My Darling Clementine

I first saw John Ford's "My Darling Clementine" very early on, when I was still exploring the great director's career. When I first saw it, I was caught off guard, here was this story of told many times, the story of Wyatt Earp, Doc Holiday, The Clanton gang, and the town of Tombstone, brought to life, but the emphasis this time is more on love.

"My Darling Clementine" is indeed a love story, and about friendship, and about camaraderie in the west. The Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday in this story barely resemble their legendary status, and the gunfight at the O.K. Corral seems to be only put there by necessity. Perhaps by using the names of Earp, and Holiday, Ford was able to market the film better to the general public, you sort of get the feeling, these men could've been fictional characters from any western.

John Ford was a complicated man, he was a perceived as a man's man, but inside lurked the heart of someone with sensitivity and a poet, and "My Darling Clementine" couldn't have been made the way it was by anyone but.

The film begins as most generic westerns do, Wyatt Earp (Henry Fonda) is a cattlemen along with his brothers. Earp was the legendary sheriff of Dodge City, but when he enters the town of Tombstone, which is a rough place indeed, he wants to leave that life behind him. He quickly turns down the job, until his youngest brother Morgan is killed by some cattle rustlers.

Wyatt quickly takes the job as sheriff only until he can hunt down the men who killed his brother. It's no secret who the killers are, it's the Clanton gang lead by Pa Walter Brennan. For most of the film, the Clantons stay in the background, they bark and growl at Earp for the time being, but there isn't anything Wyatt can do since he can't prove they killed his brother.

For the moment, Wyatt continues being the sheriff, but suddenly the story makes a shift when he meets Doc Holiday (Victor Mature). Doc is the local gambler and the town sort of looks up to him as the unofficial man in charge. At first Doc and Wyatt aren't sure if they should trust one another, they sort of size eachother as is usual in these films.

It isn't soon however the two become friends, it is never said what brings them together it's an unspoken bond, but you believe in it, and stick with them. Doc has a girl in town named Chihuahua (Linda Darnell) who loves him immensely. She's a lounge singer who gets little respect from him until the very end. For Chihuahua, Doc is an unrequited love, we get the feeling he will never love her as much as she would like.

Another woman comes into Doc's life, this is Clementine, the character from the title (Cathy Downs), she is a nurse who Doc left behind, she represents a past he's trying to forget. Wyatt however is the first person to meet her in town and we see instantly falls in love with her, however he stays loyal to Doc at all times.

"My Darling Clementine" is a film full of tender moments, and gentle humour, and that is what I think the film is mostly about. Perhaps the most famous scene in the film is of Wyatt stretched out on his chair resting his legs against a post. Ford lingers on this scene and it actually happens twice, once where Fonda does an amusing balancing act with his legs as he rotates his feet resting on the post.

There are also very quiet moments between Wyatt and Clementine and Doc and Chihuahua, and also with Doc and Wyatt. There is even a scene where Doc and Wyatt listen to an actor reciting Shakespeare. You can sense Ford had a genuine affection towards these type of people, and also this way of life.

John Ford was a man of westerns, there is always a sense of nostalgia that comes with them, they distinctly represent a time and a people that have gone by. In his later films like "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance", Ford shows a sadness of the changing world as he seemed to know things could never be as simple as this again.

"My Darling Clementine" remains his most pleasant western and also within his top five greatest films he ever made, he was America's cinematic poet and created an America that became mythic in the movies. In other films Ford explored the darkness of this myth, but with this, he showed its beauty and warmth.