Johnny Guitar

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Template:Short description Template:About Template:Use mdy dates Template:Use American English Template:Infobox film Johnny Guitar is a 1954 American independent<ref name="suprawesterns">Dietrich Icon - Google Books (pg.261)</ref> Western film directed by Nicholas Ray and starring Joan Crawford, Sterling Hayden, Mercedes McCambridge, Ernest Borgnine, and Scott Brady. It was produced and distributed by Republic Pictures. The screenplay was adapted from a novel of the same name by Roy Chanslor.

In 2008, Johnny Guitar was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite press release</ref>

The main theme of the film's score, composed by Victor Young, and title song, co-written and performed by Peggy Lee, is loosely based on the Spanish Dance No. 5: Andaluza by Enrique Granados. Written by Granados for Piano, though often performed on classical guitar, the piece is played by Joan Crawford's character (dubbed) seated at the saloon piano in one of the film's climactic scenes.

Plot

"Johnny Guitar" Logan arrives in a remote Arizona cattle town and heads to a saloon to see its owner, Vienna, a strong-willed woman and his former lover. Shortly after his arrival, the town locals, who Vienna has a tense relationship with because of her support of a nearby railroad being built, confront her for her working relationship with the "Dancin' Kid" and his gang, who have robbed the town stagecoach and killed local Emma Small's brother. The Dancin' Kid is Vienna's former lover, while Emma desires the Dancin' Kid's affections and loathes Vienna because of this. Despite Emma's insistence that Vienna is helping the gang commit crimes, Johnny defends her, and local John McIvers gives him, Vienna, and the gang 24 hours to leave town.

After facing off with the gang and drawing the ire of member Bart Lonegran, Johnny argues with Vienna about their five year separation brought on by his violent past as a gunslinger, and they eventually reconcile. They decide to leave town together and Vienna goes to the bank to close her account, but the gang arrives shortly after to rob it, giving Emma an excuse to accuse her of helping with the job. She spurs McIvers and marshal Williams to rally a posse and go after Vienna and Johnny, who are accidentally cut off by the railroad crew dynamiting nearby rock. While the gang flees to their hideout, young member "Turkey" Ralston is gravely injured in the blasts.

Vienna leaves Johnny when he suggests using violence against the posse, returning to the saloon to find her loyal hand Tom tending to Turkey. Tom convinces her to shelter the young man, but when the posse comes and she tries to talk them down, they find Turkey hiding under a table. Emma convinces the group to hang them both as she burns the saloon, while Tom is killed trying to defend them and Williams is accidentally killed by Tom. Turkey is hung while Johnny saves Vienna and the two escape through a tunnel under the saloon, accidentally coming across the gang's hideout.

As the posse follows Turkey's horse to the hideout, Bart cuts a deal to give Vienna and Johnny up and kills his compatriot when he protests. Johnny kills him before he can kill the Dancin' Kid, while the shots spurn the posse to start firing. McIvers, disturbed by the violence he has witnessed, orders his men to stop, leaving a furious Emma to attack the trio and kill the Dancin' Kid. She non-fatally shoots Vienna and Vienna kills her, and the posse allows Johnny and Vienna to leave together.

Cast

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Production

File:Johnny Guitar ad - 25 May 1954.jpg
Theatrical advertisement from 1954

Crawford and Nick Ray were scheduled to make a film called Lisbon at Paramount, but the script proved unacceptable. Crawford, who held the film rights to the novel Johnny Guitar, which its author Roy Chanslor had dedicated to her, brought the script to Republic and had the studio hire Ray to direct an adaptation of it.<ref>Bette and Joan: The Divine Feud</ref><ref>Joan Crawford: The Ultimate Star</ref><ref name="The Essential Biography">Joan Crawford, The Essential Biography</ref><ref>Production Files</ref>

Crawford wanted either Bette Davis or Barbara Stanwyck for the role of Emma Small, but they were too expensive.<ref>Bette and Joan: The Divine Feud, page 266.</ref> Claire Trevor was next in mind for the role but was unable to accept because she was tied up with another film.<ref>Johnny Guitar production files</ref> Finally, Nicholas Ray brought in McCambridge.

Most people claimed Crawford was easy to work with, always professional, generous, patient, and kind.<ref name="auto">Johnny Dearest, www.sedonamonthly.com, October 2003</ref><ref>Interview with Ernest Borgnine, {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Issues between Crawford and McCambridge cropped up early on, but Ray was not alarmed at first. He found it "heaven sent" that they disliked each other and felt it added greatly to the dramatic conflict.<ref name="The Essential Biography"/> The reasons for the feud appear to date back to a time when Crawford had once dated McCambridge's husband, Fletcher Markle. According to some of the other co-stars, McCambridge needled Crawford about it.<ref name="auto"/> McCambridge also appears to have disliked that Crawford and Ray were in the midst of an affair. Crawford, on the other hand, disliked what she perceived to be "special attention" that Ray was giving to McCambridge.<ref name="The Essential Biography"/> Making things worse was that McCambridge was battling alcoholism during this period,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> something she admitted later contributed to the problems between her and Crawford.<ref>Mercedes Mccambridge: A Biography And Career Record</ref>

Home media

On September 20, 2016, Olive Films released the film on Blu-ray and DVD as part of its lineup, Olive Signature. The release features an archival introduction from Martin Scorsese, an audio commentary from Geoff Andrew, and several featurettes.<ref>Template:Cite press release</ref>

Reception and legacy

Box office

During its initial theatrical run, Johnny Guitar grossed $2.5 million in North American rentals.<ref name="Boxoffice" /> According to Kinematograph Weekly the film was a "money maker" at the British box office in 1954.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Critical reaction

Variety commented, "It proves [Crawford] should leave saddles and Levis to someone else and stick to city lights for a background. [The film] is only a fair piece of entertainment. [The scriptwriter] becomes so involved with character nuances and neuroses, all wrapped up in dialogue, that [the picture] never has a chance to rear up in the saddle... The people in the story never achieve much depth, this character shallowness being at odds with the pretentious attempt at analysis to which the script and direction devotes so much time."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Bosley Crowther of The New York Times singled out Crawford's physical appearance, stating "no more femininity comes from her than from the rugged Heflin in Shane. For the lady, as usual, is as sexless as the lions on the public library steps and as sharp and romantically forbidding as a package of unwrapped razor blades." He further commented that the film was no more than a "flat walk-through — or occasional ride-through—of western cliches...The color is slightly awful and the Arizona scenery is only fair. Let's put it down as a fiasco. Miss Crawford went that away."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Harrison's Reports praised the film as "one of the better pictures of its type. Filmed in what is without question the best example of Trucolor photography yet shown, its mixture of romance, hatred and violence grips one's attention throughout, in spite of the fact that it is overburdened with a number of 'talky' passages. This, however, is not a serious flaw and could be corrected by some judicious cutting of the rather overlong running time."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Critical re-evaluation

According to Martin Scorsese, contemporary American audiences "didn't know what to make of it, so they either ignored it or laughed at it." European audiences, on the other hand, not having the same biases as American audiences, saw Johnny Guitar for what it was: "an intense, unconventional, stylized picture, full of ambiguities and subtexts that rendered it extremely modern."<ref>Template:Cite AV mediaTemplate:Cbignore</ref> During its release overseas, the film found acclaim by then-critics Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut who wrote reviews in the French film magazine Cahiers du Cinéma.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Truffaut further described the film as the "Beauty and the Beast of Westerns, a Western dream". He was especially impressed by the film's extravagance: the bold colors, the poetry of the dialogue in certain scenes, and the theatricality which results in cowboys vanishing and dying "with the grace of ballerinas".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

In his 1988 release Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar paid homage to the film. His lead character Pepa Marcos (Carmen Maura), a voice artist, passes out while dubbing Vienna's voice in a scene where Johnny (voiced earlier by Pepa's ex-lover Iván) and Vienna banter about their conflicted past. Almodóvar's film also ends with a chase and an obsessed woman shooting at his lead character. In 2012, Japanese film director Shinji Aoyama listed Johnny Guitar as one of the greatest films of all time. He said, "Johnny Guitar is the only movie that I'd like to remake someday, although I know that it's impossible. It's probably closest to the worst nightmare I can have. I know for sure that my desire to remake this movie comes from my warped thought that I want to remake my own nightmare."<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

On the review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 94% with an average score of 8.52/10 based on 52 critics. The website's critical consensus reads: "Johnny Guitar confidently strides through genre conventions, emerging with a brilliant statement that transcends its period setting -- and left an indelible mark."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Template:Metacritic film prose<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:

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  • 2008: AFI's 10 Top 10:
    • Nominated Western Film<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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Stage musical adaptation

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} A stage musical based on the film and novel was created and debuted Off-Broadway in 2004, with a book by American television producer Nicholas van Hoogstraten, lyrics by Joel Higgins, and music by Martin Silvestri and Joel Higgins. The musical was nominated for numerous awards for the original production, and has been produced around the world. Licensing is available through Concord Theatricals.<ref name="loc.gov">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Concord Theatricals Johnny Guitar accessed 07-30-23</ref>

  • The film is seen briefly in Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown as the characters portrayed by Carmen Maura and Fernando Guillén are dubbers for the film into Spanish.
  • Vienna and Jill McBain (Claudia Cardinale) of Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West have similar backstories (both may be former prostitutes who become saloonkeepers), and both own land where a train station will be built because of access to water. Also, Harmonica (Charles Bronson), like Sterling Hayden's title character, is a mysterious, gunslinging outsider known by his musical nickname. Some of West's central plot (Western settlers vs. the railroad company) may be recycled from Johnny Guitar.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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See also

References

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