![\"johnny-Guitar.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/johnny-Guitar.jpg\")
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\nThe wonderful Bill has some capsule reviews here<\/a>, and one of the films is Johnny Guitar<\/i>. (Gotta love in the poster above how the headline is “Joan’s Greatest Triumph”. No last name necessary, then or now. Makes me think of Meryl Streep’s tired rejoinder to her mother Shirley MacLaine’s suggestion that she should count her blessings because she “could have had Joan Crawford or Lana Turner for a mother”. Meryl says, exhausted, “Joan? Lana? These are the options?”) Mitchell and I texted our way through Johnny Guitar<\/i> during my isolated sojourn on Block Island last month. I have a record of our conversation, and here it is, in its unedited glory and shame. Naturally, after the movie finished, I had to call him right away so we could talk in person. Johnny Guitar<\/i> is a gorgeously colored swamp of sexual psychodrama. It is also a Western. The gender roles flip-flopp, switch, meld together. Francois Truffaut, in his essay on it wrote:<\/p>\n Johnny Guitar<\/i> is a phony Western, but not an “intellectual” one. It is dreamed, a fairy tale, a hallucinatory Western. It was only a step from the dream to Freud, which our Anglo-Saxon colleagues took up when they began talking about “psychoanalytic Westerns”. But the qualities of Ray’s film are something different, not very visible perhaps to those who have never looked through a camera’s viewer…Johnny Guitar<\/i> was “made” rather hastily, out of very long scenes that were cut up into ten segments. The editing is jerky, but what interests us is something else: for example, an extraordinarily beautiful placement of individuals in a certain setting. (The members of the patrol at Vienna’s, for example, arrange themselves in the V of migratory birds.) There are two films in Johnny Guitar<\/i>: Ray’s recurring theme – the relationships among the two men and two women, the violence and bitterness – and an extravagant catch-all done in Joseph von Sternberg style, a style which is absolutely foreign to Ray’s work, but which in this case is no less interesting. For instance, we watch Joan Crawford, in a white dress, playing the piano in a cavernous saloon, with a candlestick and a pistol beside her. Johnny Guitar<\/i> is the Beauty and the Beast<\/i> of Westerns, a Western dream. The cowboys vanish and die with the grace of ballerinas. The bold violent color (by Trucolor) contributes to the sense of strangeness; the hues are vivid, sometimes very beautiful, always unexpected.<\/p>\n The public on the Champs-Elysees wasn’t mistaken to snicker at Johnny Guitar<\/i>. In five years they’ll be crowding into the Cinema d’Essai to applaud it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Here we go:<\/p>\n Mitchell<\/strong>: Johnny Guitar is on tcm. \n \nMitchell<\/strong>: It’s so hyper realism. All archtypes turned on their head. With poetic dialogue and saturated color. Gender studies heaven \n \nMitchell<\/strong>: Truffaut and Almadovar worship this film \n \nMitchell<\/strong>: Perfect \n \nMe<\/strong>: Really?? Movie over. Ring, ring ….<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The wonderful Bill has some capsule reviews here, and one of the films is Johnny Guitar. (Gotta love in the poster above how the headline is “Joan’s Greatest Triumph”. No last name necessary, then or now. Makes me think of … Continue reading
\nMitchell<\/strong>: Camp. Retro. Psychological classic.
\nMe<\/strong>: Thrilling.
\nThe movie begins. We continue to text one another throughout.<\/i>
\nMe<\/strong>: Omg her outfit.
\nMitchell<\/strong>: The colors of the film r great.
\nMe<\/strong>: I’m so used to seeing her in black and white.
\nMitchell<\/strong>: The lesbian villain has arrived. Not subtle. Ray was subversive.
\nMe<\/strong>: Yes quite blatant. I love the wind in the background
\nMitchell<\/strong>: He created a whole Lez icon… lipstick. And a gun.
\nMe<\/strong>: And a butch haircut
\nMitchell<\/strong>: “if I don’t kill u fearst.”
\nMe<\/strong>: Wow. Johnny Guitar’s speaking voice is seeexy
\nMe<\/strong>: Hahaha fearst
\nMe<\/strong>: The lesbian is upset
\nMitchell<\/strong>: She said tramp like wishful thinking
\nMe<\/strong>: Exactly. You wish you could be a tramp!
\nMitchell<\/strong>: Like she is so sexually repressed. She is rageful
\nMe<\/strong>: Joan is scary gorgeous
\nMitchell<\/strong>: Look at her brows
\nMe<\/strong>: love her acting
\nMitchell<\/strong>: Me too. She means business
\nMe<\/strong>: I guess I didn’t know her eyes were so blue
\nMitchell<\/strong>: She was blue eyed and freckled
\nMe<\/strong>: Is that Ernest Borgnine?
\nMitchell<\/strong>: Yup
\nMe<\/strong>: Her tie is killing me.<\/p>\n![\"joan-crawford-johnny-guitar-vienna%5B1%5D.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/joan-crawford-johnny-guitar-vienna%5B1%5D.jpg\")
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\nMe<\/strong>: Turkey lost his virginity to Vienna, I’m thinkin
\nMitchell<\/strong>: Nice call
\nMitchell<\/strong>: Wait until Joan wears all white
\nMe<\/strong>: How old is Joan here?
\nMitchell<\/strong>: 49
\nMe<\/strong>: Wow
\nMitchell<\/strong>: Hot
\nMe<\/strong>: Smokin
\nMe<\/strong>: I love how Joan just said that line “Enough”.
\nMitchell<\/strong>: I want Lez back. All angry and moist
\nMe<\/strong>: She’s angry BECAUSE she’s moist. What a betrayal of the body
\nMitchell<\/strong>: Exactly. Also the cowboy rivals for Joan are a dancer and a musician. Not exactly butch. The women are butcher
\nMe<\/strong>: Right, lots of anxiety about gender
\nMitchell<\/strong>: Can’t be accidental. Not with Ray’s issues
\nMe<\/strong>: Oh totally
\nMe<\/strong>: Oh, Turkey.
\nMitchell<\/strong>: Lol
\nMe<\/strong>: Jesus, Johnny Guitar is hot
\nMe<\/strong>: Beautiful colors
\nMitchell<\/strong>: Bad dreams<\/p>\n![\"Johnny-Guitar-1.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/Johnny-Guitar-1.jpg\")
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\nMe<\/strong>: The colors remind me of Almadovar
\nMitchell<\/strong>: So true. I think he even refers to it in Women on the Verge
\nMitchell<\/strong>: Turkey needs a spanking
\nMe<\/strong>: He “makes her feel like a woman and that frightens her”. What a line!
\nMe<\/strong>: Emma, you need to chillax
\nMitchell<\/strong>: Put ur cock away lesbian!
\nMe<\/strong>: Rude!!
\nMitchell<\/strong>: I think they pass Turkey around when there ain’t no women folk
\nMe<\/strong>: Oh definitely Turkey is their bitch boy
\nMitchell<\/strong>: Blue and orange colors
\nMe<\/strong>: White dress!
\nMitchell<\/strong>: So girly all of a sudden
\nMe<\/strong>: Joan at the piano?? Brill!<\/p>\n![\"joan-crawford-1-johnny-guitar.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/joan-crawford-1-johnny-guitar.jpg\")
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\nMitchell<\/strong>: Black and white ladies
\nMe<\/strong>: But the short hair is a dead giveaway
\nMe<\/strong>: She’s just such a damn good actress
\nMe<\/strong>: Poor Turkey
\nMitchell<\/strong>: Sweet boy
\nMitchell<\/strong>: Emma did the devil’s voice in The Exorcist<\/p>\n![\"11450.gif\"](\"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/11450.gif\")
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\nMitchell<\/strong>: Yup
\nMe<\/strong>: Every shot is a mini work of art
\nMitchell<\/strong>: It’s style as substance. Ya know?
\nMe<\/strong>: Yes, style as substance. So many directors now cannot manage that
\nMitchell<\/strong>: Btw. Turkey tied up with pretty red lips is such fetish porn. I fucking love this movie
\nMitchell<\/strong>: Tom Ford does in A Single Man … and Tim Burton. But it’s rare.
\nMe<\/strong>: Rare yes. Michael Mann does it too.
\nMitchell<\/strong>: Yes
\nMe<\/strong>: Look at Joan swimming!
\nMitchell<\/strong>: Lol. Like my aunt Dottie
\nMe<\/strong>: Ha! You know, Joan was a huge star obviously, but I sense very little vanity in her actual acting
\nMitchell<\/strong>: She liked working
\nMe<\/strong>: You can really sense that
\nMitchell<\/strong>: She and Mercedes hated each other
\nMe<\/strong>: Really?
\nMitchell<\/strong>: Yeah. Joan was threatened by her … acted aloof.
\nMe<\/strong>: In a cage match I’d bet on Joan
\nMitchell<\/strong>: She’ll fight dirty
\nMe<\/strong>: This is a fascinating movie. Ur right … subversive.
\nMitchell<\/strong>: Here we go. Showdown.
\nMe<\/strong>: !!
\nMitchell<\/strong>: The women are having the showdown in 1954
\nMitchell<\/strong>: Great Peggy Lee song<\/p>\n