HIGH NOON & STAGECOACH

The shootout endings of both John Ford's (1939) Stagecoach and Fred Zinnemann's (1952) High Noon pit a single man against multiple enemies. In the former, the escaped criminal "The Ringo Kid" faces the three Plummer brothers, while in the latter; Marshal Will Kane faces four tough killers. Despite the differences in how these gunfight finales are played out, there is a commonality to both climactic endings. At the end of both films, the lone funman abandons bivilized society with a woman to escape what each finds hypocritical and unfulfilling.

The climactic ending of Stagecoach pits escaped criminal "The Ringo Kid" against the three Plummer brothers, who have killed his father and brother. The filming of the shootout between Ringo and the brothers helped set the formula for classic Hollywood shootout scenes. Using a long-shot, we see the three Plummer brothers advance menacingly out of the darkness in the middle of the town's main street. The dark silhouette of Ringo moves into the scene in the foreground. We can see from Ringo's vantage point the three Plummer brothers in the dark background at the end of the street. The opposing sides move step-by-step toward each other. After taking five steps toward each other, Ringo throws himself to the ground and fires off the three bullets he has in his gun, killing or mortally wounding all three. Dallas, a prostitute Ringo loves, runs toward the shot yelling "Ringo, Ringo, Ringo!"

Related Essays

Gangster and Western Film .... A film like High Noon derives a lot of strength from its mixture of legend .... Even a classic Western such as Stagecoach (which Warshow sees as fighting against .... (1861 7 )

American Western Movies .... The gunfight in High Noon, however, is announced at the beginning, and everything .... John Ford's Stagecoach (1939) is a good case showing the tensions between the .... (2053 8 )

The Frontier The frontier held an important pla .... Ford, John. Stagecoach. Twentieth-Century Fox, 1939. King, Henry. The Gunfighter. .... United Artists, 1940. Zinnemann, Fred. High Noon. United Artists, 1952. (4382 18 )

John Wayne Cinema .... The rest is history as by 1939 Wayne starred in John Ford's Stagecoach and became a .... When he saw High Noon, Wayne could not believe Americans would write such a .... (1537 6 )

f his tin badge and throws it in the dust. Conclusion When he saw High Noon, John Wayne could not believe an American could write such a screenplay. As he maintained, "Four guys come into town to gun down the sheriff. The sheriff is refused help everywhere so [Gary] Cooper goes out alone. It's the most un-American thing I've ever seen in my whole life! The last thing in the picture is ole Coop putting the U.S. Marshall's badge under his foot and stepping on it!" (Grenier, 1996, 87). Kane does not trample on his badge, however. Both endings of these films show a couple in love, who determine that civilized society is both hypocritical and unfulfilling. Thus, though Ringo and Dallas and Kane and Amy depart their respective towns for different reasons, both couples ride off in search of a better life for themselves alone from others. References Ford, J. (Director). (1939). Stagecoach, (Film). USA: 96 min. Grenier, R. (1996, Fall). The cowboy patriot. National Interest, 45(84), Fall 1996, 84-88. Zinnemann, F. (Director). (1952). High Noon, (Film). USA: 85 min. SHANE & PALE RIDER Introduction George Stevens' (1953) Shane and Clint Eastwood's (1985) Pale Rider basically tell a similar tale. In Shane, an outsider known a

Category: Film - H