Year Of The Western! #1 Johnny Guitar (1954)

So, remember that time I said that 2017 would be the Year of the Western? And then I went about watching everything else but westerns? 

On our latest episode, we had some fun making up rules to a drinking game you guys could play along with as you listen if you want to get silly hammered in the span of ninety minutes or so. One of the rules was for every time I mention it is the Year of the Western but have not yet watched a western, to take a drink.

It is funny and amazing how you set out in January with a simple goal of watching 30 films within the year (why that's just 2.5 films a month!) and then you go chase robots or squirrels or something else all summer long and now it is October (why that's just 10 films a month!) with no progress at all.

The original reason I was going to dig deep into westerns this year is two fold. First, I openly admit this is a large blind spot in my film viewing and wanted to correct that. Secondly, with Rockstar Games releasing Red Dead Redemption 2 this year next year, why not get ready to soak in that experience with the genre and films that have inspired those developers to make a second game set in the Old West?

With that being said, I want to try to get through all 30 before the end of the year because it feels appropriate that I gave my word, and like a lot of characters in westerns, you are only as good as your word.

So, let's put on our boots, our trusty hat, and ride off down the trail. We may not know what is waiting for us, but the journey will be worth a few drinks to tell the tale down at the saloon later.

Film #1 Johnny Guitar (1954)

Here is the imdb.com cast listing. Here is the wikipedia page about the production. There is a lot of crazy behind the scenes stuff involving the female leads in this film that it is worth reading about and would make a pretty interesting film on its own.

What was I expecting out of film named Johnny Guitar? I thought I was going to get a mysterious stranger with a dark past that didn't want to be troubled until he was drawn into a fight that he didn't want to have. What I ended up getting was a much more complicated story about strong female characters, a messy love triangle, and the fear of outsides, progress, and change.

The beginnings of the plot (and please bear with me as I ham fist my way through this) is that Johnny Guitar (Sterling Hayden) has been requested by Vienna (Joan Crawford) to her saloon/casino to play music and possibly more. Vienna's place, conveniently called Vienna's, is not located near a town and was purposefully set up with the knowledge that the railroad would be coming through soon, which would cause her location to boom due to the increase in population that would follow quickly after. The nearby locals are lead by the firebrand Mercedes (Emma Small), who believes that Vienna is bad for the town and wants the saloon shut down. Vienna's place takes all kinds and does not care where the business comes from, be it from the locals or the gang of four lead by the Dancin' Kid (Scott Brady). So when a stagecoach gets robbed and Mercedes's brother is killed, she just assumes that the Dancin' Kid and his gang did it and that Vienna is in cahoots with them, even though she has no evidence to prove this. The Marshall gives 24 hours notice to Vienna to close her operation and for the Dancin' Kid and his gang to leave town.

This plot sets up some interesting things I had not considered in a western before. Like (spoiler) the gang didn't actually rob the stage coach, so they were actually innocent until they felt their hand had been forced and decide to rob the town bank with less than 24 hours to leave the area. It's easy to assume that a Hollywood western production from 1954 would be very black and white in it's characters and plot, but Johnny Guitar is very much more gray, and all the more interesting for it. Vienna is only looking out for herself and doesn't owe the town anything and doesn't care who spends money at her place. The Dancin' Kid is more of a charming (at least he thinks he is) rogue than criminal to start. Johnny Guitar at first seems like he is just there to get paid but then you find out about why he answered the call to work for Vienna and what past he is trying to put behind him.

It is unfortunate that this film is titled Johnny Guitar at all. This film is more about Vienna and the part of the world she carved out for herself and how she did it. Joan Crawford is simply commanding in her performance. The men in the film make it known that they wouldn't listen to a woman, but they listen to Vienna. When the posse of town folk show up to her bar, she walks out to the staircase with a gun in her hand with the intent to use it if they attempted to come up to the second floor. The Marshall takes a bottle of whiskey and breaks it against the back of the bar to show he means business about his 24 hour deadline. Vienna stares him down and says that before he leaves, he owes her for a bottle of whiskey.... which he pays for.

This sequence, later in the film, is when Mercedes (which should also be noted is stellar in her performance too) comes with the posse to confront Vienna about her alleged involvement with the bank robbery committed by the Dancin' Kid's gang.

  

In a time when films were filled with a lot of orchestral scoring, the decision to let just the single piano play while Vienna's place is being searched against her will (even though she knows she it will happen and can't stop it), holds up very well even today. The choice to have her wear white, a striking reminder of her innocence of the crimes she is being accused of (well, to a degree... she has some secrets of her own) is in stark contrast to the majority of the black funeral outfits the posse wears, it is hard not to see what this film is saying about the dangers of the mob mentality. 

When the film does finally start checking off items you need to have in a western, it does so in a subversive way. While it would be safe to assume that Johnny Guitar and the Dancin' Kid would eventually come to blows and have a shoot out to end the film, that isn't the case. There is a shoot out, but between Vienna and Mercedes. All the remaining men step aside and watch the outcome. It is a bold decision and it pays off really well.

This is a great start to the 30 films I will be watching because it completely upended what I thought I would be getting out of a western. I need to thank Kevin (shameless plug incoming), my co-host on the Twilight Zone podcast we do, Strange Highways, for putting this list together. His knowledge of the genre is vast and he knew I was looking for some boundary pushing films. This fits the bill nicely.

Western Checklist (nowhere near official or scientific):

• Weird gang member names? One guy was named Turkey.
• Beautiful landscapes? Plenty. They can't just make nature now like they used to. The Trucolor process used for this makes all the solid colors pop wonderfully.
• 1954's horses terrified of explosion nearby? Sadly, too many to list here. There is sequence in the mountains where the gang is trying to get ahead of the railroad's demolition of the rock face and I just felt bad for the horses. No green screenin' here, folks.
• Odd musical cue's early in the film to denote whimsical comedy? Yes, thankfully it only happens two or three times. This film is better than that.
• Does a building catch on fire? Oh yeah, what else are guys on horses going to ride by at night time?
• How many Ernest Borgnines? One and he is great as the heel of the gang. 
• Does it have a theme song with the name of the film in the title? Yes, and it was featured in Fallout: New Vegas.

Rating:

I would give this 4 out 5 tin stars. Surprisingly forward thinking with the focus on two strong female leads that give lights out performances. The pacing is a little slow and some of the other actors are a little wooden, and that might just be an artifact of film making at that time, but it does take me out of the movie at times. Highly recommended!