My Darling Clementine

80th Anniversary Screening

When the Earp brothers decide to stop thier caravan at the dastardly town of Tombstone for the night, they wake to find one of the brothers dead and all their cattle stolen. Brother Wyatt takes it upon himself to bring law to the town of Tombstone and solve his brothers murder.

Do you want to meet the greatest film director who ever lived?

This was a question asked to Steven Spielberg (by way of his onscreen counterpart “Sammy” in The Fabelmans) when he got his first job in “The Biz”. He’s then led to an office decorated with films like The Searchers and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. This is when he meets John Ford (played by David Lynch, a real two-for-one!).

My Darling Clementine is a great film, and if someone hadn’t seen any John Ford films, this might just be the best place to start (especially if that someone dislikes The Duke). It’s got the romance, the betrayal, cinematography, the actors, and one of the most underrated aspects of Ford is his comedy, this film is filled with moments of subtle hilarity. The scene where Chihuahua is trying to talk to Earp, but he’s too busy balancing his legs on the beam in front of him, is one of Ford’s funniest scenes. Had this particular moment, this precious miniscule moment, not been included, this film would lose that special something. And there’s a lot of that in Ford’s filmography. Another scene is in The Searchers where Jeffery Hunter has to fight for the hand of Vera Miles, and it turns slapstick. According to John Ford, the story told in My Darling Clementine is the story as told from Wyatt Earp himself, by the 1920s, broke and down on his luck, traveled to Hollywood looking to sell his story to some picture makers. This is what sets it apart from the rest of the Earp adaptations, who try to stick to the showiest parts of the legend. But Ford had his own interpretation, even if what he said was a lie (and it very well could have been knowing Ford), it just works. Clementine, the movie’s namesake, was just a product of this film alone, but it wouldn’t work without her. It’s about moments with Ford, small things, sometimes just words, or how a single shot is lit (like the famous shot of Holiday cast in deep shadow). John Ford is unequivocally the King of the Western Film, but he may also just be the King of Western Film.

So now I’m asking you: Do you want to see the greatest film director who ever lived, at work ?

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