Johnny Guitar (Nicholas Ray, 1954)

Joan Crawford plays Vienna, bar owner in a small town in the west. A group of townsfolk want her out of town but she won´t budge. The leader of the townsfolk is Emma but her reasons for the hatred of Vienna is not money but jealousy. The love of her life, The Dancing Kid, is in love with Vienna, while Vienna has called an old lover, Johnny Guitar, for help against the mob.

Melodramatic plot of Johnny Guitar can push people to laughter but that is done by intention. There is a strong use of colors and red and green are dominating, but blue is almost nowhere to be found and the movie especially plays with the contrast of black to white. The performance in the movie is in beat with technical features and is exaggerated. This completes the style of the movie of being over the top in all aspects.

In Johnny Guitar there is a complete turn of gender roles in the movie, where Crawford is dressed in black pants, leather boots and has a revolver by her side while Johnny Guitar has but his Guitar. The movie incorporates many traits of western movies but twists some of them. Also there is a great stuggle in the film between female characters so many want to associate the movie to feminism. The scriptwriter was put on a "black list" when the McCarthyism was at its peak in the States, and some criticism against McCarthyism can be seen as the mob in the movie is going against those who go by there own life principles.