High Noon - Chris Jones

Thompkin's view of women in westerns is that they are secondary characters who are not respected and in the end are only an extension of the town and what it represents. Women fill their lives with religion and gossip, rarely delving into the affairs of the men. However in High Noon we see women who fill the roles men generally fill. Helen Ramirez, a mexican woman, is the storekeeper of the town and also owns the bar, something associated almost constantly with men. Helen is an example of a liberated woman, far from what Thompkins describes them as. However there is a second female character in this film who goes through a transformation representative of what the women's movement was trying to create, this woman is Amy Kane. Amy Kane starts out as a classical woman, her religion comes first and she hates the old ways of her husband. When the actual showdown is about to happen she chooses religion over her husband and says that she is leaving on the train no matter if Will Kane, her husband is with her or not. However after a discussion with Helen Ramirez she realizes that she cannot stand idly by and let her husband face his enemies on his own and she returns in the end and aids him in his fight. Through this action she removes herself from the old archetype of women and instead makes herself into a peer of her husband, standing by him in his toughest of times. Amy Kane is an ideal representation of what the women's movement wants women to do, step out of the church and house and move into the world and its affairs.