Johnny Guitar, based
on the novel by Roy Chanslor
Johnny
Guitar is actually Johnny Logan
Nevertheless, this is not a film about false
pretenses and the entertainment is authentic and appreciable.
Two great actors are at the center of the plot:
Joan Crawford is playing Vienna and Sterling
Hayden is Johnny Guitar aka Logan, the hero of the movie.
This viewer had doubts about the latter.
After much thinking, one of the previous roles
of this versatile, excellent actor who can play the tough man, comedy roles and
anything else appeared on the inside, small screen of the mind:
He was the lunatic Brigadier General Jack D.
Ripper who is on the point of launching a nuclear war.
When he gets insane and orders an atomic attack
on the Soviet Union, the world may end in the formidable:
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop
Worrying and Love the Bomb
However, it was clear that the Sterling Hayden is
familiar from other motion pictures, seen recently…
The Godfather- that was it! He was the corrupt
Captain McCluskey, the one who kicks Michael Corleone and only lives for a few
days after that.
Johnny Guitar arrives at this saloon, where the
owner, a fierce woman called Vienna, called him.
We are right in the middle of the action, only
a few minutes after the film has started, for a bunch of men enter the saloon,
with a thirst for blood and revenge written on their dust covered faces.
They are led by yet another…woman.
This is Emma Small and it is evident that she is
a rival of the owner of the bar since she accuses Vienna of trying to bring in
unwanted people and being an accomplice for a band of killers.
One could muse and ponder the infamous “Big, beautiful,
high, southern wall” that will be paid by Mexico (in the nest three thousand
years maybe).
The “Dancin’Kid” arrives with his three companions,
they are accused by Emma and the men she brought around of having killed a man
to rob the stagecoach, and this explains the money they have.
The confrontation is tense, but remains somewhat
calm and there are no victims at this stage in the narrative.
For 1954, it must have been a very progressive
script, considering that not only one, but two very strong women dominate the
motion picture.
Dancin’Kid hates the fact that he was
wrongfully accused and he and his colleagues have to leave town in twenty-four
hours.
Therefore, he convinces his team to rob the
bank in the town and give some justification to the humiliation they had
suffered.
While they attack the bank, Vienna was
withdrawing her savings and tries to convince the leader of the gang to desist.
This is a vain effort, the criminals take the
money and they try to run, only the road is blocked and they have to use their
hiding place.
One of them is hurt and arrives at Vienna’s
place, where she hides him and then confronts the posy.
In the meantime, we have found the real
identity of Johnny Guitar- he is not a harmless musician.
Johnny Logan is his real name and the
reputation he has appears to be equal to other shooters: Jesse James, Sundance
Kid and others.
Both Logan and the Kid love Vienna, but it is not
clear if she has feelings for any or both of them.
Obviously, near and at the end, much of the
puzzle is solved, but we are not going to give the game away…
Are we?
Johnny Guitar is on the New York Times ‘list of
Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made:
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