Johnny Guitar

Year: 1954

Grade: B

Country: USA

Director: Ray

Review

mercedes mccambridge is a class a bitch in this hayden/crawford western. it’s about a guy who is a hired musician who comes into town and it turns out there’s a lot of internal turmoil. there are a lot of layers here and much of relationships within the film is more implied than explicit. you have to read between the lines when it comes to the motivations of certain characters or their feelings for each other. to me, the film is primarily about these relationships.

a major aspect of many westerns is the unknown or unseen relations of major characters. there seems to always be some big grudge or previous slight that motivates the characters. they seek revenge or they’re wary of others because of something that happened. they’re tortured, tense, mysterious, angry. perhaps it all relates back to the civil war or something.