This is one the most overrated films of all time.
Not unlike Hitchcock's ROPE, it uses a gimmick: so-called real-time shooting, as we follow Cooper through each and every attempt at finding a deputy in his little town. Unfortunately for the film, quite simply, everything that occurs is predictable. Therefore the tension which is supposed to build up is inexistent. And the 'real-time shooting' supposed to lend pace and suspense ends up dragging on an on as Cooper performs one weak speech after the other. Not surprisingly, considering how inefficient this structure has been, the climax/showdown is flat and uninteresting.
I will admit the photography is quite beautiful, but to consider this film a classic, let alone one of the greatest movies of all time, on the grounds of its alleged political relevance (by the way much as I loathe Mccarthyism, I find this 'metaphor' much too formal and tedious) is preposterous. As a movie, as a work of art, it simply does not work.
Not unlike Hitchcock's ROPE, it uses a gimmick: so-called real-time shooting, as we follow Cooper through each and every attempt at finding a deputy in his little town. Unfortunately for the film, quite simply, everything that occurs is predictable. Therefore the tension which is supposed to build up is inexistent. And the 'real-time shooting' supposed to lend pace and suspense ends up dragging on an on as Cooper performs one weak speech after the other. Not surprisingly, considering how inefficient this structure has been, the climax/showdown is flat and uninteresting.
I will admit the photography is quite beautiful, but to consider this film a classic, let alone one of the greatest movies of all time, on the grounds of its alleged political relevance (by the way much as I loathe Mccarthyism, I find this 'metaphor' much too formal and tedious) is preposterous. As a movie, as a work of art, it simply does not work.