Hitchcoc
If you have read anything about the Earps, you know immediately that this is an historical travesty. Of course, that doesn't matter. I'd like to know which cattle drive the Earp brothers went on when the youngest got killed. The whole thing with Wyatt was about him as a politician. He also had a sad history with women. Now, throw that all aside and assume this movie has nothing to do with the famous family. Well, they do have the same names. By making Wyatt a squeaky clean, heroic figure, we open the door to his treatment of the bad guys. Of course, he now also has the goal of avenging his brother's murder. Hollywood also throws in a romantic element and we're off. We know that the Clantons are lurking and something is going to have to be done about them. I get a big kick out of this movie. In addition to Henry Fonda, there are some superb characters that are unforgettable.
tieman64
Regarded as one of director John Ford's finest westerns, "My Darling Clementine" stars Henry Fonda as Wyatt Earp, the legendary lawman who becomes sheriff of Tombstone, a small town in Arizona. Wyatt appoints several family members as his deputies, befriends the sickly Doc Holiday and shoots dead the Clanton family, a bunch of mean guys responsible for cattle thievery.You'd think a director who'd won three directorial Oscars in the space of six years would be free from studio interference, but no, producer Darryl F. Zanuck loved sinking his meddling claws into Ford's flicks. Zanuck's alterations to "Clementine" include the adding of unnecessary kisses, emphatic musical cues, the shortening of several wordless scenes and the removal of several natural/ambient sounds. In each case, Zanuck attempted to "make things more obvious", a contrast to Ford, who was attempting to craft a muted, restrained western.Still, Zanuck's meddling doesn't distract too much from "Clementine's" better qualities. Ford focuses on mood, ambiance, on creating a sense of place, and his film is purposefully diffuse, his characters seemingly drifting through life without rhyme or plan. Elsewhere Ford gives us a number of communal scenes, like those in which towns gather at theatres, saloons or for dances amidst skeletal churches. Other iconic scenes watch as Wyatt positions a chair at the head of his town and sits himself down like a lazy landlord, gazing as townsfolk walk wordlessly by. Ford's interested in Tombstone's flow of life, and the leisurely, unhurried tempo of the Old West."Clementine" was shot by cinematographer Joseph MacDonald, who paints a number of wonderful scenes. The reveal of Tombstone, in which the distant town flickers in the night, is particularly excellent (George Lucas' Mos Eisley would be based on Ford's Tombstone). When he's not serving up low-key sequences, Ford takes us to the town's more festive areas, which are filled with tobacco smoke, dim lanterns, hootin', hollerin' and convey well the hustle and bustle of the frontier.Most Westerns are elegiac, the genre overly preoccupied with mourning the passage of the Old West. These are nostalgic pictures which pine for something that never quite existed, glorifying frontier justice, outlaw values and a violent masculinity which "regretfully" fades come the arrival of trains, power lines, steam engines, machine guns, pickup trucks and modernity in general. "Clementine's" melancholia, however, is rooted in something more specific. Ford's characters mourn lost lovers, family members, and everyone's weighed by both loss and life's frailty. Epitomizing this is Tombstone's comical barber, whose faulty "modern" chair perpetually threatens to slit his customers' throats. Later he slaps cologne on our heroes, Ford's men on the verge of passing into civilisation, domestication and even comical dandyism.As history, "My Darling Clementine" is nonsense. Wyatt wasn't the marshal of Tombstone (his brother was), Holiday and Old Man Clanton weren't killed at the infamous OK Corral, and Wyatt wasn't praised as a hero but put on trial after killing the Clantons. The Earps were themselves a group of violent drunks, law breakers, woman-beaters, murderers and brothel owners. Ford, of course, portrays them not as multiple felons (the real Earps eventually became corrupt lawmen who worked for bankers), but as something else: genteel custodians of civilisation who turn to violence only when necessary and always reluctantly. The Western genre has itself always salivated over sheriffs and deputies, foot-soldiers of a Law which has, historically, never been the public's bedfellow. Originating in slave patrols, beholden to the economic interests of land owners, and designed to maintain class stratification, the business of policing has always been policing for business."My Darling Clementine" stars Victor Mature as Doc Holiday. It's a hard role to play, and Mature isn't up to the task (perhaps modern audiences have been spoilt by Val Kilmer's electric Holiday in "Tombstone"). Fonda is better as Wyatt, playing his character as a mild-mannered, righteous romantic. The film co-stars Linda Darnell as Chihuahua, a voluptuous prostitute with a fondness for low-cut blouses."Clementine" would prove a huge influence on subsequent Westerns. The Sergio Leone rule-book was practically born here, Ford's film filled with drawn out sequences, sexy wistfulness, tactical uses of silence, portentous one-liners, strong silent-types and an aesthetic which alternates between serenity and sudden flashes of violence. This being John Ford, the film is also preoccupied with bogus notions relating to "what it means to be American". In this regard, Ford's Tombstone is steeped in barbarity until our heroes kick an Indian out (played by Charlie Stevens, grandson of Geronimo), visit an erected Church and bring co-operation, family and law to Tombstone's god-fearing townsfolk. For Ford, the Earps (and a woman named Clementine) occupy the film's moral high ground, a dominant white, religious culture which discards or reforms all outsiders. And so a Mexican prostitute, ostracised for her racial origin, dies, the disreputable Clanton family is murdered and the morally moribund Doc Holliday finds himself grave-bound. With the film's climax – a type of regenerative violence typical of Westerns – a great purge has been exacted in the name of "decent" values.8.5/10 – See Ford's "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" and "Wagon Masters". Worth two viewings.
John T. Ryan
OUR FIRST CONTACT with the name of Wyatt Earp was with "THE LIFE AND LEGEND OF Wyatt Earp" TV Series, with Mr. Hugh Obrian. Like most first impressions, it was strong, persistent and seemingly everlasting. We found several other versions of this Wyatt Earp tale in the ensuing years and gradually our perception and interpretation of the story was superseded.FIRST OF ALL came GUNFIGHT AT THE O.K. CORAL, with Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas. This we saw at our neighborhood theatre. It was very impressive, indeed; featuring a supporting cast that included John Ireland. Full Color, big screen and that great theme song! Being on a double bill, it nearly made us forget the other movie, a FRANCIS THE TALKING MULE movie, no small feat to a 10 year old! SOME YEARS LATER, it was on one of our regular channels that we first saw MY DARLING CLEMENTINE. This was not the last time; nor do we think it will be our last.IN ITS GLORIOUS black & white, narrow screen process, it drew us into the story in a most memorable manner. Its fine cast, headed up by Henry Fonda and Walter Brennan deliver a most satisfactory ensemble performance; all in the usual manner of its Director, John Ford.WHEREAS GUNPLAY, KILLINGS and other violent acts are, by the very nature of the Western, present and numerous; the storyline and characterization are the all important. Relkationships of the characteristics, be they that of the Earps, with Clementine or with the hostile Clantons, make up the bulk of the scenario.AND, BECAUSE THERE is no real surprise concerning the ultimate shoot out, Director Ford shifts the suspense on what happens post hostilities. UIsing a great dramatic tool, there is an uncertainty at the conclusion. Seemingly, this is one 'Horse Opera' where the hero doesn't get the girl!WE DELIGHTED IN the fine performances turned in by Walter Brennan, Linda Darnell and (especially) Victor Mature; once again showing his worth and proving himself to be a most overlooked dramatic player.
