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| Marc |
 Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2009 12:45 am |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
Posts: 8424
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I can't recall anyone calling JOHNNY GUITAR a "great" film. It's a great looking technicolor b-movie that has something to say, very much like Sam Fuller's films. Ray's REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE was not a "great" film but it was culturally important, like rock and roll. Nic Ray made genre flicks that were self-reflective and subversive. As did Sirk and as does Verhoeven. Working within the system, these directors questioned societal hierarchies and sexual politics.
JOHNNY GUITAR is a Reichian reflection on what happens when unrepressed sexual energy smacks up against puritanism, when the rebel spirit enrages the systems of oppression. Hayden is raw sex and free spirit, a gunslinger (cocksman) and musician. Crawford is the feminine force flung free from stereotypical femininity. Mercedes McCambridge is the sexually repressed face of fascism. What happens when penis envy (McCambridge) meets the fastest gun in the west, a guitar playing cowboy beatnick (Hayden) and Johnny Cash with a pussy (Crawford)? JOHNNY GUITAR is not "great". It is better than "great". It is art. |
Last edited by Marc on Sun Apr 26, 2009 10:07 am; edited 1 time in total |
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| Marj |
| Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2009 1:21 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
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Location: Manhattan
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Marc wrote: I think that GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK could have been a great introduction to Edward R. Murrow and McCarthyism for a young audience. It would have been better as a several hour mini-series. It bit off a lot for a relatively short film (93 minutes, including the romantic interlude). I know a fair amount about McCarthy and Murrow and I even had a hard time filling in some of the blanks.
I would agree with you, Marc, if that was all it was about. Since I seem to be its one proponent, I decided to rewatch it again tonight.
What Clooney and Co., did was not only give us a snapshot of Murrow and McCarthyism, he also showed us the first real stab at editorial TV news. Up until then, news only reported but never, ever took a stand. And what a choice for a stand! But what I personally think makes this film important was that it was a double standard stand. Not only did this staff have to take loyalty oaths, they weren't allowed to marry. That Murrow himself had communist leanings, was included as a strange and eerie subplot.
But GN&GL wasn't really about Murrow or McCarthy. It was about fear. The kind of fear we're hopefully coming out of after eight long years. The fear of wiretapping and Privacy Acts. It was also about the fear of the unknown. Any 'first' carries that fear with it. And it was palpable.
This staff had to go through a kind of fear that we'll never know, because they blazed the trail. They editorialized news on TV and some lost their jobs as a result; some lost much more. And in the end it was thought of as just another commercial failure. But was it?
I won't go into the camera angles, the stark black and white cinematography, the score or the acting. Anyone can rent the film and watch it for all these excellent elements. And I agree, it's probably not the greatest story ever told. But I'm certainly glad it was. It's a moment in history that I know a lot of TV journalists are grateful for. Print journalists too. But most especially everyone who voted for Barack Obama.
I'm left wondering if he would be our president today, were it not for that moment in history over 50 years ago. I doubt it. |
Last edited by Marj on Sun Apr 26, 2009 1:43 am; edited 1 time in total |
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| mo_flixx |
| Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2009 1:42 am |
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Joined: 30 May 2004
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marantzo wrote: Yeah I remeber seeing him on Carson, now that you mention it, but I don't remember the substance of what he said.
I believe he moved onto his boat when the tax people were after him or his ex was after him. I can't remember which. I remember clearly when it was in the news. I thought it was cool. 
It was the ex he had married and divorced_three_ times. He had tax problems also. There are interesting quotes from Hayden at the imdb.com . They remind me somewhat of the quotes given by Geo. Sanders who committed suicide at age 66 because he was, in essence, bored with life. Both were people who didn't put a lot of effort into performing...although Hayden admitted that he 'froze' in front of a camera. Hayden's wartime exploits make for interesting reading.
Derek Malcolm from "The Guardian" calls "Johnny Guitar" a 'baroque and deliriously stylized Western.' He compares it to Lang's "Rancho Notorious" and Walsh's "Pursued." |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2009 5:10 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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Hayden wrote a memoir about his life on the boat. Its title was the boat's name, Wayfarer, which was of course how Hayden saw himself as well.
Marc--Thanks for your fascinating and thoughtful take on Johnny Guitar. I'm going to see it again as soon as I can. Btw, it's Mercedes McCambridge. She won the supporting Oscar for All the King's Men. In her autobiography she savaged Joan Crawford with a violence that is rare for an actress talking about another actress. An interesting confirmation of Mommie Dearest. |
Last edited by billyweeds on Sun Apr 26, 2009 5:15 am; edited 2 times in total |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2009 5:14 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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| Marj--Thanks for the eloquent defense of Good Night, and Good Luck. (Note the comma in the title, btw.) You make some very good points. I will probably see the film again on the strength of what you wrote. No promises, however, about changing my mind. I thought it was really, really dull. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2009 5:18 am |
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Marc wrote: I can't recall anyone calling JOHNNY GUITAR a "great" film.
Roger Ebert did. He's included it in his very selective list of "The Great Movies." Here's his take:
http://tinyurl.com/d227e5 |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2009 5:30 am |
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| Whether or not Johnny Guitar is a great film, Nicholas Ray IMO was indubitably a great director. My favorite Ray (and I love Rebel Without a Cause, btw) was In a Lonely Place, in which Ray gets Humphrey Bogart to play one of the most thoroughly unlikeable leading roles in movie history and still make us care about him. For me, it's Bogart's best performance ever, as well as Gloria Grahame's. Grahame finally gets a chance to play a layered character and she comes through triumphantly. Bogart plays a screenwriter with a hair-trigger temper and a violent nature who gets mixed up in murder. The ending is iconic, and the entire movie is...well..."great." |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2009 10:09 am |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
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billy,
thanks for heads up on the spelling of Mercede's last name.
If Mercede's did indeed loathe Crawford, she expresses it with vigor in Johnny Guitar. |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2009 10:11 am |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
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billy,
what do you think of REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE? |
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| mo_flixx |
| Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2009 11:13 am |
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Joined: 30 May 2004
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billyweeds wrote: ...In [Mercedes McCambridge's] autobiography she savaged Joan Crawford with a violence that is rare for an actress talking about another actress....
Sterling Hayden also said that he would never do another picture with Crawford. |
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| mo_flixx |
| Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2009 11:20 am |
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Joined: 30 May 2004
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billyweeds wrote: Marc wrote: I can't recall anyone calling JOHNNY GUITAR a "great" film.
Roger Ebert did. He's included it in his very selective list of "The Great Movies." Here's his take:
http://tinyurl.com/d227e5
Ebert likes the movie a lot, calls it "goofy" and "strange," but I don't find the word "great" in the text. I read the review earlier.
Both "Johnny Guitar" and "Rebel Without a Cause" strike me as the kinds of movies that would be highly revered by European critics because of the films' social implications. |
Last edited by mo_flixx on Sun Apr 26, 2009 11:54 am; edited 1 time in total |
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| lissa |
| Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2009 11:29 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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By virtue of the fact that he includes it in a list of "Great Movies" - Ebert's deeming the movie great. He qualifies his feelings, discusses extraordinary moments, and seems to just have enjoyed the ride. I don't think he needed to say it was great in order for one to see that he is enamored of it.
I've never seen it but from Ebert's review, my curiosity is piqued! |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2009 11:29 am |
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Marc--I said in my post that I love Rebel Without a Cause but that In a Lonely Place is my favorite of all Nick Ray movies.
Mo--Ebert included Johnny Guitar in his self-titled list of "The Great Movies." |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2009 11:30 am |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2009 11:32 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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lissa wrote: By virtue of the fact that he includes it in a list of "Great Movies" - Ebert's deeming the movie great. He qualifies his feelings, discusses extraordinary moments, and seems to just have enjoyed the ride. I don't think he needed to say it was great in order for one to see that he is enamored of it.
I've never seen it but from Ebert's review, my curiosity is piqued!
I bet you love it. In case I didn't make it clear, I love it too--just would stop short of giving it a tremendous amount of artistic cred. It's tremendous fun, and without question the best movie I've ever seen from Republic Studios--and I'm including the vastly overpraised The Quiet Man. |
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