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. What those letters revealed may never be known, but Sister Mary was reborn on screen as Clementine Carter.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. Most of these letters were burned after Sister Mary's death in 1939 by her sister, who feared that the letters were tarnish the nun's reputation. After Doc's death in 1887 her letters were among the possessions of his sent back to Georgia. Although Sister Mary never made a trip out west to bring Doc home, they corresponded via letters for the rest of his life. As Sister Mary Melanie she would become an elementary school teacher, exactly like her cinematic counterpart. In 1883, unlike her cinematic counterpart, Mattie decided to enter the Sisters of Mercy Convent to become a Catholic nun. There would be no other man for her after John. His farewell to her surely was an emotional time and as a result she never married. When Doc left Georgia in 1873, Mattie was distraught after separating from the only man she truly loved. Although romantic relationships and marriage between cousins were common in the Southern United States of the nineteenth century, Mattie's devout Catholic parents wholeheartedly disapproved. Mattie was the eldest daughter of Robert Kennedy Holliday and Mary Anne Fitzgerald. While the character of Clementine Carter was by and large a product of the movie's fiction, she did have a historical counterpart in Doc Holliday's first cousin named Martha Ann "Mattie" Holliday.
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