"Johnny Guitar" - review

High Plains Camp in Glorious Color

While director Nicholas Ray is probably most well-known among film fans for the seminal tale of teen angst "Rebel Without A Cause" and many excellent Film Noirs, he is also acclaimed as one of several industry icons for his mastery of melodrama.  Ray's second take on the Western, "Johnny Guitar", is an excellent example of the kind of story that shoots for the rafters with soaring, energetic emotions as well as blistering barrages of bullets.  Joan Crawford is also no stranger to the exuberant exaggerations of camp, and she has always been highly regarded by such aficionados for her brooding and often explosive performances.  As lead actress in "Johnny Guitar", Joan makes the film both a hilarious and yet equally dramatic delight.

Crawford plays Vienna, a strong, independent and pistol-packin' Frontier woman who runs her own saloon and casino in a small, nameless town.  Vienna knows that the railroad will be coming through soon, and that the land she now occupies will make her wealthy when the trains start to regularly bring in more people, supplies and ever-increasing business.  However, a cabal of cutthroat locals doesn't want to share these riches, and they band together to force Vienna out, dragging the seemingly spineless sheriff along behind them like a frightened dog on a leash.  The head of this avaricious hydra is helmed by Mercedes McCambridge as the venomous firebrand Emma Small, whose obsessive hatred of Vienna teeters on the precipice of full-blown mania.

While Vienna consistently presents an unwavering and cool exterior despite to the increasing pressure put upon her to abandon her plans and get out in 24 hours, Emma is barely able to contain her deep and nearly deranged loathing for every single begrudged breath Vienna takes.  Mercedes McCambridge's erotically enraged performance is a sumptuous pleasure. It's not only a feast for lovers of camp, but also for its gay subtext as the intense rivalry between these two characters is widely interpreted as arising out of Emma's secret lesbian lust for Vienna.  Being firmly closeted, Emma abhors her private passions and since she also cannot express them, they transform into a white-hot fury that corrosively compels Emma to destroy Vienna in a vain attempt to purge her own Sapphic desires.

Vienna knew that Emma's malignant ardor will soon evoke a desperate and mortal assault, and so she sends for Johnny Guitar, a former lover and gunslinger, to protect her.  Sterling Hayden is perfect as the seemingly laconic Johnny, yet the turbulent history that he and Vienna share results in a love/hate relationship that vacillates wildly.  However, as Emma's irrational and emotional outbursts increase in ferocity, Vienna and Johnny finally unite to stand their ground.  The scenery is gorgeous, the writing is taught and biting, the performances are superb and the climatic battle is near-orgiastic in its final release of so many long-held and roiling tensions.

Was it good for you, Emma?