High Noon Film Analysis Summaries

In chapter two of The Cultures of American Film, the main focus is the establishment of studios. As demand for films rose in the early 1900’s, production companies needed to expand; this lead to the creation of large scale studios.

The most serious Native American stereotypes are clearly visible in films of the early twentieth century in Hollywood westerns. The big screen stories about western cowboys defeating Native tribes proved to be extremely popular and lucrative. Hollywood then started producing western tales in incredible quantities . In most Westerns, white cowboys represent courageous, brave, and quick witted men while the Indians are the dimming past. Cowboys are logical. “Indians” are irrational. Together, cowboys and Indians are the ego and the heart of the Anglo-Saxon identity. Native American characters in twentieth century films have ranged from stereotypes including the bloodthirsty, raging beast to the noble savage. Still other Indian characters, whether they are heroes, bad guys, or neutral, were the characters with little to no character development or range in their personalities. These stereotypes have their origins in popular American literature dating as far back as the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Jacquelyn Kilpatrick, author of Celluloid Indians, notes that popular stories “centered on Native American savagery served as outlets for violence and pent up aggression in an early American society that prided manners and respectability.” (Kilpatrick 2) In these stories, the Native American population was seen as bad, though individual members could be represented as good. These stereotypes continued for years. One author, James Fenimore Cooper, began publishing a series of stories titled The Leatherstocking Tales in 1841. Kilpatrick emphasizes that Cooper

1. Utah is both a product of the times in which it emerged but also a unique entity that worked to shape its own future. Robbins and Malone both describe how the west, and by a large extent Utah is a part of the great narrative of the American West and sometimes differing from it entirely. By exploring the different facets and predominant activities of 1850's and beyond we can find clues as to the origins and ultimate fate of the region . By exploring Western American capitalism, various functions of manifest destiny, and how settlers adhered to the frontier pioneer spirit we can learn the overall narrative in which the region participates.

The structure in the film Citizen Kane is non-linear in that it does not follow any planned order. The story is well formulated and presented using flashbacks that pertain different times in the life of Kane (Welles). These flashbacks are unplanned search that they offer the viewer an incomplete glimpse of Kane’s life and essentially adding more suspense. It takes the form of the memory when a person tries to remember an event that took place a long time ago. The use of the non-linear structure helps to portray how complicated the life of Kane was. It is vital to note the film uses several narrators. The mystery of Kane’s life is also being put together like a puzzle (Welles). The audience is with the journalist in the quench to find what the mystery word meant to Kane. The layout of the story is also planned with

John Ford built a standard that many future directors would follow with his classic 1939 film “Stagecoach”. Although there were a plethora of western films made before 1939, the film “Stagecoach” revolutionized the western genre by elevating the genre from a “B” film into a more serious genre. The film challenged not only western stereotypes but also class divisions in society. Utilizing specific aspects of mise-en-scène and cinematography, John Ford displays his views of society.

The American western frontier, still arguably existent today, has presented a standard of living and characteristics which, for a time, where all its own. Several authors of various works regarding these characteristics and the obvious border set up along the western and eastern sections have discussed their opinions of the west. In addition to these literary works by renowned authors, one rather convenient cinematic reference has also been influenced by these well-known, well-discussed practices of this American frontier. “True Grit”, a film recently remade in 2010 by the Cohen Brothers, crosses the boundaries of the west allowing all movie-goers to capture one idea of the western world. The movie, along with a few scholarly sources

High Noon was the story of a very brave man, Will Kane played by Gary Cooper, which is giving up his Sheriff position to become a homemaker with him wife. Just when they are leaving to start their new life together, there is news that four outlaws are coming back into town to seek revenge on

When you educate a young girl, she has fewer children, she takes better care of her children, she marries at an older age, and she also contributes to her country's economy. Therefore, why is the education of women so greatly underestimated in many parts of the world? This is a question that has caused many individuals to take action against the act of prohibiting a woman the right of receiving an education. To begin with, education enables parents, and the rest of society, to see the value of a girl. As stated in the film Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, "Educate a girl, and she can change the world around her." Education acts as a safe haven for many young women and as an opportunity of having an advancement

Ford’s Stagecoach is an epic and revolutionary approach that displays the desert terrain and western inhabitant’s struggles. Stagecoach follows the lives of seven strangers in their attempt to arrive to Lordsburg, New Mexico. Each of these characters reflects the various types of people found in the western world. The film is laced with many American ideals of the time such as xenophobia, chivalry, the conventional standards of women, and much more. Stagecoach defies the conventional western film because it is no longer just men in a desert terrain with rifles.

“Some of the features that are to become key elements of the genre are to be found in early silent Westerns from the late 1890s and early 1900s” (Westerns). Since this time, many of the famous films have become household names. For some people, the reason they have been introduced to this film genre is because of their grandparents or parents. For others, they may have a genuine interest to understand this culture that has transformed itself to fit with a new era of time. Although these films have been able to generate great amounts of revenue, they are full of underlying elements that show the cultural issues of that time period. Moreover, some of these elements may not be noticeable to everyone at first, but that is where the satire and parody come into play.

At the beginning of January in The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt, Doug Swieteck’s brother posts pictures of Holling playing Ariel the fairy all over the school. Holling is very embarrassed and thinks about changing schools. He tells his parents, “I’ve been thinking of military school,” I said, “In Alabama.” Holling is desperate to get away from the bullying. Similarly, Holling’s sister is angry at him for wearing yellow tights for the role and does not want to be affected by his actions. Soon a picture of Holling in the costume is taped to her locker. She does not want to be seen as the girl with a brother who dresses up in tights. She says, “ I didn’t care as long as it was just you. But it’s not just you now, is it? This was taped to

The southwest is a region of the United States that makes our country unique. Without the southwest, we would undoubtedly lack the spirit, hope, beauty, and truth that this vast region brings to the rest of the United States as a whole. The southwest represents many things, such as journeying, racism, violence, the clashing and cooperation of cultures, and spirituality, as well as primitivism and pastoralism. All of these elements that the Southwest is comprised of is perhaps the reason why the rest of the country feels so captivated by it; why the southwest is considered a place to “find yourself” or to “regenerate”; and why literature and film regarding the Southwest has been and continues to be of the most popular genres. The western film was one of the most popular during the first half of the twentieth century. Audiences far and wide were mesmerized by actors such as John Wayne and Roy Rogers, and their roles as heroes who fought to tame the American frontier. This very concept, ‘taming the frontier’, gives way to a larger theme that was prevalent in many western films and literature of the southwest: ubi sunt, or rather “where are those who came before us?”. Director Sam Peckinpah’s The Ballad of Cable Hogue portrays this idea better than any other western film; the concept of ubi sunt is undeniably the film’s overarching theme, clearly seen through its components.

The “Lost Battalion” film was a great film about World War One. It showed a lot about the horrors of the war. It also brilliantly depicted the reality of the war.

“The Mission” is a film that gives a historically accurate depiction of the events that took place in South America around 1750, displaying the jesuit missions and their attempt at expanding missionary ventures in the area. These missions foresaw the Jesuits going to uncharted areas of the jungle inhabited by the Guarani people, demonstrating the significance assimilating the Guarani people meant to the Jesuits. Additionally, the Guarani people were accurately displayed as a self-sustained society where basic components such as: productivity, protection, justice regulations and a form of a leader was evident in the form of their King. Nonetheless, the Guarani were an isolated group of individuals who were secluded to the outside world; their only contact with outside personnelles were slave traders who would put them into forced slavery for personal benefits. Not to mention the “Treaty of Madrid”, which resulted in the social and political disputes between the, Portuguese, Spanish and Catholic community; manifesting in the form of territorial conflicts and misunderstandings amongst the three vigorous societies, where each have a different purpose for the Guarani people.

Like many other Quentin Tarantino movies, there are seven narrative sequences that exist within the three primary stories. The movie begins with a hold-up that is conducted by a couple in a local diner, then from that point it jumps into the three sub-stories. The first story stars John Travolta as the protagonist, Vincent Vega, a mob contract killer who is oddly instructed by his boss, Marcellus Wallace, to take his wife, Mia, out for entertainment while he is out of town. The scene that I chose to analyze takes place in this story. Butch Coolidge, played by Bruce Willis, is the protagonist of the second story and he is a prizefighter who disobeys orders from Wallace to lose a widely anticipated fight in exchange for a considerable sum of money. The last story centers around Vincent Vega’s partner, Jules, who is played by Samuel L. Jackson. Then the movie ends where it began, the