Bad Day at Black Rock Movie Review

John Sturges' Bad Day at Black Rock is a detective story wrapped up in a Western setting. All the elements for a Western are present including the stranger coming into town full of men (only one woman in the picture), noticing some problems in the town, and fixing the problems with very little help. But instead of the hero taking the position of sheriff to solve the town ills, he is more of a private eye, figuring out exactly what happened by asking tough questions, much to the town's anger.

Spencer Tracy plays John J. Macreedy, a man from California that takes a train to the small town of Black Rock in 1945, causing quite a stir. No one has stopped at Black Rock in years. The stranger looks for a hotel room and a Japanese farmer named Komoko who has seemingly disappeared. Macreedy is not welcomed kindly. Robert Ryan, Lee Marvin, and Ernest Borgnine play town 'bullies' that follow Macreedy around and later threaten his life. Everyone in town knows the secret behind Komoko's disappearance, but no one is willing to talk about it.

Sturges uses widescreen in a fascinating manner by keeping the camera at a distance and simply observing the action. There is never a close-up in the film because he doesn't want to convey false emotions. That doesn't mean that the intentions of the film are subtle. It's obvious that Bad Day at Black Rock is condemning the racist attitudes towards the Japanese during the World War II era and, more importantly, the attitude of those who were not racist, but did not stand up for what was right. The power of the film is in the way it conveys these messages.