High Noon

I never really knew much about the Hollywood blacklist, the Red Scare, and the House Un-American Activities Committee (fascist witch-hunt) of the 1940's & 1950's. I also never heard of this movie before but this was pretty interesting. 3/5ths of it was about the making of this movie and the lives & drama of the people involved in its making. The rest was a more over-arching story about the blacklist. Honestly, I wish I had just read a book about the black list because the story about the movie was not that enthralling.

I watched the movie halfway through reading the book because one chapter was just explaining the plot and I thought watching it myself might be better than having it completely spoiled. The movie was...fine. The movie's clever style of making the entire movie real-time with no time skips was really neat. Someone quoted in the book described this movie as “the favorite Western for people who hate Westerns.” Which I can definitely understand. But trying to discern this as an allegory for the Hollywood blacklist and HUAC is very much not obvious in 2021.

I'm not big on biographical books, and this was about half biography of men I did not find very interesting. So I'd say this wasn't my favorite book, but it wasn't bad. If you're interested in old Hollywood, Gary Cooper, Westerns, High Noon the movie, and/or the Hollywood blacklist, check it out. If you're JUST interested in learning more about the fascistic Hollywood blacklist and HUAC witch-hunt, probably check out another book about it.