Cooper/Bridges Fight
16mm, b&w, optical sound, 3 minutes, 2002

The anxieties and frustrations of McCarthy-era Hollywood are integrated into this reconstruction from the highly politicized Western High Noon. The struggle between a sheriff & his deputy becomes one with the film's emulsion as cold war tensions are integrated into the scene's frenzy. Considered an Un-American film by the House of Un-American Activities Committee; High Noon's writer and director was blacklisted in the 1950s for alleged Communist sympathies.

“They punish each other mercilessly, nothing barred. The horses, becoming nervous, rear and whine in their stalls…” – from High Noon, original script by Carl Foreman