J Is For Johnny Guitar (1954)

From http://softmorningcity.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/johnny_guitar.jpg

Dir. Nicholas Ray

There is a lot of classic American westerns I want to watch, more so now that I have an appreciation for them. I admit I've been more positive about the later revisionist and lurid films, from The Wild Bunch (1969) and spaghetti westerns, but that was because they all had a distinct personality, even as part of a collective sub-genre, that made them all unique and have something to make them stand out. Johnny Guitar, revisiting it, is the sort of film that exemplified this. My first viewing of it years ago I thought there was nothing special about it, but with a lot of time to see more films, including westerns, that opinion is baffling now considering how unconventional it truly is. Its drastically different from the classical American Western of the fifties and before admittedly, but it showed me there are probably a lot of distinct and interesting films in its golden period I once dismissed as potentially dull.

Review Link - http://www.videotapeswapshop.co.uk/14939/j-is-for-johnny-guitar-1954-director-nicholas-ray/

From http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film4/blu-ray_reviews57/johnny_guitar_blu-ray_/large/large_johnny_guitar_blu-ray_x08.jpg