{"product_id":"johnny-guitar","title":"Johnny Guitar","description":"\u003cb\u003eThe first book on the groundbreaking 1954 Western by director Nicholas Ray, controversial in its time, now celebrated as a groundbreaking example of high camp, LGBTQ themes, and the outer limits of the Hollywood system.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e What to make of \u003ci\u003eJohnny Guitar\u003c\/i\u003e, Nicholas Ray’s high-drama psychological Western from 1954? The film met with a mixed reception on its release but over the years has assumed cult status in some circles, with some critics now citing it among the greatest examples of the genre. In this first-ever book on this divisive Western, Brooks Hefner disentangles the tortured production history of the film and explores the question of what makes \u003ci\u003eJohnny Guitar\u003c\/i\u003e not only an important film but an important Western in an era rife with classic examples of the genre. Made at the peak of director Nicholas Ray’s career, \u003ci\u003eJohnny Guitar\u003c\/i\u003e’s layered themes of gender, sexuality, psychology, and politics make it one of the richest examples of the “adult Western,” those increasingly sophisticated films like George Stevens’s \u003ci\u003eShane\u003c\/i\u003e (1953), John Ford’s \u003ci\u003eThe Searchers\u003c\/i\u003e (1956), and the Westerns of Anthony Mann and Budd Boetticher. At the same time, \u003ci\u003eJohnny Guitar\u003c\/i\u003e represented an effort by B studio Republic Pictures to produce a prestige picture with major Hollywood stars like Joan Crawford and Sterling Hayden. Hefner shows how, with the studio system beginning to crumble, \u003ci\u003eJohnny Guitar\u003c\/i\u003e sits at a moment when stars and directors began to exert more control over their images and films.","brand":"University of New Mexico Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56673167147352,"sku":"9780826369642","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/1295\/4195\/files\/9780826369642_7f316076-e1a6-4561-bedf-2a928450fafc.jpg?v=1779431419","url":"https:\/\/agendabookshop.com\/products\/johnny-guitar","provider":"Agenda Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}