Is Johnny Guitar just another Hollywood western? Depending upon who you ask, it has been claimed to be everything from a feminist statement, to a gay camp-classic, to an anti-McCarthyism allegory. Under the insightful diretion of Nicholas ray, Johnny Guitar is nothing less than a film classic that happens to be of the western genre.





Johnny Guitar (Sterling Hayden) travels to a saloon owned by his former lover, Vienna (Joan Crawford). Emma Small (Mercedes McCambridge), a vindictive woman who has designs on Vienna's land, joins with a posse, headed by John McIvers (Ward Bond), to accuse Vienna of being in on a stagecoach job with a gang led by the Dancin' Kid.

Both Vienna and the Dancin' Kid (Scott Brady) deny they had anything to do with the robbery, but Emma urges the Marshal to arrest them anyway. McIvers gives Vienna and the gang 24 hours to get out of town. The Dancin' Kid and his gang decide to head out, but Vienna, unwilling to abandon what she has worked so hard for, and not easily intimidated by the likes of Emma, tells Johnny she's staying.





The next morning, Vienna goes to the bank to close her account, and finds herself in the middle of a heist engineered by the Kid and his gang. Emma insists that Vienna was behind the job. After one of the Kid's gang members is strong-armed into testifying that Vienna did participate, Emma is successful in getting the sheriff to sentence her to be hanged for a crime she did not commit.





Audiances just didn't know what to make of Johnny Guitar when it was first released in 1954. Likewise, most critics summarily dismissed the film as being nothing more than a ridiculous Republic potboiler. After a second look though, what they had originally thought was just a schlocky western, was actually a cinematic jewel.





It took critics such as Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut (who called the film "beautiful and profound") to recognize that Nicholas Ray's film was a dreamlike and deliriously styilized piece masquerading as a typical shoot-em-up. Ray and writer Philip Yordan had transformed the plot of Roy Chanslor's novel and created a strong and colorful symbolic tale, complete with Freudian overtones.





The much maligned Crawford uses all her tricks, and chews the scenery with just the right intensity to play the tough-as-nails Vienna. As her nemesis, Mercedes McCambridge is brilliant in her portrayal of Emma, as the psychotic lesbian with an ax to grind. Check out the scene where she trembles with orgasmic glee as she watches Vienna's place burn to the ground.





The handsome Sterling Hayden is magnificent, playing the title role. His Johnny is the perfect rogue cowboy who has the heart of a poet and musician. Considered to be the home of the "B" pictures, Johnny Guitar was a fairly glossy production for Republic. Whether you consider it high cinema, or high camp, Johnny Guitar's inspired casting, rich colors, high production values, and masterful direction make it a one-of-a-kind experience.