One Paragraph Movie Review: Johnny Guitar

Two hundred and seventy-fifth film: Johnny Guitar, a 1954 Western with a character called Johnny Guitar in it who plays guitar but has barely anything at all to do with the plot of this movie. Starring Joan Crawford and her eyebrows as bar-owner Vienna, with the magnificently-named Mercedes McCambridge as her nemesis Emma, this is a movie about mob mentality and chicks. Vienna wants to get rich when the railway hits town and is the object of the affections of both the titular character and of The Dancing Kid, who Emma has the hots for. While the movie seems superficially progressive in that almost all of its big decisions are made by women, 50% of those decisions are made as a result of Emma’s jealousy and bitchiness, which is disappointing. Still, considering that the decisions in most Westerns are made by blokes who just want to show how tough they are, I guess it’s refreshing. The climax takes forever to arrive but involves an all-girl shoot-out, so it’s a net win. Still. Johnny Guitar, except for some quick and inoffensive influence exerted on a lynching, has spectacularly little to do with the whole thing. Two and a half mid-siege blouse-changes out of five.