Wonderful Westerns: ‘Bad Day at Black Rock’ (1955)
We now enter another sub-genre of the Western: the contemporary Western. The basic premise of this sub-genre is that it takes place in modern times. While this version isn’t as popular as the Spaghetti or Traditional Western, it can still have an big impact and have a deeper meaning. Take, for example, today’s film: Bad Day at Black Rock (1955), yet another work by one of my all-time favorite directors — John Sturges.
Shortly after World War II ended, a mysterious, one-armed stranger named John J. Macreedy (Spencer Tracy) arrives in the extremely small and isolated village of Black Rock. While his business there is nothing to cause alarm over, the citizens start acting suspicious to the point that Macreedy feels something is rotten in the town of Black Rock.
The Western vibes of the film start almost immediately after the opening credits when the train pulls into Black Rock’s station. Macreedy steps off draped in all black almost causes an automatic stir among the citizens. These tropes continue with the confrontations of the locals, especially the antagonist Reno Smith (Robert Ryan) and his two henchmen, Coley Trimble (Ernest Borgnine) and Hector David (Lee Marvin). But it’s through these scenes that we get one of the movie’s biggest themes: masculinity.
On the DVD copy I own, there’s a commentary done by Dana Polan, a film professor at NYU-Tisch, who mentions that a majority of Sturges’ films deal with masculine characters who have their own issues or play against the character type. He mainly does this by having his characters being not only being capable in the physical sense — mainly in combat — but also being very capable with their hands. The greatest example of this is The Great Escape (1963) in which a bunch of Allied P.O.W.s join forces to dig their way out of a Nazi P.O.W. camp. With Black Rock, we see that Macreedy is not only surprisingly capable with physical combat, he is also smart and can think on his feet.
Another topic of masculinity that’s tackled is what it actually means to be a man. The character of Macreedy, played by the then-55-year-old Tracy, is far from from the typical action or Western movie protagonist, but he proves to be just as great and compelling. One difference between him and others is that he’s patient and doesn’t feel the need to engage in fisticuffs. The clip above is the only time happens. Whereas Smith and his goons are overly confrontational and as Polan points out in his commentary, Macreedy wouldn’t be snooping about if they just left him alone.
Another topic that’s tackled in the film is that is the changing times. Macreedy ultimately represents progress in society coming into this desolate town and of course Smith and his cronies represent the worst part of the old ways who want it to stay that way. Smith clearly has a tight control over this town and makes it his and doesn’t want anything to change that:
“Somebody’s always looking for something in this part of the West. To the historian it’s the Old West, to the book writer it’s the Wild West, to the businessman it’s the Undeveloped West — they say we’re all poor and backward, and I guess we are, we don’t even have enough water. But to us, this place is our West, and I wish they’d leave us alone!”
This is a truly underrated gem of cinema and I highly recommend. There is so much more to this film, and if you can, get the DVD with Polan’s commentary, because it’s amazing.
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Nicholas Danger Barrington