Not since My Darling Clementine have we seen a more exciting gun battle on the screen than that in High Noon.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Sep 20, 2022

Add a string of plausible characterizations and an excellent performance by Gary Cooper as a former town marshal, and High Noon moves up into the class of absorbing drama.

| Sep 20, 2022

This gives us some time-tested staples: Gary Cooper, a pioneer Western town, lawlessness, gun-shootin' and a haunting theme song you've probably heard already. To these add a movie rarity -- a mature point of view.

| Sep 20, 2022

Its insights are primer sociology, and the demonstration of the town's cowardice is Q.E.D. It's a tight piece of work, though -- well directed by Fred Zinnemann.

| Sep 20, 2022

This is a film of integrity and purpose, a revelation of human character and a masterpiece of the story telling art.

| Sep 20, 2022

It is a skillful, assured, engrossing study in suspense in the rather surprising form of a Western.

| Sep 19, 2022

Its one weakness is that a happy ending to the story is a little too easy to foresee; thus the suspense is weakened. Mr. Zinnemann, however, has been singularly successful with his character-sketches of the townsfolk.

| Sep 19, 2022

The issue is one of principle or expediency, the outcome too inconclusive. Still, the suspense is admirably sustained

| Sep 19, 2022

High Noon is a highly intelligent film, and, while the story it tells is straightforward enough, there are undercurrents running through it and it is always implying more than it states.

| Sep 19, 2022

Few westerns have conveyed fear so potently as Kane tries to persuade the townsfolk to stand against Miller and his gang, while the clock runs down in real time.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Sep 20, 2019

Deserving of its label as a true classic, and essential viewing.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jul 26, 2011

High Noon combines its points about good citizenship with some excellent picturemaking.

| Jul 26, 2011

Tense 1950s Western is still a cinema classic.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Dec 24, 2010

Zinnemann carefully and deliberately makes the most of the mood cast by the threat of impending violence.

| Oct 18, 2008

Some of the results ring false, but the memorable theme song and some equally memorable character acting (by Thomas Mitchell and Lon Chaney Jr. more than Lloyd Bridges and Katy Jurado) help things along.

| Sep 4, 2007

High Noon won a fistful of Oscars, but in these days of pasteboard screen machismo, it's worth seeing simply as the anatomy of what it took to make a man before the myth turned sour.

| Feb 9, 2006

A simple, somewhat creaky tribute to defiant courageousness.

| May 4, 2005

Generates claustrophobic suspense by focusing on three images: Kane's increasingly tense, pained expression; implacably ticking clocks; and the ominous, empty train tracks.

| Original Score: A- | Aug 22, 2004

More than a half-century later, Foreman was right after all: High Noon is a scorching and sour portrait of American complacence and capacity for collaborationism.

| Apr 27, 2004

Regarded as '50s melodrama, it's nearly perfect.

| May 30, 2003