"Johnny Guitar" is a regular Western with one notable exception: the gender roles are reversed, and that in such a traditional genre as the Western! The fighting is between the women (Vienna played by Joan Crawford and Emma played by Mercedes McCambridge) while men are playing second violin (or guitar) as their love interests.
Another aspect whose importance cannot be missed is the color of especially the dresses. Vienna changes all of a sudden from black to white and later on uses different primary colors among which red and yellow. Her enemies led by Emma are mostly in black because they are in a mourning period. Although the importance of color for this film is rather obvious, I didn't break the code for the symbolic meaning. Whoever wants to make an attempt is kindly invited.
Not obvious at all, at least not to me, was the relation of the film to the McCarthy years and the activities of the HUAC (House Committee on Un-American activities). Nevertheless review after review that I read after seeing the film was stressing this relationship.
On second glance there is some truth in it. Emma is played by Mercedes McCambridge not as the "normal" enemy of Vienna, but with such an intense hatred that it evokes associations with the determination with which McCarthy made his witch hunt. Also the pressure put on a young boy to (falsly) testify against Vienna in order to save his own life resembles the pressure put on left wing directors to drop names of their colleagues in the McCarthy years. Last but not least the script for "Johnny Guitar" was written (uncredited) by Ben Maddow , who had unpleasant experiences with the HUAC and was forced to leave the credits for his screenplay to Philip Yordan.
