Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site gymble.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxn!ihnp4!ucbvax!ucdavis!lll-crg!gymble!dday From: dday@gymble.UUCP (Dennis Doubleday) Newsgroups: net.movies Subject: Re: GUNFIGHT AT OK CORRAL/MY DARLING CLEMENTINE Message-ID: <430@gymble.UUCP> Date: Mon, 4-Nov-85 10:34:05 EST Article-I.D.: gymble.430 Posted: Mon Nov 4 10:34:05 1985 Date-Received: Tue, 5-Nov-85 09:25:50 EST References: <1366@mtgzz.UUCP> Reply-To: dday@gymble.UUCP (Dennis Doubleday) Organization: U of Maryland, Laboratory for Parallel Computation, C.P., MD Lines: 47 In article <1366@mtgzz.UUCP> leeper@mtgzz.UUCP (m.r.leeper) writes: > I saw some place a documentary in which John Ford claimed that his >version of the gunfight in MY DARLING CLEMENTINE was accurate. I was >anxious to see John Ford's film, and by coincidence, it showed up on TV the >following week. > John Ford is one of the great American filmmakers. Ephraim Katz calls >MY DARLING CLEMENTINE one of Ford's great Western masterpieces. Leonard >Maltin gives it four stars and calls it "one of Ford's finest films, and an >American classic." Leeper calls it "a horrible turkey of the first water." > First of all, the historical story and the title song have no >connection whatsoever. To force the song into the film, they have thrown a >character named Clementine in. She adds a tepid love interest. Henry >Fonda's Wyatt Earp keeps saying, "I shore do like that name--Clementine." >The historical story and the plot of the film have almost no connection. In >the film the hostilities start when the Clantons rustle the Earp's cattle >and kill Wyatt's young teenage brother James. James Earp was the eldest of >the Earp brothers and he lived 45 years after the gunfight. From there the >story goes really bizarre. The Earps are once again white-washed into being >pure good guys, and shy around women to boot. In the film, the population >of Tombstone loves the Earps. This is not a terrible film; it is skillfully >made and adequately photographed. The script really lets down the rest of >the film however. I have to say that MY DARLING CLEMENTINE is a vastly >over-rated classic. Give it a 0 on the -4 to +4 scale. The man was an artist, not a historian! I think most, if not all, great artists take liberties with their respective subject matters. I think a moviegoer as experienced as Mark is being a bit naive when he goes to a Hollywood production of the 1940s and expects authenticity. Leave the quibbling about what actually happened to the academics--I know to go to the library (like you did) if I want to get closer to the truth. For me, MY DARLING CLEMENTINE is a beautiful film--high production values, as usual, but more than that--a marvelous exposition of the themes that flow through Ford's greatest works: family loyalty, sense of duty, and the necessity of courage. I give it a 3 on the -4 to 4 scale. In the quote you attributed to Ford, I think he was referring only to his reenactment of the actual gunfight, rather than the events leading up to it, but even if he wasn't, I can only repeat the line the reporter says in THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE, Ford's masterpiece and in many ways a summation of his career: "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend." -- UUCP: seismo!umcp-cs!dday Dennis Doubleday CSNet: dday@umcp-cs University of Maryland ARPA: dday@gymble.umd.edu College Park, MD 20742 Fan of: Chicago Cubs, Chicago Bears, OU Sooners (301) 454-4247