This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.
Wedding Surprise
Plot Overview
The gunfighter syndrome is when an
oppressed town has hired trained fighters to clean it up, and when
they do, the only source of danger is they. Will Kane (Gary
Cooper,) recently retired marshal of Hadleyville, New Mexico
Territory, gets a wire that “crazy” Frank Miller (Ian
MacDonald) whom he'd sent up for murder has been pardoned and is on
his way to even the score. He's due to arrive on the 12:00 noon
train in less than 1½ hours. His brother Ben (Sheb Wooley) and
gang members Jack Colby (Lee Van Cleef) & Jim Pierce (Robert J.
Wilke) are waiting for him at the station.
Will goes to
the Ramirez Saloon to recruit special deputies from the men who'd
earlier helped in the bust, but he encounters friends of Frank and
their peer pressure, so no luck. Next he tries the local church in
Sunday session where he provokes a lively debate. It's not that the
townsfolk don't appreciate him—they do—but they're
looking forward to growth, and their investors up north will take
their money elsewhere if they get wind the town is prone to
shootouts. His interim deputy Harvey Pell (Lloyd Bridges) gets
peeved and quits when Will doesn't persuade the city selectmen to
promote him to marshal forthwith. His remaining deputy loyal
Herb bows out not liking the odds. And the judge Percy Mettrick
(Otto Kruger) was the first one to split.
You know, his blushing
bride Amy Fowler (Grace Kelly) had promised to help him to the best
of her ability. Alas, he should have stuck with his former solid
brunette instead of exchanging her for this skittish blond.
Ideology
When Will broke into the Sunday
service in progress to ask for assistance, the parson reasonably
asked him how come he got married by the Justice of the Peace
instead of in his church? For that matter he hardly ever sees him
in church. Will answered that his wife is a Quaker. This is all
ironic as the hymn being sung was “The Battle Hymn of the
Republic” and the sermon text:
(Malachi 4:1-3) “For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall. And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the LORD of hosts.”Will, the non-churchgoer, was implicitly heeding the militant material more than was the congregation.
But what difference would the wedding venue make? For a definition of marriage, I'll quote Dr. Ide: “The contemporary Christian standard was defined not by the bible but generated by Roman law as defined by the jurist Modestinus who argued that marriage was ‘consortium omnis vitae, divini et humani iuris communicatio: a life-long partnership, and a sharing of civil and religious rights’” (83–5). The civil part is covered by the state and its marriage license. Without it the wife might have trouble claiming her husband's body. But people had been getting wed long before the state ever got involved. The religious part is the province of the church who consider sex sanctified within the bounds of matrimony. Saint Augustine considered marriage the start of a domestic church. The civil part in itself would be a domestic partnership. According to Prof. Tamara Metz:
State control of marriage is not a universal arrangement. In many European and North American jurisdictions, religious authorities wielded final control over the institution until well into the eighteenth and even nineteenth centuries. … Among people who live in traditional societies at the fringes of the modern nation-state, marital status and practices proceed apace without the involvement of the state. (5)
Prof.
Metz has recounted, “Reporter Rachel Lehmann-Haupt
review[ing] the growing trend of couples turning to close friends
and family to officiate at their weddings, facilitated by the easy,
online availability of free, instant ordination” (109).
Marriage ipso facto needs neither clergy nor civil authority to
establish it. It does need a ♂♀couple to make public
their proper exclusive, lifetime commitment, though, and some
guidance to the nervous couple would be appropriate.
Saint Augustine who figures large in
Catholic and Eastern Orthodox and other circles considered marriage
the start of a domestic church. The state involvement that came
along later would handle the domestic partnership sphere. Ken
Johnson, Th.D. quotes Mathetes—a.d. 130—who studied under the
apostle Paul: “Christians follow the customs of their native
lands in regard to marriage, food, clothing, and conduct. They
marry and have children, but they never have abortions. They obey
all the laws of their country” (86.) At least two witnesses
are required for a marriage, and they had lots of them here.
Furthermore, America's first amendment forbids the state to
establish a (domestic) church, so they cannot be officers of the
court per se. Will could use a jail inmate for the witness to his
will, but the JP
could not appropriate a member of his staff for a witness to a
wedding, not if he wanted to avoid trouble of New Mexico becoming
a state the way the Mormons had it later w/their polygamy.
Likewise, the children at the church excused during the adult
discussion could not be witnesses.
The two ladies were sorted out as
follows: Dark-haired Mexican saloon owner Mrs.—it's an
honorific w/o any husband—Helen Ramirez (Katy Jurado) was
Frank's “friend,” then she became Will's
“friend” with bad blood between the two men.
Eventually, she became deputy Harvey Pell's secret friend. Will was
reported to have many friends in town, call them fair-weather
friends. His mentor was a lifelong friend too arthritic to
help him. And finally, when Will's wife was held hostage, her
captor said, “I've got your friend.” Friend-
and marriage-related words can have different definitions,
some exclusively legal as, say, friend of the court.
Amy Kane, Will's friend-wife was a Quaker who wouldn't violate her pacifism to support her husband's fight. Helen Ramirez, Will's ex- girlfriend, told her, “I don't understand you. No matter what you say. If Kane was my man, I'd never leave him like this. I'd get a gun. I'd fight.” Amy then asks, “Why don't you?” and she replies, “He is not my man. He's yours.” Any valid obligation falls first on the domestic church, not on the Mexican—presumably Catholic—or on the Protestant congregation.
Production Values
“” (1952) was
directed by Fred Zinnemann. It was written by Carl Foreman and John
W. Cunningham. It stars Gary Cooper, Grace Kelly and Lloyd
Bridges. Gary Cooper gave an outstanding performance
in the role of a fading star Marshal. The performances were perfect.
MPA rated it PG for some western violence, and smoking. It was well shot in Black and White. It's most salient feature was a ticking clock oft center-framed as the showdown drew near. Runtime is 1 hour 25 minutes.
Review Conclusion w/a Christian's Recommendation
This is a bona fide drama exploring the bounds of faith & action, love & commitment. It's a nail-biter and a classic. They don't make them like this anymore.
Movie Ratings
Action factor: Decent action scenes. Suitability for children: Suitable for children with guidance. Special effects: Average special effects. Video Occasion: Good Date Movie. Suspense: Keeps you on the edge of your seat. Overall movie rating: Five stars out of five.
Works Cited
Scripture taken from the King James Version. Pub. 1611, rev. 1769. Software.
Ide, Arthur Frederick. Noah & the Ark: The Influence of Sex, Homophobia and Heterosexism in the Flood Story and its Writing. Las Colinas: Monument Press, 1992. Print.
Lehmann-Haupt, Rachel. “Need a Minister? How about Your Brother?” New York Times, 12 Jan. 2003, late edition, sec. 9, 1+. As quoted in Tamara Metz.
Mathetes, Epistle to Diognetus 5. Quoted in Ken Johnson, Ancient Church Fathers. Copyright 2010 by Ken Johnson. San Bernadino, CA, 07 April 2018. Download print.
Metz, Tamara. Untying the Knot: Marriage, the State, and the Case for Their Divorce. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 2010. Print.
bibles.n7nz.org