Johnny Guitar (Sterling Hayden) walks into a saloon run by Vienna (Joan Crawford), who is his past love whom he hasn't seen for five years. He's looking for a job as guitar player. Many things has changed since they saw each other for the last time, Vienna turned from a plain saloon singer to its owner, and Johnny Guitar, also known as John Logan, one of the fastest to draw the gun in the West, passed through many tribulations too, but one thing immediately becomes clear as they meet again (`I've waited for you, Johnny') that the major suffering they had to pass through was the solitude, the pain of separation from each other.
But five years is a long time and `How many man have you forgotten? As many as you remember.' There's a man she hasn't forgotten yet called Dancing Kid and there's also a woman who haven't forgiven Vienna for not forgetting him, his most dangerous rival in life and in love Emma (Mercedes McCambridge), ready to stop before nothing to have her revenge on Vienna and get Dancing Kid's heart back from her possession.
But `Spin the wheel, Eddie!' and here is Emma together with town's Marshal accusing Dancing Kid and his partners of recently committed robbery. The accusation that soon makes them go against the law and flee together with Johnny and Vienna. `Keep the wheel spinning, Eddie!' There they are on the run towards the end culminating in a duel between the two women and in so many loves and so many deaths. `Stop spinning the wheel, Eddie!'
Fabulous acting by fabulous actors, wonderful script with unforgettably intelligent and witty dialogs, magnificent direction and intensity of passions surpassing the impact of deaths of `cowboys dying with the grace of ballet dancers' (François Truffaut in his review on the film). What more can I say? Simply one of the greatest Westerns ever made that deserves to be seen and seen again. 10/10
