Revenge And Family - Movie Review Example

Revenge And Family: My Darling Clementine and The Man From Laramie The Man From Laramie and My Darling Clementine seem to offer quite similar narratives. Indeed, both films tell the stories of outsiders who have come to a region in the American west and are seeking revenge for brothers that were killed. But despite the similarities of the stories, the underlying elements in both films are quite different. In My Darling Clementine, there is a hopelessness about the people and their town. John Ford, along with his screenwriters Samuel G. Engel and Winston Miller, present Tombstone to show an image of the west which can only be salvaged by the arrival of civility and civilization. The problems in the town of Coronado in The Man From Laramie are not shown to be particularly representative of the struggles of the American west, as they are in My Darling Clementine, but are both more localized and more universal. They are caused by the greed and violence of the dominant local land baron, as well as the corruption and competition within his family. Both of the main characters in the two films, Wyatt Earp in My Darling Clementine and Will Lockhart in The Man From Laramie, are well aware of the dangers of living on the frontier. Both of them have adapted a rough edge in order to survive. In My Darling Clementine, Ford shows the hardened nature of Wyatt and the other older Earp brother by emphasizing the youth of James, the youngest Earp. James is clean-shaven, unlike the three older Earps, and the actor cast to play him, Don Garner, has a higher-pitched, almost juvenile sounding voice, at least when he speaks his final words, saying good-by to his brothers before he is killed. In The Man From Laramie, director Anthony Mann makes it clear from the first scene of the film that Lockhart is driven by the great internal anger he feels over the ambush of his brother. Mann keeps the camera on Lockhart for a long time when he comes across a cavalry hat, apparently from the Apache ambush which has brought him to Coronado seeking revenge. Mann continues to keep the camera on Lockhart to show the anguish on his face as he puts the hat back down with great delicacy and respect. Mann also emphasizes the isolation of Lockhart in his quest for revenge in the unfriendly setting of Coronado. After both violent encounters with Dave Waggoman, the camera stays on him for an extended period to show him riding off by himself. After the first attack, when his mules are killed and his wagons burned, he is shown coming back into Coronado in the dark on a mule, with no one else in sight. Then the next day, when he spots Dave Waggoman, the camera again stays on him for a long time as he walks through the streets of the town, alone, on his way to fight. Later, after the second attack when he is shot in the hand by the younger Waggoman, once again Mann holds the shot for an extended period as Lockhart rides away, isolated. Though neither main character is naive, they have both ridden into situations they didn’t anticipate. After a drunk gunman shoots up the town on Earp’s first night in Tombstone, he yells out, “Hey, what kind of a town is this?” He wasn’t even aware yet that his cattle were stolen and his youngest brother was killed. While the killings and the stolen cattle were a surprise to Earp, Ford had led the audience to anticipate something of that sort from the Clantons right from the start of the film. After Wyatt has told Old Man Clanton and his son Ike that his brothers will be headed into Tombstone that night, Ford has the camera linger on a less than wholesome-looking Ike Clanton. who then glances over at his father who has an equally devious look. In The Man From Laramie, Lockhart was told to anticipate problems from the Apache in the area, but instead he is the victim of an intense “family” rivalry which becomes clear to him the longer he stays on the scene. “The seeds of the problems here were planted long before I ever heard of Coronado,” he tells Barbara Waggoman. The town of Coronado is dominated by Alec Waggoman. “It’s a one-man country, and Alex Waggoman is the man,” says Barbara, his niece. Waggoman tells Lockhart that he “owns this town-as far as you can ride for three days.” His means for achieving his large holdings were not always reputable. “I’ve made some hard decisions,” he says, “but nothing I’m ashamed of.” He does acknowledge, however, that his empire was not built just on good business sense. “In the old days, I cracked down plenty. I had to. There wasn’t much law then. It was the only way I could build the Barb (his ranch) and hold it.” But others have a more dim view of the way he became so prosperous. Barbara Waggoman tells Lockhart that “everything here was built on greed and killing.” Her father, a former associate of Waggoman, told her, “it would go on that way.” The violence in Coronado goes even further, at times turning into cruelty and sadism, with animals being slaughtered and revenge performed in the most heinous ways. Writing at SensesofCinema.com, David Boxwell describes Waggoner as a typical patriarch that could be found frequently in the films of director Anthony Mann. “These men have tragic limitations of almost Greek proportions as they attempt, and often fail, to exercise control over self, family, and property,” says Boxwell. “The limitations of their character and their power provide a thoroughgoing analysis of the limits of patriarchy as a social and economic structure of kinship and commerce. The Mann patriarch may not die in the end...but the essence of his character is that he spawns conflict within his own family and conflict with other rivals.” (David Boxwell, sensesofcinema.com) In addition to Waggoman and his Barb ranch, the other great force around Coronado are the Apache, who aren’t far away and are always a danger, or at least are talked about as a danger. “Mr. Lockhart, you were lucky to get this far without Indian trouble,” Barbara tells him. “I’d head back now while the trail is still clear.” But while the Apache are a threat, they can also be bargained with. The assistant in the store where Lockhart delivers his wagon load tells him an ‘Indian’ traded a repeating rifle for supplies. “Where did he get it?” Lockhart asked him. The assistant tells him, “He didn’t tell me. I didn’t ask.” In the prevailing atmosphere of greed and corruption in Coronado, even the Apache problem can be minimized through financial means. Another accommodation with the Apache was made, apparently, by Waggoman, who tells Lockhart,“I have no quarrel with the Apache...I respect them. Whatever I got from them, I bought.” Waggomen is more concerned with keeping his money and land. “It’s dirt farmers and fence raisers I’m keeping out.” He tells his workers that any cattle “that eats one blade of Barb grass becomes Barb cattle.” Eventually, the obsession with money and power is what destroys his family and his plans for the future. His hotheaded son Dave, was “petted and pampered by his mother till he was spoiled rotten,” according to Kate Canady, a rival ranch owner. Dave is desperate to impress his father with his toughness. His rival for his father’s attention is Vic, the foreman of the ranch who Waggoman has treated like a son, much to Dave’s discontent. Even so, Vic, who is engaged to Barbara, is also unsatisfied with the way the senior Waggoman has treated him. “My whole life, I’ve worked and sweated blood for you,” he tells the elder Waggoner. “I was the only son you ever had but you couldn’t see me. I loved you like only a boy who never had a father could.” Barbara reminds Vic that he shouldn’t believe any of the promises made to him by Waggoman because the old man had lied to her father. Vic says it was because her father was weak, a mistake he would not make. Dave’s rage and quest for more power and respect from his father leads him to strike a dangerous bargain with the Apache. He sells them a few repeating rifles which were used to massacre the cavalry platoon. When Dave makes a much bigger deal with the Apache to sell them many more rifles, Vic tries to explain to him the dangers of selling them such a huge supply: “They’ll massacre the whole town with 200 repeating rifles...We’ve got women and children here.” Dave refuses to back down, telling Vic, “I’m done taking orders. I’ll show everybody who is weak and who is strong.” When he pulls his gun, Vic kills him. Then, after Lockhart finds out that Vic was also involved in the rifle sale which led to the death of his brother, Lockhart leads him into a rampaging group of Apache who end up shooting him dead with one of the rifles he sold them. So in Anthony Mann’s view of the west in The Man From Laramie, it is greed and a lust for power, which started with the elder Waggoman and continued with his son Dave and protégé Vic, which lead to violence and the corruption and even destruction of the family unit. David Boxwell said of Mann’s work in The Man From Laramie and some of his other films from the 1950's (Winchester ‘73 and The Man Of The West) that he made the Western “a more psychologically and overtly violent genre.” Mann achieves this with his visual style, emphasizing the internal strife of Lockhart and the bloody nature of life in and around Coronado. The Man From Laramie deals with specific issues and circumstances involving a land baron and the rivalry for his attention. The main areas of focus of the film-violence, greed and family-are not specifically about the American west but are more universal. This is not the case in My Darling Clementine. The film makes clear that the events which take place in Tombstone could also take place in other parts of the frontier. Wyatt Earp points out to Doc Holliday that “a fella could follow your trail going from graveyard to graveyard.” In his review for the New York Times, Bosley Crowther described the setting for the film which Ford evoked. “The rich flavor of frontiering wafts in overpowering redolence from the screen,” he says. (Bosley Crowther, New York Times, December 4, 1946.) The similarity of Tombstone to other western locales is evident when Clementine Carter arrives in town after visiting many areas of the west (“I went from mining camp to mining camp”) in search of Doc Holliday. As a church dance commences, she tells Wyatt Earp, “Been a long time since I heard Church bells,” indicating that the other towns she visited on the western frontier were every bit as lawless and uncivilized as Tombstone. This is a very similar to what Doc Holliday says after Earp tells him that there would be a reading of Shakespeare in the local theatre. “Been a long time since I’ve heard Shakespeare,” he says. The west as shown in My Darling Clementine is a stark, desolate existence. “Sure is rough-lookin’ country,” Wyatt Earp tells “Old Man” Clanton when he first rides by the town. “Ain’t no cow country,” meaning there is nowhere for the herd to graze. Manny Farber described the setting of My Darling Clementine as “dead, flat country with Picassoesque rock formations jutting dramatically here and there.” (Manny Farber, "Portrait of the Artist,The New Republic, Vol. 115, No. 22, December 16, 1946, p. 836.) Tombstone is a much more depressing place than Coronado, even though the threat from “Indians” doesn’t seem to exist, or at least is never discussed in the film. The citizens tend to drown their sorrows in liquor. In The Man From Laramie, Kate Canady holds up a rifle and tells Lockhart, “this is the only sense of justice people respect around here,” but that seems much more true of Tombstone. Amidst the depressing backdrop is a setting of lawlessness. When Clanton finds out that Wyatt Earp has become the Marshal of Tombstone, he laughs and says, “Good luck to ya, mister.” In The Man From Laramie, a highly dramatic moment occurs when Dave Waggoman mentions the possibility that Lockhart may be there to steal cattle. In a low, dramatic voice, Lockhart answers, “Anyone who says I’d rustle cattle is a liar.” To Lockhart, this was the most vile of accusations. And later, when he figures out that Vic is the surviving person who sold the weapons to the Apaches, he has a chance to shoot him in the back, but he insists he turn around. At the end of the film, when Lockhart has a chance to shoot Vic while he stands directly in front of him, he can’t kill a man in cold blood and tells him to get away. The Clantons in My Darling Clementine have no such sense of honor. Old Man Clanton kills the youngest brother, Billy, by shooting him in the back. Later, he also kills Morgan Earp from behind. There are no moral dilemmas for the Clantons. They don’t respect laws or property and they have no sense of honor, either. Old Man Clanton is also seen beating his sons when they don’t do what he wants. “When you draw a gun, kill a man,” he tells one of them after an early showdown with Wyatt Earp. The difficulties of life on the frontier are evident in the depiction of Grandville Thorndyke, “that eminent actor. That sterling tragedian,” as he is introduced in the theatre. But even this representative of culture has been tainted by the difficulties of life in the American west. He is apparently a drunk who can’t even remember all of the lines he’s trying to recite and eventually when he leaves town, he runs out on his hotel bill. At times, the people of Tombstone show an inclination for a less harsh life. They are furious at the local theatre owner because every show has “bird imitators. That’s all we ever get.” But their way of dealing with the problem is rather uncivilized, as they want to tie up the owner and drag him around town. Even with the desolate setting of Tombstone and the prevailing lawlessness, John Ford offers the hope of a better future which doesn’t rely on violence and alcohol. When the Earp brothers meet a group going to a church event, Virgil Earp says, “There are probably a lot of nice people around here. We just ain’t met them.” As Wyatt Earp kneels next to the grave of his eighteen year old brother, he says, “Maybe when we leave this country, young kids like you will be able to grow up and live safe.” John Ford emphasizes the difference between the danger and lawlessness of Tombstone and the hope offered by civilization by contrasting light with shade. The life at the saloon, the murder of James Earp and the rustling of cattle all are shown at night, in the dark. When Doc Holliday first appears, having abandoned his once respectable life, he is dressed all in black. The civilizing forces that are trying to work into Tombstone, however, are always shown in bright daylight. Clementine Carter arrives by coach in brilliant sunshine. The church dance to which Wyatt takes her is also in broad daylight. And when Doc Holiday is reciting Shakespeare and talking to his former love Clementine, he is no longer dressed in all black. Eventually, after a second Earp brother was killed and one of the Clantons is shot, the families have their famous showdown (“at the O.K. Corral.”) Though Wyatt Earp tells the people of the town who want to help him that the dispute is “strictly family,” the eventual elimination of the lawlessness of the Clantons helps to civilize the region. Right after the shootout, Clementine announces she is staying to be the town’s schoolmarm. The church is well under construction. Ford indicates the positive impact on the western frontier of community, the church, faith and schooling. When Old Man Clanton-for the first time-shows signs of humanity after his remaining sons are killed, Wyatt Earp has a chance to shoot him but tells him, “I hope you live a hundred years so you feel a little what my pa is going to feel.” While Tombstone may be getting more civilized, that isn’t quite the life for Wyatt Earp or his surviving brother. Having settled the family feud with the Clantons, they are ready to leave, though Wyatt promises Caroline to return. Similarly, at the end of The Man From Laramie, Lockhart leaves. He heads back to Laramie, having extracted the revenge he sought for his brothers death, even if he wasn’t the one who pulled the trigger. And the town of Coronado, much like Tombstone, also seems to be changing and becoming more peaceful. Without the “sibling” rivalry of Dave and Vic, the elder Waggoman, going blind and recovering from an attack by Vic, decides to marry Kate Canady, his longtime rival from the Half Moon Ranch. They had been engaged 28 years before, but Waggoman abandoned those marriage plans when it interfered with his quest for dominance. Visually, the endings of both films are quite similar. Both Earp and Lockhart literally ride off into the sunset. Earp gives Clementine a rather awkward kiss, then, having brought the Clantons to justice, he heads off down the trail. For Lockhart, having avenged his brother’s death, he leaves town in the manner in which Mann had shown him through most of the film-isolated and alone. So at the end of both My Darling Clementine and The Man From Laramie there is reason to believe that life is becoming more civil in both Tombstone and Coronado. Soon, all of the cruelty and violence evident throughout both films may be far less a part of both locations. Works Cited David Boxwell, sensesofcinema.com Bosley Crowther, New York Times, December 4, 1946. Manny Farber, "Portrait of the Artist, The New Republic, Vol. 115, No. 22, December 16, 1946. Read More