THE Western genre film typically features hypermasculine leads and an anti-modernization message. Johnny Guitar (directed by Nicholas Ray) supports the traditional view of gender roles, but uses that support to then go against the idea of technological stagnation. With the scene of Emma (Mercedes McCambridge) burning down Vienna’s (Joan Crawford) saloon, and thus preventing a new railroad station based town, Johnny Guitar attaches the woman it vilifies for her traditionally masculine traits to the destruction of progress. By association, Johnny Guitar manages to subvert the Western’s nostalgia for simpler times.
Emma, the woman who rejects the Dancin’ Kid’s (Scott Brady) advances, represents femininity gone astray. She has no man, she attempts to control and lead on her own, and her short haircut lends to an all around butch appearance. It is for this deviation from the norm that Johnny Guitar crucifies Emma. The film takes advantage of audiences’ bias against strong females in the genre to turn them against her. So once the film does show Emma upholding a staple of the genre by her burning down the saloon, because audiences have already labeled Emma as the antagonist her actions become those of a villain. Thus by leaning into one regressive trope Johnny Guitar manages to subvert another.
At the beginning of the aforementioned scene, we see Emma holding a rifle while in high-key lighting with dramatic music playing in the background. As Emma fires the rifle the lighting shifts to low-key, casting shadows upon her. A close-up of the flames she creates follows, with violins now added to the score. Next we see her face, again in low-key lighting, but now also lit by the flames. As Emma backs out of the saloon and into the wilderness, Johnny Guitar completes its thorough denouncement of her. With Emma backing up closer and closer to the fixed camera, the shot ends with a close-up of her wicked smile, drums beating and flames raging behind her (complimented nicely by her bright red lipstick). The transition from a brightly lit scene to shadows and flames, the crescendo of the score, and the close-up of her hateful celebration cement Emma as a detestable character.
This is in stark contrast to Vienna, who repents for her sins of independence. Vienna returns to the warm embrace of Johnny Guitar (Sterling Hayden), finding herself back at the side of her man. She is no longer the rogue woman building an empire of her own from the beginning of the film, but the damsel in distress wearing the pure white dress, waiting for her gallant knight to ride down on his white horse and save her. Johnny Guitar transitions Vienna from a self-sufficient entrepreneur to a more sympathetic character that audiences recognize as one who needs and deserves saving.
Vienna may no longer represent a deviation from gender norms, but she still represents the progress of civilization. The saloon that she built in anticipation of the coming railroad encapsulates small town fears of urbanization and the destruction of a simpler way of life.
When Emma transitions from the interior of the saloon to the wild outdoors, it symbolizes the refusal to accept progress. No longer confined by the laws of a modern society, the characters can give in to their urge for primal mob justice. The outdoors houses freedom, violence, hangings, and untamed wilderness. It does not have established rules or hierarchies and is ripe for exploitation (but not by outsiders). Watching a seemingly deranged Emma skip out of Vienna’s burning saloon sends a clear message- that those who seek to turn back time are irrational and maniacal. The doors of the saloon are a boundary in the world of Johnny Guitar, and with Emma burning them down she proclaims her willingness to send society backwards for the sake of her own self-interests.
The scene concludes with a long shot of Johnny Guitar and his white horse emerging from the trees, the camera panning to follow. Here, the music pauses for a brief second with Johnny’s introduction. The dramatic score from the destruction of the saloon subsides after one last long shot of the building. We see another long shot of the mob, and then Johnny rides his horse from a long to a medium close shot as he proceeds to follow. The white imagery, musical introduction, and dramatic panning reveal all establish Johnny as a force for good. The back to back long shots of the saloon and mob strengthen the connection between the two, act as Johnny’s gaze, and establish his motivation. The film reinforces the unwarranted nature of the destruction and provides us with a hero to rectify the situation and deliver true justice. Johnny arrives as the savior of the damsel (a stand in for modernization) and sets off to tame Emma and the lawless wilderness she represents.
Westerns traditionally support the nostalgia for slow and quaint towns of the frontier, yet in Johnny Guitar the individual halting that progress gets characterized as one to root against. With Emma as the villain, the film condemns her actions and expects the audience to as well. Yet, she accomplishes the goal of many Western heroes. She successfully (at least temporarily) holds off those who encroach upon her lifestyle. She rids the town of the saloon and the increased traffic and urbanization it would have brought. But because of the lighting, score, and framing the film successfully trains the audience to see Emma’s actions as treacherous. Therefore, instead of celebrating the upholding of classical Western values, viewers lament the destruction of the town’s growth. Johnny Guitar uses the audience’s own inclination to demonize strong female characters to in turn condemn one of the staple themes of the genre.
