Review of Johnny Guitar (1954) by Chris . — 12 Apr 2009
Hell hath no fury like a woman ashamed of sexual pleasure. Nicholas Ray's film is an anti-western and willfully disrupts the conventions of the genre in every possible way. Not least by placing the stand off between two women at the centre of the drama.
Mercedes McCambridge's Emma wrongfully holds Joan Crawford's saloon owner Vienna responsible for the death of her brother- when what really is at play is her shame for being attracted to The Dancing Kid.
To complicate things further Vienna supports the expansion of the railway which poses a real threat to the hermetic cattle community Emma occupies good standing in. Its excessive and thus self-reflexive style; particularly the strong use of colour further distances it from the portentous realism of traditional westerns.
It is a psychosexual melodrama where the men are all castrated (Sterling Hayden's eponymous Johnny no longer carries his guns) passive observers longing for the approval of the women around them. It is archetypal Nicholas Ray in the empathy expressed for social outsiders and his exploration of crowd (group) mentalities (the posse) and their social function; it was seen at the time as a thinly veiled critique of Joseph McCarthy and the HUAC.
This review of Johnny Guitar (1954) was written by Chris . on 12 Apr 2009.
Johnny Guitar has generally received very positive reviews.
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