Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)

Bad Day at Black Rock is an American western first released in 1955, directed by John Sturges.  The film is based on a story by Howard Breslin and stars Spencer Tracy, Robert Ryan, Anne Francis, Dean Jagger and Walter Brennan.  Our overall rating for this film is: excellent.


Shortly after WWII, a one-armed stranger arrives in the sleepy desert town of Black Rock.  The locals do not take kindly to this newcomer and react in a hostile manner when he begins to ask seemingly innocent questions.  The stranger, war veteran John Macreedy, claims to be looking for a Japanese settler named Komoko, but the town’s self-appointed authority figure Reno Smith insists that Komoko was taken away to an internment camp not long after the attack on Pearl Harbour.  Macreedy is unconvinced and hires a jeep to visit the missing man’s homestead.  What he finds confirms his suspicions and he realises that he is in the greatest of danger...

John Sturges directed many great films - Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957), The Magnificent Seven (1960) and The Great Escape (1963), to name just three - but the one that most demonstrates his flair for dramatic storytelling is assuredly Bad Day at Black Rock, a slick concoction of film noir melodrama and traditional western woven into a tense suspense thriller of the first order.  From the stunning opening sequence of a train shooting bullet-like across a barren desert landscape, the film holds the spectator in its thrall and doesn’t let up until the dust has settled from its climactic denouement.  Don’t be deceived by the film's slow pace and sparse narrative.  This is edge-of-the-seat stuff from start to finish, Sturges’ most compelling, most perfectly constructed film.

With its portrayal of one man taking a stand against the collective moral vacuity of an entire community, the film comes close to being a remake of High Noon (1952), but Sturges and his screenwriters make it something much more substantial - a dark commentary on America’s appalling treatment of its Japanese citizens during WWII and a powerful study in paranoia.  The film still manages to send a cold shiver up the spine when it lets slip that the United States had its own concentration camps (for those deeemed to be a threat to the country at a time of war), although it equally serves as an allegory on the anti-Communist witch-hunting which blighted American society for much of the decade that followed the end of the war.

Bad Day at Black Rock is not only superbly directed and written, with remarkable economy and precision, but it is perfectly cast.  In an iconic role that won him the Best Actor award at Cannes in 1955, Spencer Tracy personifies the lone good guy, suitably well-matched by Robert Ryan as his soulless nemesis.  Meanwhile, Lee Marvin, Walter Brennan and Ernest Borgnine turn in some admirable supporting contributions, doing their best to ratchet up the tension with their displays of taciturn meanness.  This film stands as both a classic western and a classic film noir, but its real value lies in the fact that it dared to confront some unpalatable truths about America’s recent past, reminding audiences that even a nation which prides itself on its moral superiority can sometimes stray down the dark path and play the role of the barbarian.  It’s funny how history repeats itself...

© Steve Chandler 2010

Write a review for this film...


What do you think of this film?

More American Drama
More American Thriller
Recent DVD releases