MB: "Two Mules for Sister Sara and Johnny Guitar"

When you consider the main character in western films the first thought to mind is the alpha male cowboy. Apart from the alpha male cowboy the rest of the characters are either the "bad" guys or the "others". The role of the others within the films Two Mules for Sister Sara(1970) and Johnny Guitar(1954) provide a surprising twist to the norm. In both films the other, which happens to be women have power compared to the alpha male cowboy.

In Two Mules for Sister Sara, Sara at first appears to be weak and needy, depending on the male Hogan to save her from getting gang-raped. But as the story progresses Sara's status and power rises to an equal status with Hogan. Sara smokes, drinks, and even helps scout out the French garrison for the Mexicans. This film was produced in 1970, this was after the civil rights movement but the women's rights movement was still going on. The womens rights movement reintroduced the equal rights amendment to congress to included "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex"(http://countrystudies.us/united-states/history-131.htm) Women at the time also were only received pay equal to 59 cents to every dollar a man received. Sara was compared to Hogan as an equal throughout the film. Her social equality in status was everything that the womens movement had already and was attempting to gain.

In the film Johnny Guitar, the Vienna is a woman that is in charge of the local town saloon that is the hangout for known robber The Dancin' Kid and his posse. She is powerful within her community supports the railway system within the town. Like Vienna, Emma is another powerful woman in the town that is a cattle rancher and she opposes the railway system in the town. The climax of the movie, The Dancin' Kid's involvement in the bank robbery, leads to Emma and the other cattle ranchers forming a posse to hunt down The Dancin' Kid. Along the way they burn down Vienna's saloon and Emma persuades the posse to hunt down Vienna. The film was made in 1954, at the same time as the McCarty investigations of the United States army for being weak on the handling of Communism. There was a lot of tension within to town between the cattle ranchers who opposed the railroad, and the town folk who supported the railway. This tension and later pursuit of Vienna was similar to the hunts conducted in the McCarthy era on people suspected of being communist. Emma was powerful within the film, and her influence over the cattle herders made her unlike the "other" and more like the alpha male cowboy.