I don't really know why this movie has such a decent reputation. Yes, the plot is unusual and Sterling Hayden is fine in the male lead but the problem I had in the movie was the role played by Joan Crawford. Her part just wasn't believable and actually made me laugh. This is because it just isn't consistent--one minute she acts like Ma Kettle on crack, the next a female version of Edward G. Robinson and the next she seems to be in an unconvincing clinch with a man. I wonder if the movie were done nowadays with differing sensibilities that the movie would have been made much differently--with Vienna (Crawford) being cast as a lesbian. As I watched her in the movie, I just kept thinking that maybe that was exactly what the writers had in mind but were afraid to broach the subject in the 1950s. In fact, they seemed to almost "tack on" the romance with Hayden precisely because they were worried that the average viewer might just think she was gay. Interesting from this standpoint but otherwise a very silly western despite it having achieved minor cult status.

If Johnny Guitar is known for anything else except possibly being the first lesbian western that some folks describe it as, it will be for that practical piece of wisdom that title character Sterling Hayden offers when he refuses to shake hands with Scott Brady.

I wonder what Barbara Stanwyck was doing when Johnny Guitar was made. The part that Joan Crawford plays her is definitely one that Stanwyck must have been given first consideration for. It's more her kind of role than Crawford's. Still Joan manages to adapt to the strange western settings for her. It's certainly unusual for her not to be dressed to the nines in those Adrian gowns that MGM used to give her.

As a film Johnny Guitar suffers from some bad editing. Missing here I'm sure is a whole beginning sequence that explains just why Joan and Mercedes McCambridge hate each other so. When it opens the men of the town and McCambridge are looking for the gang that held up a stagecoach and killed McCambridge's brother.

I doubt it was director Nicholas Ray's fault. I'd put my money on it being the fault of Herbert J. Yates. He was quite the miser and his studio made its bones on doing those quickie B westerns that starred Roy Rogers, Gene Autry and a host of other singing and non-singing cowboys. Nothing with as much meat on it as Johnny Guitar.

Crawford's the owner of a saloon/gambling palace that's way out on the plains by itself. But she's built it there because the railroad's coming through and director Rhys Williams has promised that a depot will be built in that spot.

The prospect of lots of new immigrants bothers big cattle baron Ward Bond and smaller ranchers like McCambridge. But she's got a bigger reason for a mean-on with Crawford. It seems as though outlaw Scott Brady likes Crawford and won't give McCambridge a tumble. But we don't KNOW that for sure and a lot read into the film lesbianism, mainly because of McCambridge's own sexual proclivities and the fact that Joan Crawford was occasionally supposed to indulge.

Anyway Crawford's tired of Brady and she sends for an old flame, Sterling Hayden, to help her out. Now she's got two guys panting after her and McCambridge can't get a date. What's a gal to do?

It's all a pretty bloody business climaxing in a shootout with the two women. That has to be seen.

Johnny Guitar is a good western, but I would probably rate it a lot higher if we saw a director's cut.

I'm not a big fan of Westerns. I just find a sameness to them that I can't get over. I had read that this was interesting. It was. First of all, the two protagonists are women. Joan Crawford, hanging on to her saloon, waiting for the arrival of the railroad, and Mercedes McCambridge, looking absolutely possessed, getting every man in town to follow her to the point of hanging people. Then there's Sterling Hayden, Jack Ripper from Dr. Strangelove, a puzzling character of great complexity, the gunfighter who can't stay out of the business. Add a few character actors and a relentless effort to ignite a fire and keep progress away, and you've got a really engaging film. It's obvious this was made with a higher budget, good camera work and some excellent settings. I'm sure someone has addressed all the symbols in the movie. Green dresses (envy),white dresses (purity),red dresses (time to kick butt). There are lots of scenes framed for effect as well. I recommend this film.