High Noon may be the most misunderstood classic in the history of American film.

It's been seized-on by both conservative and liberal politicians over the years. The latter claim is the historically correct one. It was written by Carl Foreman and is an eloquent statement against the neo-fascism of the McCarthy blacklist. (Foreman wound up on the blacklist himself.)

Lead actor Gary Cooper's character, Will Kane (pictured, from the collector's edition on Amazon.Com), is no hero. He's scared. He is going to his death and there is nothing he can do about it. Everyone else rationalizes their refusal to stand beside him, even though they know that he's right, and that their cowardice is wrong.

It's when everyone is against you, when you're at war with yourself, that real courage is measured. You don't become a hero marching in a parade, or under compulsion. The choice must be real, the odds long, and the rejection of others certain before you can really measure yourself.

The short form. Toby Keith is not heroic. The Dixie Chicks were (a little). And courage isn't a political choice in any case. It's personal.

The cast is one of the greatest ever assembled, and Foreman gives each great lines. Lloyd Bridges refuses to be the co-star. Thomas Mitchell says the gunfight will be bad publicity. Lon Chaney Jr. is embittered. Harry Morgan is just scared. Katy Jurado, playing Cooper's ex-lover, leaves town rather than face it all. Grace Kelly, who gets married to Cooper in the first scene, is a Quaker whose religion forbids killing, even in the best cause.

Only Kelly turns around. You know she will because the lyrics of Dmitri Tiomkin's "Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling" promise it (over-and-over-and-over). If it all seems over-the-top it's because it was the top. Every other Western has tried, unsuccessfully, to match it.

Why am I writing this now? Because we live in a swaggering time, with insults replacing rhetoric. We have to decide, as we did at the time the film was made, what we're about.

Hearken back to 1952, the year this film was made. We were at war, both in Korea and at home. McArthur and McCarthy had both gone too far, but Nixon and the HUAC would get their revenge. Eisenhower would use this anger for power, then take a draw in the war and let McCarthy's own extremism burn out his movement. Only Nixon would survive, to burn later in the fire of his own demons.

Well, we're at war again. The anger is alive on both sides. The incumbent party has a war on its hands, and the opposition hopes to ride anger to power without directly acknowledging or challenging it.

Who is right and who is wrong?

The point of the movie, and this piece, is that I can't tell you. And I won't.

You have to decide for yourself. And you had better be ready to fight for your choice, no matter the odds against you. Otherwise you're just one of the townspeople, with lines to speak but no real part to play.