His cultured past comes actively looking for him in the personification of Clementine, who arrives in Tombstone after searching for Doc across the West, and although he rejects her advances multiple times on a personal level, she ultimately stays to continue the work of spreading civilization to the western lands. However, he cannot fully escape his past life, as the traveling Shakespeare performer reminds him during his performance of a “poem ” as the actor falters, Holliday continues the Hamlet soliloquy in a rapturous state, before he is forcefully brought back to the present with a hacking cough triggered from his tuberculosis. Doc Holliday is a broken man that left Boston to live as a gambler in the wilderness, embrace a saloon prostitute, and spend his last days wasting away from his disease. The slow creep of civilization into the West is further evidenced by the arrivals from the East. It is noteworthy that Ford didn’t cast his usual stalwart of John Wayne in the starring role - Wayne is far too rugged to be tempted by the town life, whereas Fonda gives an emotional performance as he buries his dead brother and eventually warms to the pleasures of the town, even as he keeps his eye on the goal of justice. When he makes the decision to transfer from a cattleman to a sheriff, Wyatt never seems wholly at ease within the confines of civilization, bristling at the barber's offer of perfume, showing discomfort in sipping refined champagne, and uncomfortably dancing at the town social (although he gives a gallant effort due to his admiration for Clementine). The film opens with shots that capture the beauty of the landscape as the cattle roams throughout the valley, with striking clouds in the background, identifying the open space as the place the Earp brothers feel most at home. The most prominent theme strung across the entire film is the focus on the tension between nature and civilization. His mission complete, Earp takes leave of Tombstone and of Clementine, who has chosen to stay and teach at the town’s school. Wyatt discovers the truth about his brother’s killing and his pursuit of vengeance finalizes in a showdown at the OK Corral with the Clanton family, an energetic shootout that leaves Earp victorious, but that also leaves Doc Holliday dead. As Earp adjusts to life in the town, he finds himself drawn to Clementine’s refined spirit and the two share a dance during the town social in the shadow of the half-built church. Along the way, he meets Doc Holliday (Victor Mature), his girlfriend, a saloon-singing and emotionally crazed prostitute named Chihuahua (Linda Darnell), and also a woman from Doc’s past - a visitor from the East named Clementine (Cathy Downs). In a quest for vengeance, Wyatt Earp (Henry Fonda) agrees to become the sheriff of the town, bringing order to a lawless town whilst investigating his brother’s death. Tragedy strikes the Earp family, as their youngest brother is murdered and cattle stolen while the elder brothers visit the frontier town of Tombstone. As we review the fourth film in the Western Marathon, that legacy is considered, along with examining the film’s thematic thrust of civilization into the wild west. Based on the true story of the fight at the OK Corral and the historical figure of Wyatt Earp in the town of Tombstone, John Ford produced another film that is considered a masterpiece in his oeuvre and one that is frequently cited as a formal and fundamental blueprint for classical westerns. The film’s simple revenge plot is grounded by the cast of characters that provide those contrasts, as well as the overarching theme of transitioning from open space and lawlessness to structures and civilization. Westerns are structurally built on concepts in a state of duality - hero/villain, nature/civilization, cowboy/Indian - and the classic western My Darling Clementine (1946) is an embodiment of the genre’s focus on the pairings of diametrically opposed forces.
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