My Darling Clementine
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
I was about 16- or 17-years old when I wrote a gushing fan letter to John Ford, the man who directed many of my all-time favorite movies—movies like My Darling Clementine, The Searchers and The Grapes of Wrath. As a teenager I didn’t yet knew that Ford was considered the greatest director of Hollywood’s Golden Age. All I knew was that I’d grown up watching movies “Directed by John Ford” whenever they were on TV, watching them over and over again with a kind of rapt, obsessive wonder: feeling and loving their greatness. So much so that—in my letter—I asked Ford to please, please hire me to do anything on his next movie. Ah, the sweet innocence of youth!
Incredibly, a few months later, I got a letter back! No, it wasn’t from Ford. It was from his assistant, who thanked me for writing, but said that the great director was hospitalized and not going to be working again any time soon. A few years later, Ford was dead. But the John Ford who inspired and continues to inspire me never really died. With each passing decade, his films live on, as great as ever, and I continue to watch and love them, such as his 1946 masterpiece My Darling Clementine.
The plot of Clementine is that old chestnut about Wyatt Earp and his brothers bringing law and order to the wilderness town of Tombstone, Arizona in the late 1870s. Together with the infamous Doc Holliday, the Earps head to the O.K. Corral for a gunfight with a violent gang of rustlers. The story of the showdown has been reimagined in countless books and movies. But in My Darling Clementine, John Ford made a version that stands apart with stunning artistry.
A vision of pioneer men and women living with humor and grace in a violent time.
Filmed in gorgeous black and white, set against the magnificent landscape of Monument Valley, Clementine is, of course, a good versus bad morality tale. But from inside that familiar tale Ford coaxes out tender undercurrents of romance, touching moments of genuine heartbreak, and a vision of pioneer men and women living with humor and grace in a violent time. The artful nuances that Ford brings to the story is what elevates Clementine to its enduring status as a classic.
The movie is crafted with great scenes and iconic visuals, and all are vintage John Ford. In his glowing review of the movie, critic Roger Ebert called it “the sweetest and most good-hearted of all westerns.”
At the heart of this masterpiece is Henry Fonda, who gives a commanding performance as Wyatt Earp—a lawman as quick with his warmth and generosity as he is with his six gun. And the all-star cast around him is equally stunning—from a brooding Victor Mature and a lusty Linda Darnell to a crazed Walter Brennan and Ward Bond and Tim Holt as Wyatt’s trusty brothers.
I give My Darling Clementine four out of four stars. It’s a memorable “Directed by John Ford” masterpiece.
