Twentieth Century-Fox

U.S.A. 1946

Director: John Ford

Cast:

Wyatt Earp. . . . . . . . . . . .Henry Fonda

Doc Holliday. . . . . . . . . .Victor Mature

Clementine Carter. . . . .Cathy Downs

Old Man Clanton. . . . . .Walter Brennan

Chihuahua. . . . . . . . . . . Linda Darnell

Morgan Earp. . . . . . . . . . Ward Bond

Virgil Earp. . . . . . . . . . . . Tim Holt

Billy Clanton. . . . . . . . . . John Ireland

James Earp. . . . . . . . . . . . Don Garner

Ike Clanton. . . . . . . . . . . Grant Withers

Questions for reflection in your electronic journal. Choose a few--say three--and let us hear your thoughts:

1. In what ways is Tombstone a typical--or atypical--example of a "frontier town" as Warshow describes such places?

2. What might be the symbolic function of the Hamlet soliloquy sequence in My Darling Clementine?

3. Warshow makes much of the distinction between the virtuous woman and the prostitute in Westerns. How might his arguments be related to My Darling Clementine? Do we see echoes of this myth in The Natural? Explain.

4. Warshow notes that "guns constitute the visible moral center of the Western movie" (92-93), meaning that the possibility of violence is continually present. He also suggests, however, that such violence is tempered by certain "rules" or "laws." How do these thoughts relate to My Darling Clementine, and in what way does the film problematize violence?

5. To what extent does the character of Wyatt Earp respond to Warshow's myth of the Westerner as "the last gentleman," in "the last art form in which the concept of honor retains its strength"(94)?

6. Much of Warshow's article implies a certain nostalgia as the reason for the Western's enduring popularity in American popular culture. If nostalgia is defined as a longing for things that are lost, what IS it that we believe we have lost, and that the Western reconstructs or retrieves for us?

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