Wonderful character development!

hyped garbage

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

'Doc', from 1971, is an odd take on the famous Gunfight at the OK Corral in Tombstone, Arizona Territory, in 1881. It is more ambiguous than usual, and you really don't think that Doc Holliday was that willing to go along with his Earp friends in this version. It's vague and subdued and has some low-key acting, but I thought it was better than average and not a bad find.Faye Dunaway's added as a trollop domestic love interest of Doc Holliday.One thing to point out is that Wyatt Earp is portrayed by the characteristically unhandsome, "bug eyed" actor Harris Yulin ( Scarface (1983), Night Moves (1975), Clear and Present Danger (1994)). He's a bit odd and doesn't have the necessary power or gravitas to give him that punch that the character so richly deserves. Stacy Keach is fine as Doc Holliday, a bit of a rambler here.The "Cowboys", the Earps' enemies, are the weak link, as they are just basically rude and not very interesting.Still, it's worth a look.Also recommended: Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957) Hour of the Gun (1967) Wyatt Earp (1994) Tombstone (1993)

It's been a long while since I've watched 1993's "Tombstone" and 1994's "Wyatt Earp", and my recollection is that I enjoyed them both quite well. It's a pretty fair conclusion to draw that none of the films depicting Wyatt Earp and the events at the OK Corral were ever done entirely accurately, but those two came pretty close, depending on your view of the Earp Brothers and their place in Western legend. For what it's worth, "Doc" may be even more historically accurate regarding the motives of Wyatt and his ambitions in Tombstone, even if the film's finale is entirely off the mark. The 'real' gunfight, as much as history can offer us, lasted only about thirty seconds, with thirty one shots fired, and only the McLaury Brothers and Bill Clanton dead. Before he was cut down, Clanton injured Virgil and Morgan, while Doc Holliday caught a bullet in the hip. Unarmed Ike Clanton and young Billy Clayborn (not a character here, but presumably 'The Kid') backed out of the fight and ran away. This revisionist telling of the Earp legend won't please everyone, so if you'll be offended by the portrayal of the Earps here as opportunistic heels, it's a fair bet you should stay away. A 1998 compilation of fact based histories titled "Gunfighters of the West" from Wellspring Entertainment offers a compelling view of both the Earps and the Clantons, and neither is pretty. While the Clantons and McLaury's represented the rowdy 'cowboy' element, the Earps weren't above running gambling tables and brothels, while operating as a veritable protection racket for the good folks of Tombstone. Virgil was the assistant town marshal to Sheriff Johnny Behan, and Morgan often rode shotgun on the Benson stagecoach. Both Behan and Wyatt had designs on becoming Sheriff of Cochise County (not Tombstone), because that's where the money was. The county sheriff job, through taxation and other forms of revenue, was worth about forty thousand dollars; translate that into more than a half million today. Fact and fiction parallel nicely here in the latter half of the picture when Wyatt (Harris Yulin) tries to make a deal with Ike Clanton (Michael Witney) by offering twenty thousand dollars for turning in Ringo Kid (Denver John Collins) for the stagecoach robbery. Historically, the smooth and popular Johnny Behan got Wyatt to back out of running for County Sheriff if Wyatt would accept a Chief Deputy position, with both splitting the spoils of the office. When Behan reneged, the bad blood between the two only heightened, and was made more complicated by Wyatt moving in on Behan's girl, Josephine 'Josie' Marcus.But wait a minute, this is John Henry 'Doc' Holliday's picture. A dentist by trade, and a gambler and gunman by conviction, Stacy Keach's portrayal rivals that of Val Kilmer's in 'Tombstone" (personally, I like Kilmer better). Doc's reputation as the fastest, deadliest and best gunfighter of the territory was well warranted, but it surprised me (and quite frankly bothered me), that the film writers had Doc involved in that cowardly kill of The Kid in the finale. Along with the entirely one sided portrayal of the Earps as dirt bags, it's not too much of a stretch to say that even-handedness didn't get in the way of this story's outcome. All that said, it's probably wishful thinking that a completely unbiased telling of the OK Corral legend could ever be told, with adherents on both sides of the fence regarding the reputations of the Earp Brothers and Doc Holliday. If you side with the detractors, you'll probably go along with Doc's assessment when he says to his friend - "You sound like bad people Wyatt". Earp's response - "We are John".

Low key to say the least, this Frank Perry film debunks the Wyatt Earp/Doc Holliday/Clanton Bros. myth by removing any trace of romanticism or heroism. The characters in this movie are full of regret, fear and, particularly in Holliday's case, a real sense of melancholia. As Doc Holliday, Stacy Keach gives an exceptional performance, underplaying throughout. He's matched by Harris Yulin as an unlikely Earp. There's great chemistry here. Faye Dunaway is Kate Elder, a prostitute (minus even a hint of a heart of gold) who finds herself, if not in love with Holliday, at least hitching her hopes of a better life to him. This is a film with very little hope and director Perry creates a real sense of sadness these desperate characters must have felt. The extremely rich screenplay is by Pete Hamill and the supporting cast includes Penelope Allen as Earp's wife, Michael Witney as a particularly nasty Ike Clanton and Denver John Collins as Clanton's nephew, a not so bright bulb who hero worships Holliday. Sassy Antonia Rey has a cameo as Concha. A great anti-western.

Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday did go to Tombstone to get rich, but this film badly represents the "truth". This is typical of the time (Vietnam era) where law enforcement,traditions, and America were questioned and debunked whenever possible. Liberalism at it's finest.This film may have been thought-provoking (although inaccurate) for it's time, but we've grown up from those days, as we did from the overly-romaticized days that produced "My Darling Clementine" and "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Those films were polar opposites of this one, and both were inaccurate. The best film of the Vietnam era on this subject was "Hour of the Gun" made 4 years prior to this one.Add that to "Tombstone" and Kevin Costner's "Wyatt Earp" as perhaps the most close to accurate on this subject as Hollywood will come.