My Darling Clementine
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Movie Reviews of My Darling Clementine
Movie Review: Simply outstanding
Summary: 5 Stars
Here is one of the great Westerns, certainly one to stand alongside such giants in the genre as "Shane" and "Once Upon a Time in the West.""My Darling Clementine" is a beautiful, concise, taut little gem that features one of Henry Fonda's best performances. As tough, taciturn Wyatt Earp, Fonda shines in the role. And he's more than matched by Victor Mature as Doc Holliday. Look at the first scene together, where Earp confronts Holliday over throwing out the tinhorn. It's a classic. And later, when Earp and Holliday save the Shakespearean actor from Clanton's men, and Holliday finishes Hamlet's "to be or not to be" soliloquy. This is great acting.
John Ford photographs the landscape with his usual flair; many shots inspire nothing short of awe. Fortunately, the DVD features his "director's cut," which I prefer over the original release version prepared by the studio. Both versions of the film are available, pointing up another value of the DVD format.
The gunfight at the O.K. Corral has been re-enacted several times in several films, recently in "Tombstone" (1993) and "Wyatt Earp" (1994). Ford builds "Clementine" to the confrontation, but the fight isn't as violent or operatic as one would expect. It's restrained, but gets the job done. In its own way, it's as taut and exciting as any of the louder, bloodier incarnations of late.
But, for me, Henry Fonda makes this movie a keeper. His every movement is a study in control. He may not make Wyatt Earp seem like a compassionate individual, but this is a sturdy portrait of heroism that has lasted through the decades. Though I'm excited to see Kevin Costner's version of events again on a future DVD release, for now, "Clementine" does an excellent job of telling the Earp/Holliday story.
Movie Review: Fonda is Great as Earp, Entertianing but Historically Inaccurate
Summary: 5 Stars
Historical it is not accuratre but a tremendous cast spear headed by Henry Fonda. Although the story of Wyatt Earp, Tombstone and the Clantons is completely muddled, taking it as a western 'story', this action packed film is highly entertaining. The all time great character actor Walter Breenan plays Old Man Clanton, who was actually long dead before the OK Corral, extraordinaryly well as a sly, canterkerous and evil badman. Victor Mature plays the dying and erratically dangerous Doc Holiday, again the history of his relationship wth Wyatt is not accurate. Wyatt had met Hollday long before and they were good friends unlike a first meeting in the film. In lesser supporting roles are Ward Bond (It's a Wonderful Life, Wagon Train), Tim Holt (Treasure of the Sierra Madre), Grant Withers (Fort Apache) and John Ireland (Red River). Very realistic authentic looking western town, saloons, costumes and scenes all within the back drop of Monument Valley where it was filmed. If you can forget the gross historical inaccurate aspects of the film, you can enjoy the film. A high note is Fonda's portrayal of Earp, supposedly closer to the real Earp in character than anyone in film. Director John Ford actually meet Earp when Ford was a young man. Oddly, Stuart Lake, who wrote the first great biograpy of Earp (although embellished), was one of the writers of the film story, apparently sticking with the facts was lost to a fictional yet entertaining yarn. For closer to the real history, see "Wyatt Earp" or "Tombstone", neither is completely accurate but far closer than this classic fictional western.Movie Review: Total malarkey as history, but wonderful as cinema.
Summary: 5 Stars
John Ford's "My Darling Clementine" plays so fast and loose with the facts about Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday and the O.K. Corral that it can't even get the ages of Earp's brothers right. (Virgil and James were Earp's OLDER brothers, Morgan his YOUNGER brother, and there's another brother--Warren--who's never even mentioned in the movie.) But "My Darling Clementine" is a magnificent confirmation of Ford's dictum in a later movie, "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance": "When facts get in the way of the legend, print the legend." "Wyatt Earp" and "Tombstone" may be better as history, but "My Darling Clementine" is far and away the most artistic and entertaining movie about Wyatt, Doc and their war with the Clantons. As Earp, Henry Fonda is the archetypal courageous, sweet-hearted Western hero, a totally persuasive pillar of decency and rectitude. In this movie and "Twelve Angry Men," he reached the zenith of his screen persona (a persona he tore down gleefully in "Fort Apache" and "Once Upon a Time in the West'). As Doc Holliday, Victor Mature far exceeds any performance I've ever seen him give, even "Kiss of Death" (and certainly "The Robe" or "Demetrius and the Gladiators"). "My Darling Clementine" represents a sweeter, gentler era at the movies, long before "Little Big Man" or even "Cheyenne Autumn," when every little boy in America wanted to grow up to be a cowboy. Personally, I STILL want to grow up to be John Ford or Henry Fonda!Movie Review: A good version of an old legend
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a Wyatt Earp film with Wyatt played by Henry Fonda, with Wyatt's three brothers and Doc Holiday, played by Victor Mature. Fonda looks thin in this film, not too ornery, but Mature fills the scene, looking fierce. Clementine is the old flame of Doc Holiday who Doc abandoned when he knew he had TB. She comes looking for him.
Wyatt and his bothers travel to Tombstone after Wyatt had served as Marshall in Dodge City. The four brothers are leading a herd of cattle to sell. This is all the possessions they have. Wyatt goes to town with two of his brothers and in his absence his herd is hijacked and his brother killed. The Earps have no idea who the criminals are. Without any money, Wyatt takes the job as Marshall of Tombstone. He meets Doc Holiday there and forms a friendship with this gun fighter who threatens the entire town who are afraid of him. When Clementine comes to town, Holiday tries to persuade her to leave, but Wyatt supports her decision to remain. Wyatt finds a piece of jewelry on Holiday's Mexican girl friend who tells Wyatt that she got it from Holiday. The jewelry belonged to Wyatt's brother. Wyatt now suspects Holiday of hijacking his herd and killing his brother.
The film goes on from there to discover if Holiday was involved in the robbery and murder. If not, who did it? Will Wyatt and Holiday renew their friendship? Will Holiday help Earp at the OK Corral?
Movie Review: The Best Overall Version of The Earp/Clanton Feud
Summary: 5 Stars
The Gunfight at The OK Corral and My Darling Clementine have many things in common. Both of them are among the best Westerns ever made. Both of them had stalwart casts and scripts. Both of them had great directors, Sturges for Gunfight and John Ford for Clementine. Both of them didn't exactly tell the truth about what really happened leading up to and including the famous gunfight that took place on October 22, 1881.
But while Gunfight tells a great story and tells it well, Clementine has a graceful, elegiac quality that permeated a lot of Ford's best films like The Searchers and She Wore A Yellow Ribbon. The little touches with Henry Fonda's Earp at one of his brother's tombstone, the scene at the dance, and many many others that bore Ford's distinct talent for capturing the so-called little moments in life that usually add up to a whole lot.
The rest of the cast, featuring Ward Bond as another Earp, Victor Mature as Doc Holliday, and Walter Brennan as Old Man Clanton, are stellar and contribute much to the proceedings. Gunfight had a lot more of the story right, Tombstone had an unforgettable Doc Holliday in Val Kilmer, and Hour of The Gun had a more sober, somber, mature spin on things, but for sheer beauty and poetry on film, no other version of the Earp/Clanton story is better than My Darling Clementine.