Our Classic Movie Nights series is headed out West as we present the trailblazing Gary Cooper film High Noon!

Will Kane, the sheriff of a small town in New Mexico, learns a notorious outlaw he put in jail has been freed, and will be arriving on the noon train. Knowing the outlaw and his gang are coming to kill him, Kane is determined to stand his ground, so he attempts to gather a posse from among the local townspeople.

High Noon holds a massive legacy as an Oscar-winning revisionist Western that redefined the genre by emphasizing tension over shoot-em-up tropes. It is famously interpreted as an allegory for McCarthy-era blacklisting, symbolizing moral courage against cowardice. The film also introduced the now-iconic cinematic trope of a real-time, high-noon showdown, which has been oft-imitated but never replicated.