Fred Zinnemann the first 25 American films chosen in 1989 for the National Film Registry. With its psychological and moral examinations of its lawman hero Marshall Will Kane, played by Gary Cooper and its innovative chronology whereby screen time approximated the 80-minute countdown to the confrontational hour, the film broke the mold of the formulaic western. Working closely with cinematographer and longtime friend Floyd Crosby, he shot without filters, giving the landscape a harsh "newsreel" quality that clashed with the more painterly cinematography of John Ford's westerns. During production he established a strong rapport with Gary Cooper, photographing the aging actor in
Fred Zinnemann right and the poor to the left. "Emotion had long since begun to displace reason," he said. As a result of the changing political climate, along with the fact that sound films had arrived in Europe, which was technically unprepared to produce their own, film production throughout Europe slowed dramatically. Zinnemann, then only 21, got his parent's permission to go to America where he hoped filmmaking opportunities would be greater. He arrived in New York at the end of October, 1929, at the time of the stock market crash. Despite the financial panic then beginning, he found New York to