Has there ever been a film which built up drama and tension as brilliantly as this sequence?

Literally, THE Moment of All-time Western Genre History!

My all time favourite Western, the stunning high contrast cinematography works so well throughout, as does Coop’s superb performance - surely his best!

The empty chair for some bizzare reason sends a chill through me. Movie magic with the simplest of shots.

One beautiful shot after the next. Fabulous movie.

Look at the amazing cut from the shot of the train tracks to the shot of the Church interior. The perspective is exactly the same. The tracks going off into the distance form exactly the same perspective as the church pews leading to the pulpit down the aisle. What a remarkable use of spatial composition! I love movies (good ones, that is).

When I first saw this as a kid when the train whistle blew it scared the hell out if me, all these years later this scene still gives me chills lol

A classic movie in all respects, from the lovely black-and-white cinematography to the perfect scoring. There are no false heroics here, he simply feels an obligation to the town he served as sheriff. The final showdown is realistic in it's gritty uncompromising nature. And who wouldn't do as he did with his badge at the end. Classic in every way.

Absolutely one of my favorite movie moments. The zoom in on the empty chair gets me every time. The entire cast and story up till then is perfectly summed up in the two minutes the clip lasts.

I was all of six years old when I saw this with my parents. I was brought up listening to 'radio' shows and I did,all in the glorious color of my imagination. From the very start of the film my attention my riveted to the screen by the music . I had never heard anything like it or seen cinematography and film editing like this.This was the very first film that I had seen that had me crying at the end because I understood it. Its up there with Citizen Kane and the Seventh Seal along with many other B&W films that show the actors faces in amazing detail.

The greatest western ever !

It's the chair in which the villain Frank Miller sat in when he was sentenced to jail and now he's coming back. It's an excellent and highly suggestive play with imagery.

The direction and cinematography in this movie is incredibly 👏🏾

I remember seeing this for the first time. When I heard the whistle of the train, the little hairs on my arms stood straight up. Great use of setting up tension.

Very mindful movie, really gets under your skin, ie "what would I do if that was me ?"

Artfully quoted by Sergio Leone in the opening to "Once Upon a Time in the West"; he even uses a cameo from Jack Elam (the drunk in Gary Cooper's jail in High Noon) to underline the point.

I think film students will be studying this sequence for many years. x Millennia ahead of it's Time.

The Three baddies waiting at the train station is where the Italian screenwriters got the idea for the opening of Once Upon A Time In The West.

Music’s perfect for anyone who faces the end.

This scene and music gives me chills every time!

Classic Movie and this was the best part of the movie awaiting the classic gunfight.

The story of an hour, that simple and yet one of the best movies ever made...

Best western ever

Bobbnoxious, they don't write music like that anymore, because the composer of this music, Dimitri Tiomkin, died on Nov. 11, 1979. He also did Guns of Navaronne, and other classics.

The world right now.... Jan 2022!

Iconic

A lawman stands ready to sacrifice his life to do that which is right... "How noble and excellent is man if he only attain to that state for which he was designed. And how mean and contemptible if he close his eyes to the public weal and spend his precious capacities on personal and selfish ends." ~ ‘Abdu’l-Baha, Baha'i Faith Writings

just saw this movie today it has definatly been added to my top ten

Es posiblemente el mejor western de todos los tiempos, Y la perfección sublime de credibilidad absoluta del ícono más grande GARY COOPER hacen inrrepetible tanta calidad belleza y honestidad, Honestamente saludos, 🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Someone please upload the entire film...or at least the last battle starting from this scene to the very end. Awesome clip, by the way. I love how tense the music is when the clock approaches noon and we see the empty chair just before the train blows its whistle.

My Favorite Scene

Watched this beginning to end for the first time on TCM. Interesting portrayal of human nature. I understand why the Duke didn't care much for it, as the protagonist looks scared shitless the whole movie. I quite enjoyed it, though, and probably more realistic than a lot of Wayne's films. I'll talk Eastwood's stoicism any day. Never saw him skeered.

I never thought an empty chair could be so terrifying

I Just cut this part of the movie to put on my face book, when I found it here... thanks for the great sequence... I just wish you had included the whole 3 seconds of the silence following the train's whistle... Thanks Fred.

Clock's pendulum at 1:33... magnificent mix of music and movie...

I came to youtube with the purpose of searching for this scene. Fucking Epic.

just stunning

Frank Miller was a bad Mo-Fo. I wouldn't mess with him.

If I remember correctly, it was the chair John Miller had sat in when he threatened the sheriff to come back for him.

perfect

SO POWERFULL!!!

brilliant observation.

That is how it's done.

I’ve seen this movie about three times and I’ve seen the opening credits about 100 times the scene in the church with the towns people. They all look ashamed for themselves and the way the bad guys are dressed at the airport at the train station. I’ve seen these guys in dozens of movies and they usually dress like thisdressing, not like these modern cowboy movies, but everybody is so clean and shaven

Every vignette has a beat of 1234 in the music. Count it.

Last Will and Testament "I bequeath to the townsfolk at large, the roundest part of my ass, which they all can kiss. Seriously, screw you guys." Signed, Marshall Will Cane

This was also a clip on the Cinemania CD-Rom Disc

Lon Chaney!! Played the best old time movie monster, The werewolf. I don't want to hear any Dracula bs so miss me with that. This is a great movie. Lee Van Cleef and ironically starring Gary kickass Cooper. Point? Just because you've got the numbers, it don't make you 'right'.

Load and Lock.

Where are the men of today who has courage and guts?

And you should have read my comment more carefully. I never claimed that there was a "dolly zoom" (with this term i guess you mean the vertigo shot), I said it's a dolly-in, meaning a simple frontal move with the dolly towards the object (in this case combined with a little tilt). Yes, it's possible that zoom lenses were invented earlier (I was too lazy to consult wikipedia on this one), but that's not the point: Zoom lenses came to broad use in Hollywood only as late as in the 60s.

Yes, I assumed "dolly in" and "dolly zoom" were synonymous - seems not - my mistake. I imagine it would have been too hard for early cameramen to zoom in and out during live action without view finders like we have today to aid in such functions, especially as modern cameras are also so much more compact and versatile. Yet, even with the lack of technology, many a classic has superior cinematography to some modern movies - which just goes to show how the industry has changed... for the worse.

My lasst will!

actually, it's not a zoom (zoom lenses weren't invented back then), it's a dolly-in = even more awesome.

They just don't write movie music like this anymore

1:21 Jesus, Larry, what happened to you?

For me, it wasn't really a ""cowboy movie""...It showed a man confronted his fears and mortality,

What I never got was why he didn't just go out there with a rifle and take them out outside of town under cover.

That's not a dolly zoom - if it were the chair would remain constant, while the background "moved" to change the perspective - but the entire shot moves in towards the chair and wall simultaneously. The framing is probably too tight to achieve a dolly zoom, the chair is too close to the wall to create the effect. Also, zoom lenses were invented - the first were used in 1932 - 20 years before High Noon, by Cooke Optics. Sorry to burst your bubble, but you need to check or relearn your facts. :)

please explain!

Best western Ever! Cary Grant greatest Cowboy of All Time!!! What! Better than Billy Connolly? Aye! Why? Cos he fell on his ass in the middle of a Rodeo!🤣😂🤣😂

Red dead redemption 2 looks great

I have a question: What is the thing about the empty chair? I don't get it...

Hey! That is the same tension that we see in Lucky Luke’s Daisy Town anime!

name of the song?

katy jurado,sure is hot........................................................................

the one person plan is for perish-fate condemned person////the two persons plan is for socialized good behavior persons[religious,good citizensetc]///the three persons plan is for the evil-triangle[from geometrical triangle-plans like einsenstein-1928 que viva mexico!]

I know it's just movie -- and by all accounts a great one -- but weren't there blue laws back then in a town that was respectable enough to have a church and a justice of the peace? How can the saloon be open on a Sunday morning in red-state America? Even today, New Mexico prohibits liquor sales before noon on Sunday. Good movie -- just seems a bit incongruous. And nobody gets married on a Sunday.

Right and wrong.simple

i was a little disappointed at miller’s character i can’t lie

Waffle. That is all.

Gary Cooper looks like Grace Kelly's grandfather. Not her husband. He was far too old for the role.

There's several reasons to hate High Noon and not the least of which is Its premise. To think that in the frontier towns of the West the town folk wouldn't defend their community is ridiculous. Ever here of Northfield, Minnesota? How about Coffeeville, Kansas? Both involved the attempted robbery of two banks simultaneously. Both failed miserably. The Northfield raid destroyed the formidable James/Younger gang and the Coffeeville disaster was the slaughter of Daltons all by enraged townsfolk who shot them all to hell as they used to say. Either of these two gangs made the fictional Frank Miller and his brothers look like s Sunday school class. Was it Stanley Cramer that made that asinine film? Well shame on him.