the train station for Frank Miller, the villain captured by Will five years ago. The town will be involved in a bloody feud people have to hide, some of them urged Will to leave, but the former bailiff insisted on staying, and began to look for help in the town, but unexpectedly not promoted police officer Harvey, the judge who tried Frank and other people are all clear with the matter, his new wife also does not support Will’s perseverance, isolated Will had to pick up his own gun to fight ……
This film was loved by all the American presidents, the American western film has its very unique background and characteristics, this type of film also won the honor for the United States, so that the world began to pay attention to the American film.
The Western is deeply rooted in American national history, and it is a direct or indirect celebration of that history. In American history, there is a background of the myth of western expansion – the American westward movement. With this westward movement, a large number of Indians were massacred and the survivors were forcibly driven to more inhospitable places. Although the massive influx of immigrants drove the rapid development of the west, the west in this period, its law and order had not yet It was a state of anarchy, with all kinds of crimes ensuing, and the crime rate was greatly increased. At this time, the people of the West desperately needed justice, and an image that could guarantee social security came into being. On this level, the films were meant to reflect reality, to satisfy the spiritual needs of the audience in real life, and to temporarily get solace from the fictional reality constructed by the films. In addition to the spiritual achievements of Western films, it also provided many references for later generations in terms of filming techniques and film technology, both the aesthetics of violence and the slow-motion portrayal were products of the Westerns of this era.
The symbol of the birth of American westerns was the “Great Train Robbery” in 1903. After 1910, major American film and television companies began to shoot westerns, and the earliest collaborative stars of westerns appeared in the same period. 1923 and 1924, the emergence of silent period westerns such as the classic “Caravan” and “Iron Rider” meant that the artistic standard of westerns reached a peak, and an indispensable image in film history – the western cowboy – was born. image – the western cowboy was born, his necessary equipment are cowboy hat worn on his head, the square scarf around his neck, in stopping the horse, will be very handsome to pull out their pistols, its main features can be born out of an equation: formulaic plot + stereotypical character illustration type of visual image + classic visual elements.
Formulaic plot
Western film, there must be a criminal gang to loot a small town, threatening the safety of the town residents, and at this time there will be a protagonist, people’s eyes of the hero defiantly, righteous rescue, even at the expense of their own to carry out this struggle between good and evil, the final ending must be the robbers failed to rob, fall into the net of justice, the hero let the town’s life back to peace. People put their aspirations for a better life, fairness and justice into it, turning the West into a beautiful utopian location given to people on film.
Stereotyped characters
The protagonists are cowboys or sheriffs who are heroic and unyielding, and with their own aura of protagonism, they are bound to win. There is no shortage of ignorant public, they are often selfish and cowardly, fear of the powerful, the image of the lone hero and the image of the public formed a strong contrast.
Illustrative visual images
These conceptualized, formulaic images have become recurring symbols in Hollywood genre films, just like the assembly line in a factory, with a unified framework, rather like a universal framework, which to a certain extent can guarantee the quality of the film.
Classic visual elements
(1) The film is filled with a desolate western landscape with continuous peaks and mountains in the wilderness and steep rocks reaching to the sky, which has a double layer of meaning: firstly, it symbolizes the potential of the country and creates an ideal realm with infinite possibilities, further rationalizing the fatalism of western expansion through the film. The second is to give a hint to the nation in front of the screen, establishing a connection between the wilderness and the cowboys, who are skilled, solitary cowboys, who, after being trained by the wilderness, have the above character and maintain a certain degree of commonality with the land.
(2) The beautiful women in the film represent the civilization of the east, the fiancée in “High Noon” is the embodiment of this female image, they do not belong to the western world, in a state of opposition, but because of this contrast and contrast, can deepen the heroic characteristics of the main characters, they can not only conquer the savage foreign invaders, but also attract the hearts of the beautiful women representing the civilization of the east, they are not only iron men, but also have a sense of the heart. They are not only iron men, but also have a touch of tenderness in their bones, which makes the characters more three-dimensional and realistic.
Later, “The Flight of the Mountain” (1939) is a classic, mature and perfect masterpiece. John Ford blended the social environment, historical reenactment, psychological reality and traditional scene dispatching pattern in the western film to achieve perfection and balance. These basic elements are properly arranged without the disadvantage of leaning on the lighter side. But after 1940, the Western film entered its turning point. As the saying goes, “you always have to return the favor”, just as the proliferation of Westerns and the critical acclaim crushed the genre before it, for the same reason, the emergence of war films inevitably pushed Westerns out of the film market, at least temporarily. And as history evolved and the Western world became more prosperous, the demand for Westerns was shrinking.
The 1952 film “High Noon” was born after Westerns had entered a certain creative bottleneck, and it broke through some of the shackles of the genre itself, incorporating the color of suspense and refreshing the audience’s understanding of the inherent style of Westerns. The entire film will be more than an hour of ink in the characters’ actions, mannerisms and language, and the film’s final shootout scene is only ten minutes short, which is the first time to portray the characters as the focus of the Western film.
Behind the prosperity of the Western film is the rapid development of the American reality society, that is a turbulent and unstable but with hope, the old social order disintegration and the rise of a new class of alternate times, the ordinary people’s hearts are full of the desire for freedom and justice, this desire is also recorded on the film forever, the dust of history will eventually dissipate, but not dissipate is the memory of future generations to that period of history and reference, now although the Western film has become a history, but its unique Although the Western film has become a piece of history, but its uniqueness will always shine in the history of film.