Bad Day at Black Rock 7.5/10

John Sturges, 1955.
The film is an interesting hybrid film noir about a stranger who comes to a lawless frontier town to discover a dark secret among the locals. It starts with the protagonist, John Macreedy (Spencer Tracey) a one armed veteran dressed in a black suit, getting off a train in a small sleepy town somewhere in the southern USA. His intentions are unknown, and immediately the locals become suspicious. Curiosity quickly turns to xenophobia, and the locals make it clear that he is not welcome. It becomes evident that Macreedy is looking for a man named Komoko, a Japanese American farmer who moved there just before Pearl Harbor. According to the locals, the government sent Komoko to an internment camp and never returned. Eventually Macgreedy discovers that the town’s men murdered Komoko in a ploy fuelled by patriotic hysteria at the onset of the war to steal his land. Given that essentially the entire town in involved with the murder, they intend to keep it a secret by killing the nosey one armed man. Being vastly outnumbered, Macgreedy's only option is to play on the conscious of the locals to enlist their assistance in helping him escape. Adding to the suspense of the plot, is that he has to fight off his assailants with only one arm adding a creative and fun twist to the film.

What is interesting about the film is that it has common elements from both western and film noir genre. Sturges obviously borrowed the suspense, plot, and style of the film from the latter. The black suit, the dark secret, the unresolved murder, the fedora are all classic elements of the stylish crime dramas. This classic uniform is in contrast against the clear blue desert sky and dusty pale hues the town throughout the film constantly reminding the viewer of the genres’ influence. However, there are many elements from the Wild West mixed in, which is not surprising given the directors history of westerns (Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, The Magnificent Seven). Symbols characteristic to the genre, including a drunken powerless sheriff and a local strong man who decides what is right and wrong are present in the film. That is the whole point of Westerns, that they are primitive. These societies do not define morality by laws or creed but by whoever is quickest with the gun. One cannot depend on the government to always protect and coddle them. They have to fend for themselves, by any means necessary. It is very American. It is why John Wayne is such a potent and everlasting symbol of American culture. This combination of the two greatest genres in American Cinema make the film such a great classic to watch.