Volume 7 - High Noon and the Man Against The World

Last week we talked about what happens when a man is lonely, this week we're going to look at what happens when a man is alone. They sound like the same thing, but there's a pretty big difference. We all feel alone sometimes. We usually aren't - there's usually someone who would back us up if we asked, sometimes we're just stubborn as hell - but it's alright to feel that way from time to time. And sometimes it's pretty cathartic to watch someone who actually is on their own fighting for what's right.

Those lonely guys we last talked about were concerned with matters of love, but the guys that are alone this week are concerned with honor and justice. I would say that they're two pretty manly guys, especially by Hollywood standards, but as I watched both of these flicks this week I found myself less interested in their toughness or strength than I was in their compassion and integrity. These are my kind of men, and they make for one heck of a double feature.

HOW THIS WORKS
Step 1) I pick a movie.
Step 2) I tell you about the movie.
Step 3) I tell you what we're looking for in a double feature movie.
Step 4) Another movie!
Step 5) Victory!

High Noon

1952, Directed by Fred Zinneman

I get that it's dated, and I get that it's slight, and I know we've all heard that stupid (but kind of true) argument that it's ridiculous that a man would ever walk away from Grace Kelly when he could be with Grace Kelly. But I love those things about High Noon. It's a movie about a simple time in a simple place where things get really complicated. And the man at the center of it, Will Kane, is the walking embodiment of honor and justice.

Quick recap for those unfamiliar with the plot. Gary Cooper stars as U.S. Marshal Will Kane - who has one of the great cinema names, and not just because I can imagine Jim Ross shouting "BY GOD IT'S KANE!" while watching it - who has just quit his job, married Grace Kelly, and is moving on to a new life as a shopkeeper. Except that three goons he has bad blood with are waiting at the nearby train station. Waiting for a fourth goon, Frank Miller, and he's a goon that Kane sent to prison for murder. He's coming in on the noon train, and once the people of the town know this, they're convinced that Kane needs to move on and leave them alone so he doesn't get killed and get them killed with him.

This seems like a good idea to everyone except Will Kane. Kane knows that the town will suffer if Frank Miller and his crew are back, and he knows that most of the people he's leaving behind - including a hotshot deputy (a young Lloyd Bridges) and the retired Marshal that trained him (an old Lon Chaney, Jr.) won't be able to help the town. So Kane decides to stay and fight, because he assumes the town is worth saving and will help him out.

The first assumption might be true, but as we watch the film unfold in real time we quickly realize that the second assumption is false. Kane gets blank stares and even laughs when he asks the men in the town's saloon to stand with him, and his past co-workers are either too scared or too bitter to work with him. The film hits its stride when Kane interrupts a church service to ask for help, and the men and women of the church engage in a heated debate on whether it is right or wrong to stand and fight. Over the years this scene has been slightly tainted by being perfectly spoofed in Mel Brooks' Blazing Saddles, but it really is a perfect portrait of how indecisive people can be when faced with something they fear. All these people see the problem, they just don't know if it's worth risking their safe existence to do something about it. Sounds a lot like some of our modern voters in the United States...but that's a different story for a different day.

As the morning goes on, we realize that people are starting to look at Will Kane like he's the one in the wrong, as if his willingness to stand up for them is an inconvenience. There's a great moment where a child who's playing on the streets runs into Kane while not paying attention, and horror fans will quickly recognize Kane's the child's shock as Kane reaches out to stop him. Noted western fan John Carpenter mimicked this shot perfectly when he had a youngster run into the grasp of Michael Myers while leaving school in Halloween, which makes it that much easier for today's viewer to see just how much the townspeople looked at Kane's actions as the dangerous movements of some kind of boogeyman.

High Noon builds a perfect crescendo as it moves through its 85 minute run time, because the more people turn their back on Kane, the closer we get to the train arriving and a showdown in the dusty streets. Cooper shows more and more determination and just gets the most wonderful angry look on his face as it builds. When the battle starts we all know it can only end one way - this was Hollywood in 1952, come on now - but I'm still on the edge of my seat as we see it play out. It's not fair how cool Will Kane is. Everyone in town doesn't want him to make their lives better, and he does it anyway. For no reward.

Except, of course, Grace Kelly. If she's the only person who will stand with you, you clearly did something right.

It seems a little obvious what we're looking for as a double feature here, but let's take one more look at a few things about High Noon and see how we can build off of them.

• One of my favorite things about Gary Cooper's performance as Will Kane is the way he walks. He's got such poise and he's an imposing figure, but he also walks with this metered cadence that makes him seem larger than life. It felt a little weird comparing him to Michael Myers earlier, but it's the same kind of walk. We need a double feature where our lone warrior has that kind of presence.
• The town Kane is trying to save almost seems to want him to fail, like they have something to lose if their existence is challenged by his actions. There's something about watching a film where we know the hero is in the right and we also know no one in the film seems to care. In the case of the second movie we're going to talk about, we'll see an example of what happens when the town is actively working against the morals of our hero to try and save themselves.
• The western setting of High Noon makes it pretty obvious that Kane and the town are far from anyone else who can help him figure out this situation. I don't think we necessarily need a double feature where the hero is completely secluded from the world, but there's something cool about being a viewer and knowing that help from the outside probably isn't coming. 
• I'm not partial to the police as heroes, and it makes me smile that High Noon makes the clear distinction that Kane is acting as a man, not as an officer of the law, when he decides to stand up and fight. The message this sends is clear - right and wrong are bigger than any badge or any code. 

I had a different plan for this double feature when I started thinking about it, but the more I looked at Cooper's performance the more I thought of another Hollywood heavyweight who has made a career out of being an underdog. His most famous performances could have fit into this double feature with a little work, but it's one of his most atypical leading roles that really meshes perfectly with what the classic western we've been talking about has to offer.

Cop Land

1997, Directed by James Mangold

When we meet Will Kane we can quickly tell he's an honored and respected lawman (until he learns that he isn't). The same can not be said for Freddy Heflin, played by Sylvester Stallone, when we first see him playing pinball in a dirty bar in a New Jersey town. Freddy is the sheriff of Garrison, NJ, a (fictional) small town populated by other police officers who work across the river in New York City. Freddy can't get a job as an NYC cop after losing hearing in one ear while saving a woman from a car accident, so instead he's the guy who deals with speeding tourists and unlawful dumping of garbage while the rest of the town works in the city.

The people in Garrison do seem to respect Freddy, but we can also tell that they do so mostly because they know he's not a threat to them. Stallone, famous for his turns as the all-american boxer and action movie tough guy, portrays Freddy as the kind of simple, sympathetic character he hadn't really played since the first Rocky film. He's a nice guy, everyone likes him, and they're even willing to stand up for him when he crashes his car into a tree while driving home from the bar drunk. But we quickly learn that the reason they leave Freddy in charge is because Freddy's mostly oblivious to everything that's going on in Garrison.

(Random bit of trivia I made up because it's not on IMDB, but is possibly true: Freddy Heflin shares a surname with an actor who starred in several westerns and police dramas, Van Heflin. One of his most respected performances, as a lawman similar to Will Kane and Freddy, was in the 1957 western 3:10 to Yuma. 3:10 to Yuma was remade in 2007 and directed by James Mangold, who directed Cop Land. This makes too much sense to not be intentional. Remind me to tweet Mangold about it later.)

The man who's really in charge of Garrison is Ray Donlan, a well-respected veteran of the force played by Harvey Keitel. He likes Freddy - at one point he even puts in a good word for trying to get Freddy a better job across the river - but he's also involved in a lot of shady business. Most notably, Donlan and some of his police brethren have helped fake the death of his nephew, a young cop who was involved in an unjustified killing during an accident, and now are working to hide their crimes under Freddy's nose. 

Freddy probably wouldn't have noticed anything if he truly was a man against the world, but he knows Gary Figgis. Figgis, played marvelously by Ray Liotta, is a complete mess with a drug habit and a house that gets blown up suspiciously, and as he unravels he becomes the person who motivates Freddy to look more closely at the things around him by shouting wonderful things like "Being right is not a bulletproof vest, Freddy!"  Soon the slouching Sheriff seems to be walking around with his head cocked upward, suspicious of everyone and everything around him. As he learns more about the nefarious actions of the officers that live in Garrison, he starts to realize he has to do something. 

In one of the film's best scenes, Freddy turns to NYC Internal Affairs investigator Moe Tilden (played by Robert De Niro), who had come to him earlier in the film trying to get information, but Tilden refuses to offer any help. This leads to one of my favorite exchanges in the film, as Tilden reminds Freddy that sometimes the help you seek is conditional.

"You came to me, to my town...with all these speeches, talking to me about doing the right thing. I'm doing the right thing. What's goin' on? What are you doing?"

"That was like two weeks ago."

Without the assistance of the NYPD, and with Figgis facing his own problems, Freddy Heflin's battle against the corruption in his town starts to crescendo just like Will Kane's did. The biggest difference here is that the people of Garrison don't really think Freddy is up to it, and thus they don't really try to hurt him physically at first. Donlan and his crew think they can break Freddy's spirit, and even when push comes to shove they attempt to injure and incapacitate Freddy. They think he'll give up and go back to turning his back on their actions. You might be able to guess how this one ends too, because that doesn't sound like something Stallone would do.

Cop Land is a grittier tale of standing up against those that threaten your morals than High Noon was, but boy does it do a great job of it. Stallone might give his best performance outside a Rocky film, and the fact that he gained 40 pounds eating pancakes to become Freddy only makes him that much more lovable to someone like me who loves pancakes and who needed an excuse to mention pancakes in something he wrote two weeks in a row. Liotta might give his best performance too, and that's an achievement considering his wonderful career. They play off each other so well, and everyone else in the film is better because of it.

Watching Cop Land twenty years after its release, it's hard to believe this movie isn't talked about more often. It rushes the finale a little, but the performances are so rich and it's one of the more unique corrupt cop films of its time. Now that Stallone is back to being an Oscar nominee (should have been a winner, but we all know those voters can't get ANYTHING right) maybe it'll find a new audience. It's not as iconic as High Noon, but it definitely gives us one of the more unique heroes of the action movie era.

Will Kane and Freddy Heflin stand tall because they believe in what they're doing and they're not willing to sacrifice their convictions, even when it threatens their lives. We could all learn a lot from these guys. Hopefully we don't need to pick up a gun and take on the people who threaten our existence, but maybe we need to be reminded that standing up for what is right is something you have to do, even if no one else will do it. These guys do that, and that's what makes this a perfect double feature for me. If you feel alone in your personal battle with life, I hope you too can find a hero, or two, who reminds you to keep standing tall.