Johnny Guitar

1954 western

Rating: 15/20

Plot: Forward-thinkin' Vienna builds a saloon and gambling facility on the outskirts of a town because she knows of plans to have the railroad come through those parts. The townspeople, especially a vindictive and sexually frustrated and jealous woman named Emma Small, would rather have her leave. Her ex-flame Johnny Guitar arrives to play his gitfiddle in her establishment. Following stage and bank robberies, Ms. Small and a gigantic black clad posse have more than enough excuses to do a little lynching and get rid of Vienna, the guy with the guitar, and a band of men who may or may not be silver miners.

Layered and fairly intense western here, steeped in symbolism and complex psychologies. It'd be interesting to look at this more deeply from a feminist perspective, and the antagonists being of the gentler sex isn't the only way this western toys with roles and motifs of the genre. There's a love trapezoid, some really interesting uses of color, and some fuzziness with exactly who the good and bad guys are. I'm not sure why the movie is named after Johnny Guitar since clearly Joan Crawford's character is the strongest, most interesting, and most important character in this. As with One-Eyed Jacks, there are some great moments of dialogue, but taken as a whole, the conversations are clunky with the acting occasionally being fairly wooden. There are also some moments where the narrative isn't quite clicking because of some cause-and-effect stuff that doesn't make sense. Some of the characters' decisions really left me scratching my head. And Mercedes McCambridge's performance in this is absolutely abysmal. Still, the interesting far outweighs the bad here. This could benefit from another viewing.

The eyeball of Jimmy Ukulele: