Scarecrow Press
Pages: 344
Trim: 6¾ x 8½
978-0-8108-4998-3 • Paperback • June 2004 • $88.00 • (£68.00)
Jeremy Byman holds a Ph.D. in political science and M.A. in cinema studies, and has taught political science and film courses at several colleges and universities. He was the film reviewer for an arts and entertainment weekly for 19 years. This is his seventh book.
Part 1 Preface
Part 2 Acknowledgments
Part 3 Part I: The World of High Noon
Chapter 4 1. Showdown
Chapter 5 2. High Noon Enters Popular Legend
Chapter 6 3. Independent Production and the Rise of Stanley Kramer
Chapter 7 4. The Red Scare and the Blacklist
Part 8 Part II: Communism and Conformity
Chapter 9 5. Writing High Noon, Facing the Blacklist
Chapter 10 6. The Failed Community
Part 11 Part III: Westerns and Anti-Westerns
Chapter 12 7. Formula and Subversion
Chapter 13 8. High Noon and the End of the Western
Part 14 Part IV: Auteurs, Critics, and Collaborative Filmmaking
Chapter 15 9. Auteurs and Westerns
Chapter 16 10. The Making of High Noon
Part 17 Part V: The Film As Film
Chapter 18 11. A Citizen Named Kane
Chapter 19 12. Noir at High Noon
Part 20 Bibliography
Part 21 Index
Part 22 About the Author
Argues that High Noon was seminal in anticipating the "new," darker Western, and that the film's realist aesthetic was particularly undervalued by auteur critics...fundamentally evaluative...
— Choice Reviews
Upon its release, the film High Noon was hailed as a masterpiece. Some film historians and theorists have since reviled it as pretentious social realism inspired by its screenwriter's victimization by the House Un-American Activities Committee. This study explores how and why the film has elicited such disparate reactions, looking at its political, cultural, and thematic implications. B&w film stills are included....
— Reference and Research Book News
Upon its release, the film High Noon was hailed as a masterpiece. Some film historians and theorists have since reviled it as pretentious "social realism" inspired by its screenwriter's victimization by the House Un-American Activities Committee. This study explores how and why the film has elicited such disparate reactions, looking at its political, cultural, and thematic implications. B&w film stills are included.
— Reference and Research Book News