Both Nicholas Ray’s Johnny Guitar and Don Siegel’s Two Mules for Sister Sara feature something that is particularly strange for the Western genre. Both of them feature someone other than the alpha-male cowboy as the top billing. Instead, these films feature Joan Crawford and Shirley MacLane, the films’ leading ladies in the top position, and deservedly so.
In Two Mules for Sister Sara, Shirley MacLane plays Sara, a prostitute who poses as a nun for almost the entire movie. As the “other” in this movie, Sara has Hogan, Clint Eastwood’s character fooled the entire time. She manipulates him into helping her get to Mexico and does not reveal her true identity to him until she deems it absolutely necessary to use a friend’s whore house to sneak into the French camp in the area. She has to do this because if she were to reveal her true identity to him he would have left her on her own trying and she would have been captured by French soldiers that were in the area. She is clearly very resourceful as she is able to keep this act up without Hogan becoming very suspicious although he does notice some strange things, such as her heavy drinking. Sara is clearly a strong character who knows how to get what she wants.
In Johnny Guitar, Joan Crawford plays Vienna who is also a strong character, but not in the same way as Sara. Although Vienna needs to be saved by Johnny from being hanged, she is a very smart woman who owns a saloon and knows how to use a gun. Vienna and Emma Small also had what had to have been the first woman vs. woman gunfight in the history of the Western. This was a groundbreaking film for women who at the time were just beginning to be able to do the same jobs as men. Both of these films were obviously made with the idea of showing what women can do. Women of the time could be just as cunning as men as Sara is and could be just as successful as business owners as Vienna is.
Both Nicholas Ray’s Johnny Guitar and Don Siegel’s Two Mules for Sister Sara feature something that is particularly strange for the Western genre. Both of them feature someone other than the alpha-male cowboy as the top billing. Instead, these films feature Joan Crawford and Shirley MacLane, the films’ leading ladies in the top position, and deservedly so.
ReplyDeleteIn Two Mules for Sister Sara, Shirley MacLane plays Sara, a prostitute who poses as a nun for almost the entire movie. As the “other” in this movie, Sara has Hogan, Clint Eastwood’s character fooled the entire time. She manipulates him into helping her get to Mexico and does not reveal her true identity to him until she deems it absolutely necessary to use a friend’s whore house to sneak into the French camp in the area. She has to do this because if she were to reveal her true identity to him he would have left her on her own trying and she would have been captured by French soldiers that were in the area. She is clearly very resourceful as she is able to keep this act up without Hogan becoming very suspicious although he does notice some strange things, such as her heavy drinking. Sara is clearly a strong character who knows how to get what she wants. Although Hogan is also a very strong character, he does not possess the wit and cunning that Sara does.
In Johnny Guitar, Joan Crawford plays Vienna who is also a strong character, but not in the same way as Sara. Although Vienna needs to be saved by Johnny from being hanged, she is a very smart woman who owns a saloon and knows how to use a gun. Vienna and Emma Small also had what had to have been the first woman vs. woman gunfight in the history of the Western. This was a groundbreaking film for women who at the time were just beginning to be able to do the same jobs as men. Both of these films were obviously made with the idea of showing what women can do. While the women of the film seem to be very tough and hard, the men show more emotion than the typical alpha male cowboy. The movie really seems to split the qualities of the alpha male cowboy into different characters, because none of them really seem to have all of the qualities. Women of the time could be just as cunning as men as Sara is and could be just as successful as business owners as Vienna is.