high noon or Rio Bravo?

[deleted]

I prefer Rio Bravo to High Noon. I love Howard Hawks and High Noon is one of those films I have never really been able to get into. The constant repetition of the theme gets annoying and I have never really found the movie particularly susepenseful or moving. The idea of the movie, a lawman goes to the townspeople for help and find them fearful and ungrateful is a good one. The execution of it however leaves me cold. High Noon might be an allegory on the evils of McCarthyism but I don't see why this necessarily makes it a great movie.
Actually High Noon strikes me as a film which could also be interpreted in a consevative fashion. A single man fighting against a foregin menace. Indeed at the begining of the film Kane is giving up his badge but reassumes his position to engage in a fight the town does not wish to be part of. Indeed the town does not even want him around. One could easily put a facist interpretaion to this.
Rio Bravo is not as good a movie as Hawks' and Wayne's previous collaboration , Red River. Indeed their a number of different westerns which I like better. To describe Rio Bravo as neo-facist is inaccurate. It is another one of Hawks' essays on professionalism and friendship. Sheriff John Chance is holding a prisoner because it is his job. He does not seek help because he thinks amatuers would not be able to face up against professionals. As such he wishes to avoid pointless slaughter. If High Noon shows how pressure can bring out people's worst Rio Bravo how it can bring out people's best. The best example is Dude gradually shaking off his alcoholism and regaining his skills.
Dean Martin turns in a woderful performance in Rio Bravo. He avoids the comic and the angst giving a portrait of an alcoholic trying to deal with everyday life. The performance gives the movie soul and depth. Angie Dickinson handles the standard Hawksian woman with aplomb, standing up to and ruffling John Wayne. Wayne's standard screen character is ruffuled by others throughout the movie. Be it Dickinson's character making a pass at him, showing Dean Martin the proper way to roll a cigarette, or Walter Brennan yelling at him his majesty does not carry the day. He has to work with others. Wayne is a marvelous straight man and center keeping the film from becoming ponderous or sliding in shtick. As for Ricky Nelson, well he doesn't get in the way too much.
Comparing Rio Bravo to High Noon does not seem to be an apt compairson. Indeed, if Howard Hawks had not made the compairson in the first place I doubt many would have made it. The Gunfighter (1950) vs. High Noon strikes me as more interesting. I could argue that Rio Bravo fufills its aims as portarit of professionalism better than High Noon's allegory of McCarthyism. The films have entirely different tones and structures. High Noon is suspensful and tight while Rio Bravo is comic and ambling. In the end though its just that I'd rather spend time with the characters in Rio Bravo than those in High Noon. Many of you will probably see this as a cowardly option or simply feel otherwise. Reading the various responses towards High Noon have made me want to see it again. I may enjoy it more this time. Anyway, as Alfred Hitchcock once said to Ingrid Bergman "It's only a movie."