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August 1996, Week 4

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Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
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Wed, 21 Aug 1996 17:25:55 EDT
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On Tue, 20 Aug 1996 12:01:35 -0600 David Desser said:
> in_High Noon_, the device of constantly cutting to shots of a clock
>only indicates how thin the drama and characters are.  There is NOTHING
>inherently more dramatic about telling a story in "real" time; in fact
>usually the opposite.
 
For what it's worth:
 
HIGH NOON was not shot in "real" time.  The first previews were disappointing;
the producers called in Elmo Williams and Harry Gerstad.  It was Williams'
idea to play the story out in ninety minutes.  As retakes he called for shots
of different clocks showing different times over ninety minutes which he
used to frame the story as he re-edited the film for its drama.
 
As a result there are numerous anomalies such as incidental clocks in
scenes showing times other than that indicated in the dramatic structure
(e.g., 4:30 when the "story time" is 11:45).  In another scene children
are seen playing in the street before they are dismissed from church in
a subsequent climactic scene.
 
Out of such things are gained Academy Award nominations for Best Picture,
Screenplay, Best Director, and Academy Awards for Best Actor, and Best
Editing.  And the obscurity reflected by Halliwell's comment "Written by
Carl Foreman, directed by Fred Zinneman, with Gary Cooper and a first
rate cast.  The ballad was writting by Dmitri Tiomkin."
 
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Cal Pryluck, Radio-Television-Film, Temple University, Philadelphia
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