What happened to “Doc” Holliday after 1957 – part 1

Doc (1971)

It’s just remarkable how far away from the actual history can be a move that claims to “finally” tell the true story. That movie is “Doc” (1971) – a typical for it’s time revisionist western and an otherwise mediocre film at best.

“Doc” there is a victim of a very greedy cold-hearted Wyatt. “Doc’s” only desire is to leave with Kate to California, settle down with her and have kids together. Probably, the real historical Kate would love this version of events, but it certainly doesn’t have anything to do with the truth.

The film is trying to win over its audience by putting the legend of the Gunfight at the OK Corral to its head and presenting the Clantons as a herd of innocent lambs, who were surrendering at the OK Corral at the first request from the Earps and despite that slaughtered by the Earp brothers and the reluctantly participating “Doc”.

Doc (1971)

John Wayne vs Clint Eastwood – part 1: from pre-classic to classic to revisionist western hero

John Wayne, who’s name is inseparably attached to the Classic Western, once said that he thought that the 20s and 30s (pre-classic) Western heroes were all too clean and perfect.

They never drank or smoked. They never wanted to go to bed with a beautiful girl. They never had a fight. A heavy might throw a chair at them, and they just looked surprised and didn’t fight in this spirit.

John Wayne

While he wanted to create a new kind of hero. The one who isn’t that clean and plain and who responses in an adequate way.

If someone throws a chair at you, hell, you pick up a chair and belt him right back.

John Wayne

The fundumential difference between Wayne’s and Eastwood’s film characters is this line of John Wayne’s quote:

I was trying to play a man who gets dirty, who sweats sometimes, who enjoys kissing a gal he likes, who gets angry, who fights clean whenever possible but will fight dirty if he has to.

John Wayne

Basically Wayne’s characters retained the internal principle of a fair fight. Clint Eastwood had to take it a step further: