That comment makes me think that we might have to add to (or at least amend) the category of “Monster” when it comes to the mythic Doc Holliday. He is clearly honor bound by the ties of duty and obligation to his friend. Those ties are put there by love -philia, in the Greek sense. A Greek mythological analogue is not coming to me right now but one can certainly draw parallels to the Sumerian/Mesopotamian Enkidu.
I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw YOU were going to write about this artistic pillar of the New World. Totally made my day. Goddamn, this was a great piece.
"They just want to grill, but the ogres won’t let them."
My very favourite scene from the film features Billy Bob not yet Karl from the yet-to-be-made "Slingblade" approaching in anger and Kilmer shouting, "Johnny Tyler! Madcap! Where you goin' with that shot gun?" Much hilarity ensues.
Doc Holliday is a fascinating character. His brief career as a dentist, symbol of monstrosity to many children, is elided from the film. Whether his actual work as a killer matches his notoriety as one seems to be disputed in contemporary historical review. It is not, though, my view that what is being written about anything, lately, should be taken as better than things that were written some time ago. (Yes, I do discard many memoirs and personal narratives as obviously biased, and, no, I don't think the agitprop from today's communists is any better.)
Thank you for a very enjoyable post about a movie that I found enjoyable.
You have a knack for great essays on popular movies. Well done! One observation: “While the other Cowboys are throwbacks to pagan lore, Ringo is wholly Satanic, a point emphasized throughout the film.” This is an interesting parallel with Blood Meridian’s characters: Glanton and the Judge. Glanton is the nominal gang leader but the Judge is clearly pulling the strings. It’s as if the spiritual can see the material world well before the material world recognizes the spiritual reality underneath it all.
I'm an Australian and live a helluva long way from Arizona, but the Earp/Holloway ethos has called to me since I first read about the Gunfight at the OK Corral as a child. I've subsequently been to Tombstone half a dozen times, and every time I go there I walk down the street to the Corral and think about what happened that day.
My wife thinks I'm nuts, but I think it's something that women are simply unable to understand. I can't explain it to her.
This is a fine piece of writing about a fine piece of story-telling about a great story. Chapeau, Sir.
And Kilmer as Doc. There'll never be anything like it ever again, no matter how long movie are made.
I spent one summer cooped up for medical reasons in the middle of the desert, and found myself on various chat apps looking for conversation. At one point, I was talking with an Irish girl who'd spent a good portion of her high school years performing in recreations of that gunfight specifically.
She was shocked when I told her it was a real event. She'd assumed it was a legend like Paul Bunyan.
I have probably seen it a dozen times, for all the reasons you state, one of the few great modern cinema mythological allegories of the hero's journey and good and evil.
“There was something very peculiar about Doc. He was gentlemanly, a good dentist, a friendly man and yet, outside of us boys, I don’t think he had a friend in the Territory. Tales were told that he had murdered men in different parts of the country; that he had robbed and committed all manner of crimes, and yet, when persons were asked how they knew it, they could only admit it was hearsay, and that nothing of the kind could really be traced to Doc’s account. He was a slender, sickly, fellow, but whenever a stage was robbed or a row started, and help was needed, Doc was one of the first to saddle his horse and report for duty.”
Virgil Earp – Arizona Daily Star – May 30, 1882
John Henry “Doc” Holliday was not a “monster”. He was compelled to move west for his health, and found he could make a better living from gambling than even his successful dental practices. Not easy to know, or get close to, he found friendship and trust with the Earp brothers, mostly with Wyatt, and to them he was true. They ultimately knew him best.
Great analysis. I recently watched the Netflix docudrama “Wyatt Earp & the Cowboy War” and now I’ll have to go watch both again with your essay in mind. If you have not seen it, I would recommend the movie about him “Val” which is narrated by his son.
Really enjoyed nearly all of this but youve given short shrift to my favorite movie, Unforgiven, and that sir, is Unforgivable. Ok just kidding. Ill let it go this once. But dont let it happen agin, cowboy. Btw, if youre ever in the neighborhood, Tombstone is a fun little day trip down south from Phoenix or Tuscon. And boy howdy, have the townfolk embraced the movie. Also of interest is that Earp spent some time in my neck of the woods: https://www.historynet.com/wyatt-earp-turned-business-idaho/
The majority of my brief Naval career was spent aboard the nuclear carrier Nimitz. We were the flagship for the commander of the carrier group, Rear Admiral Eugene Carroll. Our closed circuit shipboard entertainment system (it was the late Seventies) presented video tapes of various AFRTS programming, mostly sitcoms and such, but we got our share of movies, and rumor was the admiral was a big fan of The Outlaw Josey Wales so the crew was treated to a fair share of showings.
One of my favorite westerns. My best friend says he's the Doc to my Earp in the scene where Doc is asked why he's doing all this.
"Wyatt Earp is my friend."
"Hell, I've got lots of friends."
"I don't."
That is possibly my favorite line in all of film…
That comment makes me think that we might have to add to (or at least amend) the category of “Monster” when it comes to the mythic Doc Holliday. He is clearly honor bound by the ties of duty and obligation to his friend. Those ties are put there by love -philia, in the Greek sense. A Greek mythological analogue is not coming to me right now but one can certainly draw parallels to the Sumerian/Mesopotamian Enkidu.
Yeah. Speaks to me. “Ah doan’,” either.
The script is just boss!
Could not agree more! Absolutely brilliant writing and masterful combination of restraint and intensity in both the script and the delivery.
It has long been rumored in scientific journals that Sam Elliot's mustache has its own gravitational field.
Excellent article, I enjoyed it as my evening read.
Whoa. And all this time I thought it was JUST a great movie. The layers you've detailed here are mind bending. Well done!
Oh, and for the record; no one will ever convince me it's not, "huckle-bearer" 😉
Skin that smokewagon Librarian!
I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw YOU were going to write about this artistic pillar of the New World. Totally made my day. Goddamn, this was a great piece.
"They just want to grill, but the ogres won’t let them."
Not much has changed really.
Except the Ogres have taken over.
Yes, by convincing us that they're men, or heroes.
Indeed!
Val Kilmer's greatest performance, and that's really saying something. You've inspired me to watch it again.
And again, and again and again...
My very favourite scene from the film features Billy Bob not yet Karl from the yet-to-be-made "Slingblade" approaching in anger and Kilmer shouting, "Johnny Tyler! Madcap! Where you goin' with that shot gun?" Much hilarity ensues.
Doc Holliday is a fascinating character. His brief career as a dentist, symbol of monstrosity to many children, is elided from the film. Whether his actual work as a killer matches his notoriety as one seems to be disputed in contemporary historical review. It is not, though, my view that what is being written about anything, lately, should be taken as better than things that were written some time ago. (Yes, I do discard many memoirs and personal narratives as obviously biased, and, no, I don't think the agitprop from today's communists is any better.)
Thank you for a very enjoyable post about a movie that I found enjoyable.
You have a knack for great essays on popular movies. Well done! One observation: “While the other Cowboys are throwbacks to pagan lore, Ringo is wholly Satanic, a point emphasized throughout the film.” This is an interesting parallel with Blood Meridian’s characters: Glanton and the Judge. Glanton is the nominal gang leader but the Judge is clearly pulling the strings. It’s as if the spiritual can see the material world well before the material world recognizes the spiritual reality underneath it all.
I thought of Blood Meridian as well. What a beautifully written, incredibly disturbing book that was
I would recommend “My Confession: Recollections of a Rogue” by Samuel Chamberlain, the inspiration for Blood Meridian, if you haven’t read it already.
Reminds me of Iago and Othello, or Mephistopheles and Faust. A huge amount in this.
I’ve got two guns. One for both of ya.
I could have commented on every Holiday line.
Johnny Ringo is scary but Doc Holiday is Death Walking.
A better inspiration than Eastwood for The Saint of Killers.
Pt 2?
I'm an Australian and live a helluva long way from Arizona, but the Earp/Holloway ethos has called to me since I first read about the Gunfight at the OK Corral as a child. I've subsequently been to Tombstone half a dozen times, and every time I go there I walk down the street to the Corral and think about what happened that day.
My wife thinks I'm nuts, but I think it's something that women are simply unable to understand. I can't explain it to her.
This is a fine piece of writing about a fine piece of story-telling about a great story. Chapeau, Sir.
And Kilmer as Doc. There'll never be anything like it ever again, no matter how long movie are made.
I spent one summer cooped up for medical reasons in the middle of the desert, and found myself on various chat apps looking for conversation. At one point, I was talking with an Irish girl who'd spent a good portion of her high school years performing in recreations of that gunfight specifically.
She was shocked when I told her it was a real event. She'd assumed it was a legend like Paul Bunyan.
On one of my visits to Tombstone there was a recreation of the gunfight at the corral. Very interesting.
I just kinda sat silently in my chair and stared at the screen for five minutes after I finished reading this.
I like the ending Doc got in this film far more than the real story.
I have probably seen it a dozen times, for all the reasons you state, one of the few great modern cinema mythological allegories of the hero's journey and good and evil.
Virgil Earp re Doc Holliday:
“There was something very peculiar about Doc. He was gentlemanly, a good dentist, a friendly man and yet, outside of us boys, I don’t think he had a friend in the Territory. Tales were told that he had murdered men in different parts of the country; that he had robbed and committed all manner of crimes, and yet, when persons were asked how they knew it, they could only admit it was hearsay, and that nothing of the kind could really be traced to Doc’s account. He was a slender, sickly, fellow, but whenever a stage was robbed or a row started, and help was needed, Doc was one of the first to saddle his horse and report for duty.”
Virgil Earp – Arizona Daily Star – May 30, 1882
John Henry “Doc” Holliday was not a “monster”. He was compelled to move west for his health, and found he could make a better living from gambling than even his successful dental practices. Not easy to know, or get close to, he found friendship and trust with the Earp brothers, mostly with Wyatt, and to them he was true. They ultimately knew him best.
(He’s a cousin of mine, father’s side.)
Great analysis. I recently watched the Netflix docudrama “Wyatt Earp & the Cowboy War” and now I’ll have to go watch both again with your essay in mind. If you have not seen it, I would recommend the movie about him “Val” which is narrated by his son.
Really enjoyed nearly all of this but youve given short shrift to my favorite movie, Unforgiven, and that sir, is Unforgivable. Ok just kidding. Ill let it go this once. But dont let it happen agin, cowboy. Btw, if youre ever in the neighborhood, Tombstone is a fun little day trip down south from Phoenix or Tuscon. And boy howdy, have the townfolk embraced the movie. Also of interest is that Earp spent some time in my neck of the woods: https://www.historynet.com/wyatt-earp-turned-business-idaho/
In my mind the only Western that comes close is The Outlaw Josey Wales, and in some ways it surpasses Tombstone for it's message and delivery.
This is the way:
https://www.quotes.net/mquote/1195352
The majority of my brief Naval career was spent aboard the nuclear carrier Nimitz. We were the flagship for the commander of the carrier group, Rear Admiral Eugene Carroll. Our closed circuit shipboard entertainment system (it was the late Seventies) presented video tapes of various AFRTS programming, mostly sitcoms and such, but we got our share of movies, and rumor was the admiral was a big fan of The Outlaw Josey Wales so the crew was treated to a fair share of showings.
That’s awesome!
That is a great article! Awesome story.