Bad Day at Black Rock: 70 Years On

John Sturges’s classic thriller feels more like a western than ever

Credit MGM

I once had a robust disagreement with a friend over whether Bad Day at Black Rock was a western. He insisted it wasn’t because it featured cars and suitcases rather than horses and saddlebags. In contrast, I felt it adhered to many western genre tropes but simply had a modern (though technically not contemporary) setting. Or at least it had a modern setting in 1955 (the film is set in late 1945). We decided to rewatch it together to settle the matter, and in the end, my friend conceded that I had a point.

Today, the precise period covered by the cinematic Old West feels increasingly flexible due to the passage of time. For instance, Martin Scorsese’s recent Killers of the Flower Moon (2022) is often referred to as a western, despite being set over several years during the first half of the 20th Century. In that light, Bad Day at Black Rock’s categorisation as a stunning western (as well as a terrific mystery thriller) seems more logical than ever. In truth, though, it has always been thought of as a western. Many reviews of the time (like this one in the New York Times) compared it with High Noon (1952), for example.

Genre handwringing aside, if you’ve never seen this, I’d urge you to correct that oversight immediately, as it is 81 minutes of time exceptionally well spent. Apart from anything else, this features one of Spencer Tracy’s finest performances as John J Macreedy; a one-armed man getting off the train at the remote American southwest hamlet of Black Rock, shortly after World War II. He begins asking questions that, to him, are not unreasonable, but they seem to put the townspeople on edge.