This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.
High Noon
Plot Overview
Louisiana lady Abby Trant
(Tess Harper) tells her girls when confused to talk to the man in
the moon about all their troubles and the solution will present
itself in the morning. Abigail and Matthew (Sam Waterston) and
Marie (Gail Strickland) and Bo (now deceased) were friends growing
up. At a dance they switched partners and ended up (happily)
marrying each other's. They became neighbors upon marrying. The
latter couple moved away but now the widow and her family have
moved back after the husband suffered a fatal industrial accident.
One couple has four girls, the other three boys, of appropriate
ages to marry between families once they've grown up. There would
be one loose end, however.
Abby has the
stress of finishing her pregnancy. Matt has the stress of being
outnumbered by girls, he's hoping this latest will be a
boy—it's not. Mother Marie is stressed from moving and
starting a new job. Tall strapping, 17-year-old Court Foster (Jason
London) has the responsibility of running a neglected farm on
limited capital. Spirited 14-year-old Danielle “Dani”
Trant (Reese Witherspoon) was but two months old when little Court
moved away fourteen years ago. She mostly knew him from when she
was a fetus swimming in amniotic fluid. Now they've become swim
buddies. Her older sister Maureen (Emily Warfield) has a
scholarship to Duke where she plans to go in two weeks. She
was wondering, though, if that were the right move. She could stay
and get a job, or get married like everybody else, but to
whom? She feels there's something coming her way. Then Court
arrives. They were playmates back when, and now they're
playmates again, ooh, la, la.
In competition for Court, Maureen has the advantage
right now, because Dani is too young for him to take seriously. But
that could soon change as Dani is “shooting up like a
weed” and Maureen is about to leave for school. If the
younger Dani blossoms into a beauty, Court is likely to take up
with her. Maureen presses her current advantage with an
unauthorized shortcut. To take it Court hangs his cowboy hat on a
tree limb, which from the side resembles a quarter moon. There Abby
finds a resolution to the girls' conundrum, which puts one in mind
of King Solomon, for what it's worth.
Ideology
TMITM gives a lot
of attention to attire, though in Dani's case it's more a matter of
hygiene & grooming. Women in the Bible Belt are to express
their holiness in the physical sphere: (1Timothy 2:9-10) “that women
adorn themselves in modest apparel, with
shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or
gold, or pearls, or costly array; But (which becometh women
professing godliness) with good works.” NOTE: The 1611 King James
translators used the word
shamefastness, but some later printer
substituted the alternate
shamefacedness of similar meaning, which
latter now dominates the other that's become archaic through
disuse. The original was reinstated in the 1873 Cambridge
Paragraph Bible, and more recently in the 2005, 2011
New Cambridge Paragraph Bible. In our
movie Dani first encounters Court when she's skinny dipping in his
until then deserted pond. She's shamefaced demanding that he
“turn around and don't look” while she beats a hasty
retreat. After that she swims modestly in a single piece suit
customary in the late 1950's when this movie is set. When she
begins to fall for Court, she eliminates her Elvis collection and
starts wearing skirts or dresses when Court comes over. Yet she
lamentedly describes herself as “a lump” for not having
developed curves.
Maureen wears a string of pearls to
church, dance, and funeral. Her mother stops her father from
enforcing an extra wrap to the dance, but he does insist on no
liquor. Her date Billy Sanders (Bentley Mitchum) manhandles
her when he gets her alone, and Billy's father is not above making
passes either. In scenes unusual for the big screen, we see Maureen
getting dressed for bed as the movie begins and for the farm after
she's concluded her romp with Court. It's similar to French writer
Jean Reverzy (translated by Edward Hyams):
when night fell, she walked the street. She took off her clothes: the black, supple underwear flowed from her, and collapsed over the chair where she placed it. Getting out of her slip was accomplished with a movement of an ease and swiftness which recalled the miraculously quick motion of a tennis-player returning the ball. Then she rolled her stockings down to the ankles and lay down on the divan. (14–15)
When Abigail was thirteen and unnoticed by 17-year-old Matt whom she had a crush on, she thought she was “gonna have to get naked, paint myself red, and set off dynamite.” That's just the way women are not supposed to dress to attract men. It obviously worked itself out well for her in the end.
The women of the church performed good
works by bringing over dishes of food when Abby was in the hospital
or recovering from her delivery.
Production Values
“” (1991) was directed by Robert Mulligan. It was written by Jenny Wingfield. It stars Sam Waterston, Tess Harper and Gail Strickland, with a debut role from Reese Witherspoon. The acting was fairly decent.
It's rated PG–13. The birds chirped and the crickets sang. Background music was also a nice touch. The plot was easy to follow though somewhat hard to guess the conclusion of. The moon in the sky was nicely displayed with its lunar terrain. Runtime is 1 hour 39 minutes.
Review Conclusion w/a Christian's Recommendation
Before Abby's father consented to
her marriage to Matt, he made him promise to find God. Matt goes
fishing instead of to church, because it's easier for him to find
God there than in any church he's ever been to. His
conversation with Dani out on a boat in the bayou is wiser,
I'd say, than the chatter outside of the church on Sunday.
This was a great drama moving along at a leisurely pace. It kind of draws one in. I liked it but then I like all kinds of movies. I don't think one would be disappointed no matter what his expectations.
Movie Ratings
Action Factor: Weak action scenes. Suitability for Children: Suitable for children 13+ years with guidance. Special effects: Average special effects. Video Occasion: Good Date Movie. Suspense: A few suspenseful moments. Overall movie rating: Four stars out of five.
Works Cited
Scripture is taken from the King James Version. Pub. 1611, rev. 1769, 2005. Software, Print.
Reverzy, Jean. The Crossing. Copyright © 1956 by Pantheon Books, Inc. New York: Pantheon, 1956. Print.
bibles.n7nz.org