Has it really been nearly eight months since my last western? (I'm talking full-fledged westerns, so The Force Awakens doesn't count.) And just like in that one, Walter Brennan gets cast as the main villain. I ought to get used to that.
I've seen two other films about Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday, but they didn't include a Clementine. No, she doesn't follow the story told in the song. Her function here is as a love interest whom Doc keeps at bay, apparently due to his tuberculosis -- not for fear of her catching it, but for shame at appearing so weak. He still carries on with another woman, nicknamed Chihuahua, who actually gets more screen time. Clementine appeals to Wyatt to talk sense into Doc. Of course, this isn't really the main conflict....
I've seen enough cinema to predict what happens when a protagonist turns down a generous offer to buy what he has. In this case, Old Man Clanton (Brennan) wants the Earp Brothers' cattle. Wyatt (Henry Fonda) was planning to make only a short stop in nearly lawless Tombstone, but after he finds James Earp dead and the cattle gone, he agrees to become the new marshal. He soon meets and forms a complicated association with Doc (Victor Mature) while spreading a no-nonsense reputation. He'll need the help against the Clanton clan. Tim Holt and Ward Bond appear as two other Earps.
Director John Ford had made the acquaintance of the real Wyatt Earp decades earlier. The former claimed to stick close to the telling he heard from the latter. One of them was either flaking or bluffing, because MDC has about as much historical accuracy as a Mel Gibson movie. For instance, in reality, Wyatt and Doc already knew each other by then, the iconic gunfight took place the previous year, and certain characters didn't die yet. I suspect Ford of bluffing; from what I read, he could be a real jerk, which is why Brennan made a point never to work with him again.
If you want a more reliably authentic version, see Tombstone. If you want old-school action, see Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. If you want relative emotional complexity between characters and a slightly higher female presence, you may settle for MDC.
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