Johnny Guitar [1954]
Nicholas Rays’s famed Western Johnny Guitar was a strange film,
particular given the wide range of themes and tones it tackled. It was a
curious mix of political allegory, noirish sensibilities, revisionism, old-fashioned
melodrama, romance, straight-up action, psychological thrills, Freudian
allusions, and gender politics, among possibly others, but it was foremost a
sharp jab at the McCarthy witch-hunts. The titular character (played with quiet
verve by Sterling Hayden) is a smooth, guitar-strumming stranger who, with
quite a swagger, walks into a hotel owned by Vienna (Joan Crawford), in a town
that hates outsiders. As it turns out the town folks, led by the vindictive and
acid-spewing Emma (Mercedes McCambridge), who harbours a personal grudge
against the alpha-female Vienna, who’s always in masculine costumes, wants to
drive her out. Also, as it turns out, Johnny is the former fiancé of Vienna and
a legendary gunslinger who is trying to shed his former identity. When a group
of four led by the Dancing Kid (Scott Brady), who are falsely under the
suspicion of staging hold-ups, rob a bank, Emma shrewdly coaxes the compliant community
to head straight for Vienna’s because of a host of complex psychological
reasons. The elements of melodrama, loud dialogue spewing, love triangle, and
hyper-stylization might dampen the muscular spirit of Westerns for some, the
fact that so many things were at play here and the subversive subtexts, in themselves,
made this a unique work in the genre worth pondering over. The haunting title
song by Peggy Lee was another of its memorable facets.
Director: Nicholas Ray
Genre: Western/Revisionist Western/Romance
Language: English
Country: US
2 comments:
"It was a curious mix of political allegory, noirish sensibilities, revisionism, old-fashioned melodrama, romance, straight-up action, psychological thrills, Freudian allusions, and gender politics, among possibly others, but it was foremost a sharp jab at the McCarthy witch-hunts."
I think you hit the bulls-eye here Shubhajit! There's absolutely so much going on here, and what with the subversive subtexts you note, JOHNNY GUITAR is often referred to as an existential western. Joan Crawford delivers one of her most interesting performances, and Ray's revisionist approach likewise has always elevate this western for those who want to move out of the box. I've always been a fan, and much enjoyed this brilliant assessment.
Thanks a lot Sam. I somehow didn't like Joan Crawford's performance as much as she is appreciated for it, though, I admit, she did displayed noteworthy screen presence in it. And yes, there was simply so much at play in this film!
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