My Darling Clementine

Although the commentary is by John Ford's biographer Scott Eyman and Wyatt Earp III, the latter might as well have stayed at home. His contribution is so minimal - cough and you'll miss him.

Eyman speaks as if reading from the page and he speaks so fast you have to pay attention. This is not a relaxing experience and even if he throws titbits for the birdbrains, in the form of anecdotes, essentially this is a lecture. Occasionally he addresses the scene that you are watching, but mostly he discusses Ford the filmmaker in connection with his body of work. It is a serious, intellectual discourse. Forget the fun.

Facts about Earp and the movie are in there, but you have to dig for them. He is interesting about the history. Tombstone was 15 years old at the time of the fracas at the OK Corral. Earp had been marshal for two years and hadn't just arrived. Boss Clanton died of natural causes before the gunfight and none of the Earps were killed there. The gunfight itself was like a street brawl. It happened outside the OK Corral, not in it, and lasted 30 seconds.

Doc Holliday was a dentist from the South, not a surgeon from Boston. He didn't die at the gunfight. He died six years later somewhere else. In the scene when Wyatt is placing stones on his younger brother's grave at the beginning of the film, the year of death carved on the gravestone reads 1882 and yet the gunfight at the OK Corral took place in 1881. Eyman has a theory about that and blames it on an assistant director shooting the scene and producer Daryll Zanuck taking over the editing without Ford's permission.

If you want to learn about Ford, it's cheaper and takes less time to listen to Eyman's lecture than read his book. He knows his man, of that there is little doubt, and his admiration is clothed with fine academic language. You don't warm to him, however.

Teacher knows best. Wake up at the back, there!