MovieChat Forums > Doc (1971) Discussion > i know its just movie but.....

i know its just movie but.....

posted 16 years ago by jamesroo
11 replies | jump to latest

come on is anyone going to get the
ok corral gunfight right ever?
in this one 5 are killed including
morgan earp(who was killed after
the gunfight)and ike clanton who
died later on trying to holdup
a stage.the entire gunfight lasted
less than a minute.yes people i know
its just a movie and u have to enlarge
a scene like the climax of this one.
but at least get it right.only
tombstone came close to how it
really happen.wyatt never killed
ike clanton who was killed later
trying to rob a stage or bank.how
many films where made of this story
and none have gotten it right.oh well
its just a movie not a history lesson.

[–] stagebandman 16 years ago

How about "My Darling Clementine"? You want inaccuracy! And yet, this is one of the most beloved movies of all time. There are so many different versions, and remember, "Doc" was a revisionist western, so they were trying to blow the myth to pieces, not get it all right. There was a huge anti-hero movement when this came out, still in the thick of Viet-Nam, and trying real hard to be relevant. Still, they're almost all imminently watchable, if you're a fan of the story, which I think you are.

I think "Tombstone" is a masterpiece, and you should check out "Hour Of The Gun", too.

If we all liked the same movie, there'd only be one movie!

[–] joe_538 11 years ago

Frontier Marshal has got to be the worst when it comes to accuracy. The big four regarding the gunfight in that one:
1. Set at night
2. Doc Holliday gets killed before it
3. Wyatt goes alone, his brothers aren't even in the movie
4. No Clantons and no McLaurys either

Let alone details about who was armed with what and who was shot where.

[–] jbuckets 10 years ago

Speaking of Wyatt's Buntline in this movie, its barrel (alone) appears to be at least 12" in length at the final shoot-out (when he removes? it from the holster). LOL!

He'd very easily lose his 1st qwik-draw match alone against any gunfighter in the town street w/ that ol' west hand-gun version of the German's "Big Bertha" long-range (81 miles) artillery gun in WWII.

WHAT?! This ISN'T a documentary filmed in real-life as it happened? Awww....

[–] supercygnus 9 years ago

Yes but Clementine is a classic. This one is not. It's part of the cynical era of to basically take a piss on "heroes" and remind the world how everyone is evil and the world sucks. Some films of the time are very very good but use a revisionist approach. This one masquerades as supposedly "more accurate" than any other depiction, but in truth is just not accurate in different ways. It goes just short of having the Earps kicking babies down the street. Be accurate or at least be entertaining or thought provoking. It doesn't quite reach any of those criteria.

[–] powersroc 14 years ago

And if you really want strict accuracy,this historical gunfight took place next to the O.K.Corral & not in it as depicted in every single film about this event.

[–] thbryn 13 years ago

Why didn't the CG do the sensible thing... and run. To stand across from the Earp Bros. and Holliday with four shotguns pointed at you was lunacy.

In the Lancaster/Douglas picture they not on didn't bring shotguns ,Wyatt didn't even carry his Buntline!

[–] Bilwick1 11 years ago

Actually, in the Lancaster/Douglas movie, two out of the four in the Earp party bring shotguns: Wyatt and Virgil. Oddly, the one man who actually did bring a shotgun to the historic gunfight, Doc (Kirk Douglas), is armed only with a six-shooter.

[–] PrickWithAFork 12 years ago

I was surpised to see them carrying shotguns, and that the Clantons were scared when they saw them. I'm no expert, but I always thought shotguns were inaccurate and not very powerful over any kind of distance (doesn't the shot start to spread as soon as it leaves the barrell?)

Maybe I've just been conditioned by varmints getting a backside full of harmless buckshot from the likes of Granny Clampett.

I'm a Prick With a Fork.

[–] max von meyerling 12 years ago

Look I know all of the ins and outs about Tombstone, and no one has really gotten into the political realities of time and place, but the take Doc takes on Tombstone is no more accurate than my favorite western, My Darling Clementine, but both were about certain key ethical and philosophical issues of the frontier, the critical subject of friendship- it's meaning and limits.

[–] Captain_Augustus_McCrae 11 years ago

Actually, at the range over which the real gunfight took place (10 to 20 feet), a short-barreled shotgun is devastatingly effective. Buckshot loads like those used for anti-personnel purposes contain 9 to 12 lead balls of .32 to .36 calibre. So a solid hit from both barrels would be like being shot more than 18 times with a medium calibre revolver. That's why police cars always have a short-barreled shotgun in them. As a point of fact, at the real shoot-out only Doc was armed with a shotgun. Everyone else carried revolvers, likely of .44 or .45 caliber. Billy Clanton died from multiple gunshots, as did Frank McLaury, while Tom McLaury died from wounds inflicted by Doc's shotgun. Virgil Earp was hit in the calf, Morgan Earp was shot through the shoulders (the bullet chipped a vertebrae in passing through him), and Doc received a very slight graze on the thigh. Of the gunfight's participants, only Wyatt Earp was not hit by a bullet. This holds true for all of Wyatt's life, no bullet ever touched him. Needless to say, the depiction of the shootout (along with everything else) in this film is a load of horse$h!t.

"It ain't dying I'm talking about, it's LIVING!"
Captain Augustus McCrae

[–] crood 8 years ago

A shotgun didn't need to be accurate. That was the point. The scatter meant you were likely to hit something you were pointing at without needing to line up sights.