Spencer Tracy’s MacReedy has come to Black Rock after World War II on personal business. He asks about a Japanese man named Kamako, but the townspeople act very strangely, some saying he isn’t around, others having never heard of him. On top of that, the town nasty (Robert Ryan) and his goons (Lee Marvin and Ernest Borgnine) are making threatening gestures trying to run him out of town.

He makes alliances with the mortician in town (the always trusty Walter Brennan), whom lays the town straight. The sheriff is a coward and it seems everybody has a secret they’re trying to hide, maybe the same one. As MacReedy challenges the powers that be in town, he finds that he paints a target on his back, but it also strengthens his resolve to get to the truth, which is a pretty doozy.

What makes this film amazing is how it dispenses the information about what has happened to Kamako, and by association, the town. When we finally find out Kamako’s fate, we are still left with burning questions. We have a good idea what has happened and our imagination takes over. I almost wish that we aren’t told the whole story later, but if they hadn’t, I might have had to write my own explanation just to have it out. But Kamako isn’t really an important part of the story. What is important concerns how the characters in the aftermath relate to their secrets and each other. It is in this that is what makes this a great film. And even after we have a resolution, I’m still eager to know the story between the secret and the time of MacReedy’s appearance.

We see how these secrets have a visual erosion in the town’s pride and soul, though most of it is played in the performances. The color schemes are sharp yet rusted. But what really captures these moments are in the performances, like Brennan’s remorse or Ryan’s Defensiveness, even Marvin’s cruelty is punctuated to show how low evil has crept inside. MacReedy might be a catalyst for remorse, but he’s also a redeemer looking for redemption. This is the movie that High Noon wanted to be.

I see irony in the fact that this movie has been seen more times than any other in the White House, according to Projectionist Logs. I wonder if President Obama might carry the tradition. In fact, he might even enjoy it. A strong yet flawed man encourages even more flawed people to atone for their sins by coming together. And yet the line at the end keeps ringing in my ear. Some towns do come back from these sorts of things and some towns don't. It depends on the people.