n one or another discursive level to the exclusion of all others (Peterson 4).
Johnny arrives just as the conflict between the townspeople and Vienna is heating up, and throughout the film Vienna is the center. The townspeople try to evict her; Johnny and the Dancing Kid compete for her affections; and ultimately Vienna is vindicated when she kills Emma and gains Johnny as a prize. Peterson sees Vienna as the familiar Western icon of the lone hero in a new gender. Another reason for finding Vienna to be the hero is that the villain is also a woman, with Emma as the primary representative of the town. Peterson finds evidence that the film should be considered a lesbian camp classic based on a combination of politics and sexual pathology, though both the political structure and the gender structure of the film are seen by Peterson as two-dimensional. Vienna embodies both male and female characteristics and so is allowed to stand as a self-sufficient individualistic hero.
Peterson in part argues with the point of view of Leo Charney, who emphasizes the historical excess of the film and who finds that excess is indeed endemic to film narrat
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