Year: 1954
Director: Nicholas Ray
Country: US
Language: English
Before the onset of counter-culture & women’s liberation movements and the subsequent explosion of American independent film culture, American films of the 1950s brought forth the issues of race and sexual inequality through a more cinematic light. Beloved genres, such as the uber-masculine Western, would go through great changes, which would clash with more traditional conservative ideology.
After helping a wounded gang member, a strong-willed female saloon owner (Joan Crawford) is wrongly suspected of murder and bank robbery by a lynch mob.
The 1950's gave way game-changing yet conventional Westerns like Shane (1953) in addition to political Westerns like High Noon (1952). Johnny Guitar, made a year before Nicholas Ray's most famous work Rebel Without a Cause (1955) is the latter; the seemingly simple plot nature is layered with psycho-sexual conflicts, complex femininity and critique of McCarthyism. It's offbeat, mythical, funny and unapologetic.
Joan Crawford's Vienna is a remarkably strong female character in the American Frontier. She's a gun-toting self-reliant ambitious woman who is far from being a symbol of traditional feminine ideals. Incredible staging, inventive camera-work and memorable dialogue also make for an impressive picture that has a lot of dramatic power.
A bold, stylized, political picture that remains inspiring more than half a century after its initial release. Johnny Guitar draws a lot of praise and criticism; thus its a must-see in order to determine which side you fall on.
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