Doc Holliday

Among the gritiest, dirtiest, noisiest westerns I've seen. As I write this in 2002 Doc holds up very well compared to recent films such as Tombstone and Wild Bill. Doc puts a different "spin" to the famous OK Corral story both in the telling of the tale and in exploring the multi-layered relationship of the characters to one another. Stacey, Faye and Harris are fabulous.

At the very least, the Western drama 'Doc' manages to be somewhat interesting from start to finish, if not exactly factual. It tells the very familiar story of Marshal Wyatt Earp and John "Doc" Holiday in revisionist terms, and takes a very gritty, moody, psychological approach to the material, courtesy screenwriter Pete Hamill. It traces the journey of Doc (Stacy Keach) as he makes the acquaintance of prostitute Katie Elder (a de-glamorized Faye Dunaway) and rides into Tombstone to hook up with his old friend Wyatt (Harris Yulin), and to deal with the problem of such trouble making characters as Ike Clanton (Michael Witney).

Keach is the main reason to catch this film. Deliberately paced by cult filmmaker Frank Perry (best known for the 1981 camp classic "Mommie Dearest"), who produced and directed, it attempts to be as un-Hollywood as possible, and show darker aspects to these real life people, especially Earp, played as an opportunist. Perry's film begins on a very atmospheric note, as Doc arrives at an isolated inn / saloon during a windstorm. Ways in which the script humanizes Doc are how it charts his unusual courtship of Ms. Elder (appealingly portrayed by Dunaway) and his relationship with the well meaning "Kid" (Denver John Collins), who is the nephew of the Clanton brothers.

Keachs' engaging, melancholy performance is something to see. Veteran character actor Yulin is also quite good, in a rare above the title role for him. The supporting cast is comprised of less well known but still solid character players like John Scanlon, Richard McKenzie, Penelope Allen, Antonia Rey, Marshall Efron, and Bruce M. Fischer. That's writer Dan Greenburg as Clum the journalist, who in this fictionalization is decidedly anti-Earp.

It might be worth considering pairing this film with another gritty Western from the same time period, "Dirty Little Billy", which similarly took an offbeat approach to telling a familiar real life tale (in that case, that of Billy the Kid).

Seven out of 10.

Stacy Keach and Faye Dunaway give Good Performances as "Doc" Holiday and Katie Elder, and is Central to, Yet Again, a Movie about those mostly Mythological Personalities, Wyatt Earp and "Doc", Climaxing, Yet Again, with The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.

The Point in this one is to Demystify to a Degree about the Motivation and Moral Certitude of the often Predictable Personas of these "Shootist".

It's a Gloomy, Murky, Soft Spoken Style with most of the Acting done with the Eyes and a Whisper. Thought Provoking and it does Dusty Duty Covering things with a Haze of Grit. The Tense Atmosphere is Realistic and the Suspense Builds with much Philosophizing and Reflection.

The Film certainly has it Moments as well as its Detractors. It is more of an Intellectual Introspection of Famous/Infamous Men. Wild Men, who had to be to Survive, in the Wild West. Some of these Folks had Visions of Civilizing the Frontier. Witness Wyatt's (Henry Yulin) Speech after the Gunfight and "Doc's" Final Act of Violence.

Overall, Atypical Western in the Traditional Sense but Typical for its Time Period. Underrated and Worth a Watch.

"Doc" is similar to "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," in that it is a revisionist Western attempting to explode some mythology of the American West, which earlier Hollywood Westerns would glamourize. Here, Doc Holliday and Marshall Wyatt Earp are shown as not quite the good guys Hollywood has long portrayed them to be. The story of "Doc" follows the legendary outlaw Dr. John Henry "Doc" Holliday and his lover "Big Nose Kate" Elder on their way to the storied Gunfight at the OK Corral. Doc Holliday is played by Stacy Keach, as a soft-spoken gent who is deadly with a six-shooter. The film is gritty and dirty, but the profane dialogue seems like it was added just because the screenwriter could. My biggest problem is that the scenes look like they cut away too soon, and should go on at least a few seconds longer. "Doc" may not tell the true story of the Gunfight at the OK Corral, but at least tries to keep an enduring Western legend alive.

Ignoring the major historical inaccuracies (Virgil was the Marshal of Tombstone and not Wyatt; Doc and Katie Elder were together long before they both came to Tombstone; etc.), the film attempts to make Doc and Wyatt out as the mob bosses of the Tombstone. "Tombstone" (the Costner film) was much more historically accurate.