'High Noon' works on many levels; the second-to-none screenplay, the subtle direction, the clock, Gary Cooper's Oscar-winning performance... It's about a small town sheriff who must basically stand alone to defend the people from a wild gang of outlaws, who have just been let out of jail and will arrive on the noon train. Although he does not have to, and the town does not deserve saving, Cooper decides that he will do the job that he was hired to do. A classic amongst Westerns, it strips the ge
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SHANE (1953)
CertificationPG Our Rating
An archetypal classic Western, since remade countless times, with Alan Ladd superb as the world-weary gunslinger who rides into town and finds himself as the 'good guy' protecting the innocent from powerful malevolent forces. In this case the innocent are squatters determined to fight for their rights against a rancher and his gunmen; in one way this is the evolution of the west from lawlessness to settlement, in another the battle between big and small business. For Shane the options are clear,
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THE SEARCHERS (1956)
CertificationU Our Rating
Ford turns Monument Valley into an interior landscape as Wayne, and a half breed, pursue his five-year odyssey, a grim quest to kill both the Indian who abducted his niece and the tainted girl herself. Essential viewing and generally hailed as one of the greatest westerns.
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