My Darling Clementine

 SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

A neighbor of mine loves Hollywood Westerns and that inspired me to write a post on one of director John Ford’s most famous films, My Darling Clementine (1946).

The title of the movie refers to the character Clementine Carter (Cathy Downs). The song that shares the same title, and which plays in the film, is about loss, and that sets a tone of sadness for this story.

Wyatt Earp (Henry Fonda) is herding cattle to California with his brothers, Virgil (Tim Holt), Morgan (Ward Bond, who would star in the TV series Wagon Train), and James (Don Garner). Wyatt runs into the elderly Clanton (Walter Brennan, three-time supporting Oscar winner and later star of the TV show The Real McCoys) and his son Ike (Grant Withers). Clanton tries to buy the scrawny animals, but Wyatt doesn’t want to sell, although he acknowledges the roughness of the land that is depriving his herd of food. That dire observation fits in with the feel of the movie, and so does the name of the nearby town, Tombstone. Despite the welcoming comments by Clanton, the look on his face and that of his son are hostile as they watch the departing Wyatt.

Young James, who is to marry soon, stays with the herd as the other brothers go into Tombstone, which is quite rowdy in the evening. Wyatt goes to get a shave. The barber (Ben Hall) calls his place a “tonsorial parlor,” for which Wyatt needs a translation. When the barber lowers the back of the customer chair, Wyatt nearly topples backward, showing how he is in a precarious position since the chair is a newly acquired acquisition from metropolitan Chicago, an invader from the settled East. Later he is not sure about the city-slicker hair styling he gets and the cologne the barber sprays on him. He may be allowing himself a different look for his attempt to attract Clementine as the story progresses, but this social space is not an area in which he is adept at navigating.

The threatening nature of the locale becomes very immediate as random gunshots bring bullets into what is supposed to be a safe place for male grooming. Indeed, the town of Tombstone is still on the frontier with only a few civilized elements. Wyatt shouts, “What kind of town is this?” and that phrase is repeated by Wyatt when the marshal doesn’t want to confront the drunk man firing his weapon. Wyatt goes into the saloon, punches out the inebriated Native American and kicks him out of the place. The Mayor (Roy Roberts) offers Wyatt the job of Marshal, but Wyatt refuses. The people discover Wyatt’s name and realize he was the marshal of Dodge City, but Wyatt makes it clear that he left that life behind.

But, it appears that past life will not leave him. When the Earps return to their camp they find their cattle gone and their brother, James, dead, shot in a cowardly manner in the back. Wyatt visits the Mayor and says he will be Marshal as long as his brothers are his deputies. He learns from the Mayor that Doc Holliday (Victor Mature) runs the gambling and that Clanton and his sons deal with the cattle business. The film has set the stage for a battle between families, making the conflict very personal. The Clantons arrive in town and Wyatt confronts them, saying his cattle were stolen. Wyatt knows it was the Clantons who are guilty and tells them he is now Marshal. Clanton’s bemused attitude changes when he hears Wyatt’s name, and it’s obvious that Wyatt’s accomplished reputation has preceded him. The darkness of the time of the day and the pouring rain add to the feeling of gloom shrouding the events.

Alone at the grave of his eighteen-year-old brother, James, Wyatt says to his departed sibling that he will be staying there for a while, and “maybe when we leave this country young kids like you will be able to grow up and live safe.” Wyatt hopes that he can achieve that goal, but the filmmakers may be commenting that it is a futile wish since violence has continued into the future.

While at the saloon playing cards, Wyatt avoids the attentions of the saloon showgirl Chihuahua (Linda Darnell), who is the girlfriend of the currently absent Holliday. In retaliation, she sings lines from the title song, stressing the loss of cattle and money, while Wyatt, fittingly, throws in his winless cards. She has helped a gambler discover Wyatt’s hands. Wyatt realizes that, takes Chihuahua outside, and after she slaps him, he dumps her in the horse trowel. The scene shows that Wyatt is no fool and is smart enough to know that a pleasant surface may hide unethical intentions beneath.

Doc shows up and kicks the cheating gambler out of the saloon, which shows that he runs a straight-up game. Wyatt and Doc have a tense conversation which reveals they know about each other’s pasts. Wyatt mentions that Doc has left a trail of graveyards behind him. Doc counters with the observation that there is the largest one right there in Tombstone, and adds, “Marshalls and I get along much better when we understand that right away.” The implication is that there will not be any trouble if the law leaves Doc alone. Wyatt notes Doc has already broken the law by usurping Wyatt’s authority in the town. Doc says they are in “separate camps,” and pulls out his gun, showing how fast he is with the weapon. Wyatt points out his two deputized brothers who are already at the bar with their guns. Wyatt doesn’t arrest Doc, so, it seems there is an understanding, and they seal the deal with a celebratory drink of champagne. But beyond this agreement, Doc’s deadly tuberculosis (symbolically representing the corruption of his soul?), the highlighting of graveyards, and possibly the suggestion that west of the Rocky Mountains can be one huge graveyard, add to the atmosphere of death and loss looming over everything.

That stress on death continues when the visiting drunkard actor, Granville Thorndyke (Alan Mowbray), delivers the “To be, or not to be,” soliloquy from Hamlet. The words ponder the hardships of life, and the possibility of even suicide to escape them, along with the questions of what may follow the end of one’s life. One of the cowboys even addresses the actor as Yorick, Hamlet’s dead court jester, which points to the absurd combination of laughter and loss inherent in mortal life. Thorndyke can’t finish the speech, and the educated Doc completes Hamlet’s words, followed by a coughing fit, reminding us, as does Clint Eastwood’s character in Unforgiven, that “we’ve all got it coming.”

Wyatt is there to acquire the actor for the show at the theater, but the Clanton boys try to stop the Marshal. Wyatt cracks a bottle over the head of one and shoots the gun out of the hand of another. Clanton shows up, and after Wyatt leaves, he beats his boys, telling them if you pull a gun, then you better kill the other guy. There is always a threat to one’s life here.

Clementine arrives on the stagecoach. She is Doc’s former love interest, but he is out of town. The relaxing Wyatt jumps up from his porch chair when he sees Clementine, as if struck by a love lightening bolt. According to Tag Gallagher in his essay, he resides in a different “sphere” than Clementine. That separation is stressed at their first meeting, as he is on one side of a post and she stands behind a rail, the physical objects suggesting how they inhabit different worlds. Wyatt is in black since his road is a dark one that must combat evil. Ford’s heroes are passing through the places they visit, so Wyatt is a wanderer, because he can’t have the comfort of a settled existence as he fights his antagonists.

Gallagher says Ford stops the plot to let us soak in the images of the characters, how they use their eyes, how they walk. Wyatt escorts Clementine to a room opposite Doc’s. She enters the absent man’s place, and the scene is like a nostalgic trip. There is a picture of Doc with a mustache and there is a photo of her there, too. She asks if Wyatt thinks Doc is a good surgeon, but Wyatt says he wouldn’t know. It’s as if they are looking at a photo album of a life that no longer exists.

That idea flows into the scene where Clementine goes to see Doc when he is again in town. She searched for him for a long time after he left Boston. He is coughing and she believes he fled from her because of his ill health. But he says he is no longer the man she once knew. She thinks he is being self-destructive, and she appears to be right, as he is moving away from those who care about him and engaging in dangerous activity. He later looks in a mirror and then smashes it (once again I’ll mention that mirrors can reflect another part of ourselves, mostly negative). Doc goes to the bar and acts surly with Wyatt and the barkeeper, who tells him that drinking will kill him as he grabs a bottle from him. Doc rejects Chihuahua’s attempt to change his mood with a song and a kiss. He tells her to go away, further isolating himself.

Wyatt tells Doc he is a fool for rejecting someone as wonderful as Clementine, and his complimentary statements show that Wyatt is attracted to the young woman. Wyatt also points out Doc’s dangerous drinking habits given his TB. Doc pulls out his gun to indulge his self-destructive tendencies by challenging anyone who confronts him. Wyatt basically accuses him of attempting suicide by attracting those who would boast of killing the infamous Doc Holliday, which would, he says, be easy given his drunken state. Doc shoots down a candle chandelier which starts a small fire. Wyatt knocks Doc out, at least temporarily preventing his demise.

Later Doc is recuperating in bed, but still drinking, and seems to have changed his mind about Chihuahua, saying he’s going to Mexico for a while and is willing to have her come with him as his bride. He learns from her that Clementine is packing to leave and is most likely relieved that he will no longer inflict his current decrepit state on Clementine. The fact that he is willing to attach himself to Chihuahua shows he doesn’t have the same strong feelings toward her if he is willing to expose her to his decline.

Clementine is in the hotel lobby and Wyatt enters singing “My Darling Clementine.” The song is Wyatt’s “yearning,” for her, according to Gallagher, and his hopeless hope for an average prairie life. When he hears she is leaving he says she is giving up too quickly to get Doc back as her love interest. However, he most likely wants her to stick around for himself. He wasn’t planning on going to the church service, but he is happy when she asks him to go with her. (The church is in the process of being constructed, which may imply some hope for a peaceful life in the future). Wyatt tosses away his hat which symbolizes his discarding his detached lawman role, and dances with Clementine, to the surprise of his brothers. Wyatt even seems happy joining in on the supper that follows the church dedication, smiling while carving the meat. Doc interrupts Wyatt’s moment of social joy when Doc yells at Clementine, saying he told her that if she didn’t leave town, he would. Wyat, resuming his attachment to the law, confronts Doc, saying Doc doesn’t have the authority to run anybody out of town. Doc’s adversarial response is that Wyatt should start carrying his gun, which implies that Wyatt isn’t cut out for a peaceful social life. His words also imply the rivalry between the two concerning their feelings for Clementine. But they also remind Wyatt that he can’t escape his role as an agent of justice.

Doc leaves town in a hurry to escape his physical, and thus emotional, proximity to Clementine, throwing a bag of gold to Chihuahua as he darts by. She is devastated since she thought they would leave together after getting married. She runs off to confront Clementine, blaming her for Doc’s leaving. She doesn’t want to accept that Doc doesn’t really love her. As Chihuahua throws Clementine’s clothes out of the closet to ensure her departure, Wyatt arrives and realizes the medallion Chihuahua is wearing belonged to his dead brother James. She says Doc gave it to her.

 Wyatt leaves to confront Doc about his possible involvement in the death of the young Earp. It’s a furious chase as Doc’s extreme driving of the horses reveals his inner drive to escape his circumstances. The extended chase shows the large expanse of the western territory, the hugeness of the land that dwarfs the individuals trying to deal with it. Wyatt catches up with Doc, who refuses to return to the torment he feels in Tombstone. He draws his gun on Wyatt who shoots it out of his hand.

Wyatt and Doc go to confront Chihuahua, who has Billy Clanton ((John Ireland) in her room. After he slips outside, the other men enter, and Doc says he didn’t give her the jewelry that belonged to James Earp. Doc will be charged with James’s murder, so she is persuaded to say that Billy gave it to her after Doc left her lonely and vulnerable. After the divulging of his name, Billy shoots Chihuahua through the window. Wyatt urges Doc to operate on the woman. In a way, Doc is forced to try to revisit his past life before its decline, and is now called “Doctor,” referring to his profession, and not just as a nickname. After the surgery, Wyatt watches Clementine walking out of the saloon, and asks the bartender if he has ever been in love. Wyatt is, but he, like Doc, is clueless as to how to deal with that emotion.

Wyatt wounded Billy as he tried to escape, and he sent his brother, Virgil, to go after him. Virgil shoots Billy as they ride, and Billy dies just outside the Clanton ranch house. The Clantons bring Billy’s body inside and then invite Virgil in after he pulls up. Again, in a cowardly manner, Old Man Clanton shoots Virgil in the back, killing him.

The Clantons drop Virgil’s body in the town, and Clanton says to meet him and his boys at, you guessed it, the O.K. Corral (an ironic name given the situation). Although other townspeople are willing to help, Wyatt tells them, “This is strictly a family affair.” It’s personal, because a son and brothers are dead, and it is now a family feud. But not quite, since Chihuahua dies, and Doc wants his revenge, but he is also feeling like he’ll never revisit his past status as a respected physician. He may be suicidal going to the shootout, but, in a way, he becomes an adopted Earp brother.

The sky has threatening, black clouds, fitting in with the dark deeds happening in Tombstone. Ford builds suspense as the opponents maneuver for position. Wyatt tries the legal way, telling Clanton he has a warrant for his arrest, and asks him to surrender. Clanton admits that he killed the Wyatt brothers, and vows to kill the remaining sibling. Wyatt, his brother, Morgan, and Doc shoot and kill the rest of the Clanton sons. Doc is betrayed by his current disease as he coughs, causing him to drop his guard, and is shot. Clanton surrenders, voicing his pain at the loss of his sons. Wyatt will not kill him, or spare Clanton the relief of an execution. Instead, he says, “I hope you live a hundred years, so you’ll feel just a little what my pa’s gonna feel. Now get out of town, start wandering.” Wyatt knows first-hand about the emptiness of being a wanderer. He wants to condemn Clanton to a childless, homeless existence. But not Morgan. He shoots and kills Clanton as the old man slowly rides away. The clouds are now white, possibly reflecting the eradication of the evil that had infested the town. However, Gallagher says Wyatt’s victory here comes at the price of a high body count, so justice is not triumphant.

Morgan and Wyatt are no longer lawmen, and they begin to ride out to tell their father what has happened. Wyatt encounters Clementine, who will stay on as a schoolteacher. She symbolizes putting down roots. He says he may return and resume his original plan of owning some cattle. He kisses her on the cheek (originally a handshake, which producer Darryl F. Zanuck discarded after a negative response from a test audience) before riding away, suggesting some hope for an eventual happy ending, at least for these two, which he underscores by saying how much he likes the name, Clementine. It is an ironic ending because they can’t be together given their separate worlds. His statement is followed by the words of the title song, bookending the film, which declare eternal love. The feeling of love may be everlasting, but it will not be consummated here.

The next film is Foreign Correspondent.

Deliverance

SPOILER ALERT! The plot of the movie will be discussed.

The theme of exploring the virtues and vices of the unspoiled frontier versus the industrialized urban landscape is a theme in American literature and films, as was noted in the discussion of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. This topic appears again in this 1972 movie, but the take on the discussion here is that although modernity may spoil nature, being in an uncivilized surrounding does not mean living in paradise.

The story centers on four men in Georgia who go on occasional escapes from their suburban world into the wilderness. The beginning of the narrative presents an anti-mechanization argument. For the leader, Lewis (Burt Reynolds), this particular trip holds a special meaning. The land and the river they will be traveling through is about to be converted into a lake with the whole area flooded to produce hydroelectric power. This event represents an extinction process for Lewis, as he complains about how they will be flooding the valley and “drownin’” the river. He sees the conversion as a “rape,” an omen of what is to come later. Their excursion is meant to experience the uncorrupted Cahulawassee River in the remote Georgia wilderness before it is lost forever. Lewis is a man who relishes the idea of hunting with his bow and arrows and riding his canoe through the river’s rapids. He believes that society’s machines will fail and the established order of civilization will collapse, but that his survivalist skills will allow him to go on. We hear the destructive sounds of dynamite blasting away at the valley ironically followed by the natural noise of thunder which sustains the river, the contrast seeming to emphasize the difference between human endeavors and the ways of nature. On the way to the river, Lewis gets a thrill just hearing the flow of the water. He initially gets lost on the way to the shoreline and says that “Sometimes you have to lose yourself before you can find anything.” He is espousing the need to shed themselves of soft city living to find their true natures which are consistent with the wilderness. When one of the group, Bobby (Ned Beatty) concedes that they have lost some of nature in the city, Lewis counters by saying they hadn’t “lost” it; they “sold it” for profit and creature comforts.

Lewis’ friend, Ed (Jon Voight) says he has done okay under the current system. Lewis counters by saying that, yes, he has a good job, and a nice wife and child. But, Ed says Lewis’ scornful attitude makes it sound like Ed’s life is “shitty.” Ed seems a bit embarrassed by admitting he has some insurance after Lewis dismisses Bobby’s work as an insurance salesman. Lewis says, “I don’t believe in insurance. There’s no risk.” And, risk makes life worth living for Lewis because it tests one so as to discover what a person is made of. Director John Boorman gives us a significant shot when he shows Ed sheepishly looking at his pipe, a symbol of his comfortable life, which he hides under his clothing. But, he also handles his knife, which is also part of his personality, but with which he currently is not comfortable, and he puts the weapon in a pocket, too. At the beginning of their journey, he starts to sense danger, and tells Louis maybe they should leave and just go play golf. He is being sensible, but at this point he seems cowardly. In an interview, Voight said he wanted Ed to pick the wooden canoe, because it looked homey, and fit Ed’s desire for feeling safe. Yet, Lewis asks him if he is so careful, why does he keep going on these excursions with him. Ed smiles and says he was wondering about that himself. There is obviously a part of Lewis’ wild nature that Ed admires.

Their first encounter with the area’s inhabitants starts to move the film away from Lewis’ positive viewpoint of this world by showing the unsavory and scary existence in this valley. The buildings are dilapidated. The people are unkempt. They are nothing like what these men see in their safe suburban communities. Bobby is condescending toward the locals, saying they “may be at the end of the line” of civilization. He also says they are examples of “genetic deficiencies” caused by inbreeding. That he comes from a removed world where money is the only thing that matters is seen when he says that they just have to give a “couple of bucks” to make things go smoothly. The natives warn them that they are out of their depth here. One tells Bobby that “you don’t know nothing,” and they are warned that they would be “crazy” to follow through with their canoe trip. The fourth member of their group, Drew (Ronny Cox), plays guitar with a banjo strumming youth who appears to have one of Bobby’s “genetic” deficits. The musical “dueling” with the locals dancing and singing along, although a sort of benevolent competition between the two cultures, does show how these people coming from different worlds can exist in the harmony of the artistic moment. But, after the music is over, the boy turns away, ignoring Drew’s offered handshake, emphasizing how they are too different to ever be friends.

After the men are on their way they see the boy above them on a makeshift bridge. He swings his banjo back and forth which makes it look like the pendulum of a clock. The image seems to be warning them that their time as civilized men is counting down. After they get through some rapids, Bobby says they “beat it.” Lewis admonishes him because his attitude is like those whose egos make them feel they can conquer nature. Lewis says, “You don’t beat this river.” But, even though he is an outdoors man, Drew offers a different perspective on Lewis. He says that he may know the woods, but he doesn’t “feel” them. Lewis may want to be one with nature, but he really “can’t hack it.” After all, he only visits the rural regions; he doesn’t live there. When Ed tries to wake Lewis in the early morning, his friend is in the fetal position, and gives out a little yelp, like a baby not wanting to be disturbed. This scene undermines Lewis’ macho persona. The warnings that they are out of place start to become evident. Lewis hears something at night that could be dangerous, but doesn’t know what it is. Ed sounds like he feels relief that the large problems in distant parts of the world, or even smaller ones in Atlanta, won’t touch them out where they are. But, it also means that they are cut off from any help from the outside world. When Ed tries to exercise his hunting ability, he gets the shakes pointing his arrow at a deer, and misses, showing his not being in sync with what is required to survive in the woods. We begin to hear the “Dueling Banjos” theme more and more, now telling us ironically that these suburban men are not in harmony with this alien environment. Lewis may see this world as the Garden of Eden, but as they row, Ed asks “are there any snakes around here?” and they later see a water snake. Perhaps this image suggests that the devil lives here and that it is no paradise.

Bobby and Ed shore up their canoe while Lewis and Drew are still on the river. They encounter two mountain men. One of them looks grotesque, with his upper front teeth missing (Herbert “Cowboy” Coward). In this context, Bobby and Ed’s weakness is that they try to deal with these people like civilized men, instead of immediately going into what we, today, would call a Walking Dead survivalist mode. Ed addresses these two savage types while holding that tobacco pouch he probably uses in his study at home. The mountain men say the other two are lost, and they are in this situation where there is nothing to prevent acts of depravity. These two get the jump on them with a rifle and a knife. Ed is bound to a tree with, ironically, his own store-bought belt. The other man (Bill McKinney) makes Bobby disrobe, stripping him of the remnants of civilization, and calls him a “sow,” reducing him to an animal, forcing him to squeal like a pig. (There was a foreboding of Bobby being used as a woman when he said the life jacket he was told to wear looked like a “corset). Boorman, said that Bobby’s rape was the malevolent nature of the wilderness exacting revenge for what Lewis earlier called the “rape” of the valley.

To show how God and religion have no place in the barbarity of the forest, the toothless mountain man, before forcing Ed to kneel so he can perform oral sex on him, blasphemously says, “You gonna’ do some prayin’ for me, boy. And you better pray good.” However, Lewis shoots and kills the one who raped Bobby, while the toothless man gets away. Given the context, Lewis’ act is legally justifiable. What follows is not. Drew, the moral center of the story, says they must report all that has happened to the authorities. Lewis argues that he will not get a fair trial in this part of the state because all of the people are related to each other, and he killed one of their kin. Also, the one that ran away can make up any story he likes and recruit other mountain men. Lewis wants to bury the body which will be covered by the lake. In response to Drew’s pleas to act within the law, Lewis, raising his arms and looking around them says, “Where’s the law, Drew?” They take a vote, creating their own little government. Bobby, ashamed about the violation he endured, doesn’t want information about the assault to get out. Even though Ed is emotionally conflicted, he goes along with Drew’s plan. By covering up the killing, they lower themselves to the same level as the mountain men, abdicating any accountability to society at large. As they dig the earth with their hands to make a grave for the dead man, Drew swings his arms like an ape, grunting, showing how he has devolved into an animal.

 While paddling their canoes to escape, Lewis looks up as if he notices something. Drew loses his wallet with pictures of his family in the river. It’s as if he has lost whatever grounded him in the outside world by going along with covering up the acts of violence. He doesn’t put on his life jacket, implying he no longer can live with what has happened. He shakes his head, and falls out of the canoe in the rapids. Lewis, the man of nature, is thrown out of his canoe and his leg is horribly mangled. This macho man whines in pain most of the rest of the film. He says that Drew was shot by the other mountain man. Ed, now having to take over Lewis’ position, climbs the mountain. He spies a man with a gun. Echoing the previous shaking while aiming his arrow, he kills his prey this time. However, he slips, piercing himself with another arrow. Could this imply that his act of violence is self-destructive? To compound the confusion, the man he killed has false teeth. Is he the one with the rapist? Why would he now put in his false teeth? Bobby later asks if he was just another guy out hunting. We don’t know, because no legal investigation is utilized to gather evidence. When Ed tries to lower the body of the man he killed, they both fall into the river, and the rope and the man seem to entangle Ed under the water, symbolically tying them together morally, and suggesting that violence equates to swimming in dangerous waters.

They put Lewis in the remaining canoe and on their way they find Drew’s body. His arm loops around his head in a distorted fashion showing how he was a broken man physically and spiritually after their cover-up. They can’t tell if he was shot. To avoid any questions, they weigh down his body, as they did with the man Ed killed. They eventually come to the place where they can get off the river. Their entry place back on land contains a rusted out wreck of a car, a symbol of the civilization they are returning to. They exit the water where there is a church. On their ride back to their cars they see the church being moved because of the future flooding. The solid, definite foundation of beliefs that a church should represent are undermined symbolically by the building having no set location. These men no longer have an ethical or spiritual foundation on which to rely, as their lives, too, are shifting following what has been done to them and what they have done.

Despite suspicions by one of the deputies, a brother-in-law of one of the missing mountain men, the Sheriff (played by the author of the story, James Dickey) says there is no evidence to hold the men. They may have tried to bury what happened, keep it submerged, but Ed has nightmares of the dead mountain man’s hand rising out of the water, in a way pointing an accusing finger.

This film provides no right way to live. The so-called “civilized” world is destroying nature. But, the men who occupy this wilderness act as primal beasts. Their living conditions are deplorable. As one inhabitant says, the best thing for the town in the valley is for it to be “covered by water.” It’s as if Dickey is saying that for humans to be one with nature is to be primitive. The idea of the “noble savage” is a contradiction in terms: there is nobility in being savage. It appears that in this tale, there is no “deliverance” from evil.

The next film is Little Big Man.