My Darling Clementine

This is the west, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.
-John Ford's The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)

Oh my darling, oh my darling,
Oh my darling, Clementine!
Thou art lost and gone forever
Dreadful sorry, Clementine

In a cavern, in a canyon,
Excavating for a mine
Dwelt a miner forty niner,
And his daughter Clementine

Oh my darling, oh my darling,
Oh my darling, Clementine!
Thou art lost and gone forever
Dreadful sorry, Clementine

Light she was and like a fairy,
And her shoes were number nine,
Herring boxes, without topses,
Sandals were for Clementine.

Oh my darling, oh my darling,
Oh my darling, Clementine!
Thou art lost and gone forever
Dreadful sorry, Clementine

Drove she ducklings to the water
Ev'ry morning just at nine,
Hit her foot against a splinter,
Fell into the foaming brine.

Oh my darling, oh my darling,
Oh my darling, Clementine!
Thou art lost and gone forever
Dreadful sorry, Clementine

Ruby lips above the water,
Blowing bubbles, soft and fine,
But, alas, I was no swimmer,
So I lost my Clementine.

Oh my darling, oh my darling,
Oh my darling, Clementine!
Thou art lost and gone forever
Dreadful sorry, Clementine

How I missed her! How I missed her,
How I missed my Clementine,
But I kissed her little sister,
I forgot my Clementine.

Oh my darling, oh my darling,
Oh my darling, Clementine!
Thou art lost and gone forever
Dreadful sorry, Clementine

I watched John Ford's My Darling Clementine this morning and cannot get the above song out of my head. I love this film, it is such a "John Ford western." Like most of his other westerns this one takes place at a point in time where the old "Wild West" was just beginning to be replaced by the new "civilized" West.

John Ford's view of the west was always romantic with definite heroes and villains roaming the landscape. He viewed women the same way and saw them as either bad or good. The "bad" girls were fun, sexy, and sassy (but you wouldn't want to marry them) and the good girls (before you married them) were sweet, virginal, and demure.

His films were always about the mythical West and My Darling Clementine is based on the biggest myth of all; the shootout at the OK Corral in Tombstone, Arizona. Talk about playing fast and loose with history. The gunfight is depicted as a battle between good and evil when in reality it was a little more complicated than that. It was the end result of an ongoing struggle for political control of the town of Tombstone. But, to paraphrase the quote at the top of the page, John Ford believed that when legend becomes fact, film the legend.

My Darling Clementine was filmed, like most of Ford's westerns, at Monument Valley in the American Southwest . There are beautiful black and white shots of the land and sky throughout the movie. I've driven through Monument Valley and Ford captures the magnificent scope of the area wonderfully.

I've always appreciated blank and white photography. It is luminous in a way color can never be and Ford was a master at filming with it. The contrast between light and dark in black and white can be breathtaking. If you have never see this movie I recommend it highly.


Note
If you want to learn more about the gunfight you can go to either one of these two webpages:

1. Official version of the gunfight.

2. Clanton family version of the gunfight.
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