America250@SJU held its inaugural event Feb. 4 in the Forum Theater with a screening of the film “High Noon.” The event kicked off a yearlong celebration of America’s semiquincentennial, the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia July 4, 1776.
Released in 1952, “High Noon” was written by screenwriter Carl Foreman and stars Gary Cooper as Will Kane, a marshal in a small town in the New Mexico territory who seeks the help of townspeople to defend the town against an outlaw and his gang. Grace Kelly stars as the sheriff’s wife.
Andrew Payne, Ph.D., professor of philosophy and an America250@SJU committee member, said the film subcommittee selected the film to give attendees an opportunity to examine what American independence meant during the period following the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
“It’s an interesting reflection on how American communities could work together or fall apart, what kind of law and order is possible and whether communities will work together to support each other when there is a threat of lawlessness,” Payne said.
Brianna Kelly ’26, student president of America250@SJU, said the film can be viewed through the lens of McCarthyism, a series of investigations led by U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s aimed at identifying communists in the U.S. government.
“There was a lesson deeper in terms of what the allegory of it all was, and that was during the Cold War, obviously, with McCarthyism and this anti-communist idea starting to run rampant that the smallest inclination that you are a communist could immediately blacklist you,” Kelly said.
Duncan Manion ’27, a member of America250@SJU who attended the screening, said the marshal in the film represents American freedom, and the outlaw represents the antithesis of freedom and independence. For Manion, the celebration of the semiquincentennial is an opportunity to move forward as a community.
“I think we’re having a lot of growing pains as a country right now,” Manion said. “For me, what the celebration has done is to celebrate everything the country has done in the last 250 years. Clearly, we still have a lot farther to go, but we made it this far. They called it the American experiment for a reason.”
