Among the most notable fans of High Noon, Fred Zinnemann’s unusually circumspect and politically loaded western, are two US presidents: Ronald Reagan, who considered it his favorite film, and Bill Clinton, who reportedly hosted 17 screenings of it at the White House. It is not difficult to see how heads of state might see themselves in Gary Cooper’s Will Kane, a small-town marshal in the New Mexico territory who’s determined to do what’s right, even if it defies popular will. And while it’s funny to imagine either of these men refusing to act out of political expediency, there are certainly times when any leader feels isolated from their constituents or forced into making a hard choice between unappealing options.
But Kane doing the right thing is only half the story, which makes it even more revealing that men like Reagan and Clinton embraced the film so fervently. The other, darker suggestion of High Noon is that the citizens are unworthy of such principled representation. When asked to make sacrifices and take some responsibly in their public lives, ordinary people will often retreat into craven self-interest. It’s like a reversal of another president, John Kennedy’s, famous line: they’ll ask not what they can do for their country, but what their country can do for them. Kane ultimately risks his neck for a town that’s not worth saving.
