Johnny Guitar

This unusual 1954 cult Western stars Joan Crawford as Vienna, the owner of a gambling house on the fringes of a frontier community, and Mercedes McCambridge as Emma Small, the repressed town leader who tries to drive her out of the territory. These two powerful female leads are more masculine than the men who surround them, and director Nicholas Ray keeps the attention focused on the tension between the pair even as the story swerves to incorporate a bank robbery, a lynch mob, and a hysterical campaign to get rid of Vienna. Although it lacks the genre's usual outdoor action spectacle, Johnny Guitar is full of explosive twists and violent clashes in addition to psychological conflicts and political dimensions (including an allegorical take on the McCarthy era's Hollywood witch hunts). Sterling Hayden plays the title character, a man with a past as complicated as Vienna's, but his role seems more like the male counterpart of the traditional loyal girlfriend. Costars include Ward Bond, Scott Brady, John Carradine, Ernest Borgnine, and Royal Dano, who all carve out memorable images from stock types. A rich, vivid drama directed with operatic flair by an artist at the peak of his powers, this will appeal to fans of classic Westerns and lovers of offbeat cinema. Debuting on DVD and Blu-ray in a beautifully mastered edition, extras include an introduction by Martin Scorsese. Highly recommended. (S. Axmaker)[Blu-ray/DVD Review—Oct. 4, 2016—Olive, 110 min., not rated, DVD: $34.95, Blu-ray: $39.95—Making its latest appearance on DVD and Blu-ray, 1954's Johnny Guitar features a great transfer and DTS-HD 2.0 audio on the Blu-ray edition. Extras include audio commentary by critic Geoff Andrew, the behind-the-scenes cinema history featurettes “A Western Like No Other” (18 min.), “A Feminist Western?” (15 min.), “Tell Us She Was One of You: The Blacklist History” (11 min.), “My Friend, the American Friend” (11 min.), “The First Existential Western” (11 min.), and “Free Republic: Herbert J. Yates and the Story of Republic Pictures” (6 min.), as well as an intro by Martin Scorsese (3 min.), a booklet, and trailers. Bottom line: a handsome, extras-packed edition of this cult classic Western.]