New posts

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Willie Oleson" data-source="post: 443192" data-attributes="member: 8">Johnny Guitar (1954)[ATTACH=full]59459[/ATTACH]If this is Joan's "greatest triumph" then I really have to ask what made her such a celebrated powerhouse in the first place (compared to Katharine Hepburn and Liz Taylor, just to name two talented actresses).Indeed, apart from BABY JANE I have yet to see a Joan Crawford film that's actually good, and perhaps this is the time to revise my opinion of MOMMIE DEAREST.Sure, it may be a bad movie by "Faye Dunaway" standards, but from a meta point of view it's a film about Joan Crawford in the style of Joan Crawford.Anyway, here we have Johnny Guitar which is really Joanie Guitar, but that's fine - a film doesn't have to be about its title.In fact, Johnny 'Guitar' Logan is so brutally sidelined that it almost looks as if he isn't there. Comments directly aimed at Johnny are often telegraphed through Crawford's "Vienna": Ask him to.... / Tell him to....The film operates purely on a melodramatic level which is not exceptional in the Western genre, but it's also presented in a comic book-style string of frames and scenes.There's no natural flow in dialogue, every line is delivered as an independent statement and the only thing that's missing are the exclamation marks.If this was a stylistic choice then it deserves to be judged on those artistic merits, and not on what-it's-not or what could-have-been.I think the problem is in the script because the forceful one-liners are too matter-of-factly, it needed to be more witty and snappy to make it work.Thirty minutes into the film and we've only got the character introductions, a bunch of angry people having arguments in a nonsensical way. Some characters are accused and instantly convicted based on "because we say so".The first half of the film is these actors standing around waiting for a cue to shout their monotonous lines, and it made me struggle to stay focused.The Dancin' Kid's reasoning - if you're going to be convicted of a crime regardless of your guilt then you may as well do something bad - seems almost disproportionately refreshing and insightful compared to what had come before.This is when the story starts moving, with various results but at least there's something to focus on. The best bits come from some of the supporting characters like Turkey and Tom.When Tom's dying he says "Everybody's looking at me. It's the first time I ever felt important".I guess that perfectly describes what it's like to co-star in a Joan Crawford movie (and John Carradine has to share that particular frame with JC, but thankfully no one mentioned it).I find it peculiar that Joan Crawford has made a career out of playing strong-willed tough broads, but when she has to play it bitchy it looks stiff and unconvincing.She's much better in the moments when she's a tearful wide-eyed defeated melodramatic character, and for me the reason why she could never have played the role of Baby Jane Hudson (in case it had been considered).It's possible that she was a bigger bitch than Bette Davis in real life, I don't know I wasn't there.Mercedes McCambridge as antagonist Emma Small is pure histrionics but the rage is entertaining enough to keep it all together. [ATTACH=full]59460[/ATTACH]I would have liked to see some suffering to make her look less one-dimensional. The scene in which she kills Dancin' Kid (of all characters) should have been a pivotal moment but they do absolutely nothing with it. In fact, the whole shootout is anticlimatic.Johnny Guitar himself kinda remains a mystery, you have to make an effort to see him even in close-ups, so perhaps the film title is very on topic after all.Apart from a scene at the beginning of the story he doesn't actually play his guitar, maybe that has something to do with it.Posting this song (again) - the best Santa Esmeralda song not made by Santa Esmeralda.[MEDIA=youtube]6jDY9KDFEx8[/MEDIA]</blockquote>

Verification: What month follows July?