Holy shit, where has this been all my life?
But enough from me. Here’s what my mother thought:
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When Joan Crawford, Vienna, first made her appearance at the top of the stairs dressed in a tight cowgirl outfit, as the tough female owner of the saloon, I knew I was in for something different. After she stages her entry, she then begins to descend the stairs with her back turned to the audience consisting of men and one other woman, Emma. While walking down the stairs she suddenly turns holding a pistol looking as though she could and would use it. She did not disappoint.
As she ascended she acted tough and talked tough in response to another tough woman who was her equal in the group of men below her, Emma who keeps hollering for the other men to shoot Vienna. She claimed Vienna had caused the death of her brother in being associated with the outlaw known as the ‘Dancing Kid’. The names induce a sense of homoerotism into the movie. Some of these men were with Vienna, including Johnny Guitar, her ex-lover that had turned up only that day to play the guitar. However, we don’t know about the past relationship between the Johnny and Vienna until latter but their interactions and body language was of such intensity that would put any silent movie to shame only adds to the building spice in the film.
It was not only the sexual spice of the Vienna and Johnny that gripped me but also the aggression between the two women, which had a homoerotic quality to it. For this reason, it had me thinking that this film was about a lesbian break-up but in the end it involved males taking sides with whoever they thought was right. After most of the ‘baddies’ were killed, including Emma, the film folded into something more ordinary, with the two ex lovers finding that they were still in love and restarting their relationship.
