Question 1:
In the film, High Noon, The town's Marshal, Will Kane, is handed an unprecedented situation: He is married to a non-violent woman (very newly married), and his old enemy is on the way back to put him in the ground. His enemy, Frank Miller, has already assembled his gang in the town. Merely a gang of 4, Kane believes the townspeople could easily handle this situation and save the town. The townspeople, however, have different plans for Kane.
In the town church, the people first agree to fight with Kane, but promptly change their minds after the towns reputation is in question, along with numerous other reasons. His deputies also desert him for family and also because of jealously (does not make since whatsoever, Harvey is just a cry baby much like Helen describes).
Do these reasons really make since? To me, only one of these excuses logically make since. Sure you won't get factories if northerners hear of gunfights, but will they still send their business to the town if outlaws do whatever they want? It seems to me that the townspeople must defend their own honor in order to get what they want. They have to show that they are resilient and stand up for themselves.
Other excuses like family and not enough volunteers could easily be fixed if the townspeople in the church, who decided not to fight, actually helped Kane. If the people joined in the mob, they could have easily handled four other men.
The only logical point, was made by the man in church. If Frank Miller only wanted to kill Kane, then why get involved? That argument made since, therefore Kane should leave. However, the townspeople did not know whether Miller only wanted to kill Kane, as he had history with other characters such as Helen Ramirez. Moral of the story: THE TOWNSPEOPLE SHOULD HAVE HELP WILL!!
Good deconstruction of the arguments and rebuttals. I especially agree that saving the town's reputation was a poor excuse. If they let Frank Miller walk around, do they really think that he won't pick another fight some other time? He was sent away for murder.
ReplyDeleteThis post does have a few minor errors, the biggest of which is the confusing of "since" (a word indicating the passage of time) and "sense" (reason or judgment).