HIGH NOON on 6/10 from LionsGate? (1 Viewer)

[Robert Crawford]

Why take my quote out of context? The government destroyed those careers by placing pressure on the studios to not employ those writers, actors and directors. An actor like John Wayne or director like Howard Hawks did not have that power to do the same. Name me one actor that was consider a film star of Gary Cooper's magnitude that was blacklisted? Sure, they got a star like John Garfield and a few secondary stars as well as some behind the camera faces like writers and directors, but the studios basically kept the damage to their major stars to the minimum.




Crawdaddy

 

[John Hodson]

Wayne and Hawks were among the many supporters of the Motion Picture Alliance For The Preservation of American Ideals, which backed the HUAC investigations - Wayne served as it's President for four years. It's debatable whether the MPA alone 'destroyed careers', but it was undeniably influential as well as divisive.

Cooper was also a member of the MPA, one of the first. Cooper wasn't blacklisted and that isn't the issue in the documentary. It's whether he was threatened. Many were threatened, many testified and named names. Personally, I don't find it beyond belief that Cooper was threatened - why would Tim Zinnemann and Maria Cooper lie about such a thing?

If Wayne (and therfore the MPA) threatened Cooper - directly or by implication - for his support of a film he publicly declared 'un-American', I doubt whether, if he were alive today, he'd feel the need to defend his actions. Doubtless he'd stick out his chin, look you straight in the eye, and tell you he'd damn well do it all again. Never apologise mister, it's a sign of weakness.

 

[Robert Crawford]

It isn't a matter of lieing from the two children, but what was actually said between Wayne and Cooper that matter most. Things have a tendency to get lost in translation when events are told from a second party point of view. I'm not going to get political here because it's against our forum policy, but this whole "Red Scare" thing and the ramifications of it wasn't seeded in Hollywood if you get my meaning.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I watched this latest release of "High Noon" today and it looks spectacular. I haven't done an "A" versus "B" test between this release and the 2002 release, but I really don't have to in order to see a difference between the two presentations. Anyhow, I'll do that sometime this week, but I have the BRD release of "The Professionals" to watch tomorrow and a couple of other releases that might force me into doing such a test this weekend.

I've must have seen this film at least 50 times in my lifetime, but I can't get over Cooper's acting performance nor the excellent writing and directing of this great film. This western is clearly among the top 5-10 westerns ever made and without a doubt one of the greatest films ever made. Just think about this movie being made for $750,000 and being filmed in just four weeks. By the way, I think Will Kane is one of the greatest western hero roles that ranks right up there with John T. Chance, The Ringo Kid or Rooster Cogburn.

Also, I was able to watch the "Inside High Noon" documentary and thought it was excellent too and as it reflects the same image of Will Kane, the hero that I have of him.





Crawdaddy

 

[MarcoBiscotti]

DVDBeaver has already done it for you Robert, this is the definitive version to own right now!

 

[Robert Crawford]

That's DVDBeaver, I prefer my own testing on my equipment and with my eyes. Over the years, I've disagreed with too many sites and reviewers about various releases.

 

[John Hodson]

Hear, hear...

 

[Robert Crawford]

Here is a little article about the latest High Noon release.

The Marquee Blog: Watch Showbiz Tonight on Headline News Blog Archive - ‘High Noon,’ forevermore « - Blogs from CNN.com

 

[Cees Alons]

That's a very good review.

When High Noon came to the theater, I was just still too young to being taken to it, but I grew up with the title song. It was the period when I started reading Western novels: lots of 'em (not all top-quality, but all decent and grim. ).

High Noon is one of those movies that proves how all-encompassing the genre once was: almost any other film genre could be in a Western movie.

Some were "formula", some even rather simple (I want to avoid the word "flat", though): simple but clear "rules", simple but clear dangers. Almost always entertaining.

High Noon and certain others certainly weren't that simple. As one of the posters on that CNN blog site says: these characters aren't the usual cardboard cutouts. Exactly.

Mine is getting nearer, but still in the mail. Thanks to those of you who are kindly raising my expectations!


Cees

 

[John Hodson]

The only problem with the review is that he doesn't sing the praises of the transfer loud enough (well, at all...). If it replicates the Dutch R2 (and I can't imagine that it does not) it really is jaw dropping - you didn't get the R2 Cees?

 

[Deepak Shenoy]

This has indeed been a very good year for Western fans with some of the essential titles finally coming out on DVD like The Gunfighter, Man of the West, The Westerner (not counting the crappy HBO release), Garden of Evil, Day of the Outlaw, etc. That is topped off by the High Noon re-release. Back when Artisan released it I read a lot of reviews praising the transfer and I just couldn't see what they were talking about (of course RAH did point out how bad it was). I am glad that Lionsgate has finally addressed the image quality issues on that release with their stunning new transfer.

-D

 

[DanMel]

Paramount did the restoration for High Noon and is allowing Lions Gate to use it with the new release.

So far everyting from this July 21st 2007 email to me has come true except for the Universial Gary Cooper box set with two big westerns in it The Virginian and The Spoilers 1930:

Hi, Daniel:

Universal owns all of Paramount pre-1950. There are rumblings that Universal
will be releasing a second GC collection, sometime next year. Would include
Bluebeard's Eighth Wife, Desire, One Sunday Afternoon, and The Virginian
(which was restored by UCLA several years ago, saw it at the Museum of the
Moving Image here in NYC in 2001, looked terrific), and one other (perhaps
The Spoilers?).

Garden Of Evil is coming out from Fox later this year or early next, with a
making of extra. We were contacted by Fox this past April about some info on their Making Of doc, and they mentioned that they were in a rush.


Man Of The West is a mystery. One of the greatest westerns ever made,
Anthony Mann's masterpiece -- hell, one of the finest films ever made
(in my humble opinion) -- so much richer and deeper and more complex
than his Stewart westerns -- and it's available only
in other regions?!? In late 2005, MGM announced it would be releasing it
here in 2008. Not sure if that's still so. At one time, MODA was to do the
dvd extra for it. Again, not sure where that stands.

We did a behind the scenes doc on High Noon for Paramount last year --
interviewed Clinton, even; man was he articulate on High Noon, so bright
and full of boundless curiosity, and when I think of what we have now--,
oops, my politics were about to intrude -- Paramount was going to release
a double disc dvd on Noon. But they lost the US rights, somehow, and
will not have them back, at the earliest, until next year, maybe not even
then. So here we sit with this one hour Noon doc, covering everything,
especially the blacklist controversy, Cooper's extraordinary courage in
putting his career on the line for Carl Foreman both during and after
the film was finished, etc.

Frustrating, indeed!

Again, thanks for the links. Nice stuff, Daniel.

I, too, really like Jim Reeves. What a loss when he went down.

Thanks and best,

John

 

[Cees Alons]

No. But I'm getting the R1 version.
It's always a balancing decision: the higher resolution of the PAL version against the knowledge (not really audible) that it runs slightly faster.


Cees

 

[John Hodson]

I'll probably get the R1 too, somewhere down the line, simply for the documentary.

 

[Opi]

mine was shipped today, I could'nt resist the voices in my head any longer ....

 

[Cees Alons]

It's that ticking clock...


Cees

 

[Harry-N]

I double dipped on this title. It's just too good of a movie not to own the best possible version - and this new release is maginificent.

I'm not even a western fan - I watched very few of them growing up - but HIGH NOON is more than a western. It's a great character study that happens to be set in the west.

In my DVD collection I have only two movies that I'd consider westerns, HIGH NOON and MY DARLING CLEMENTINE.

Harry