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--- 329:question:329--week_9_questions_comments-2020 [2020/10/22 13:12] – lyndsey_clark
+++ 329:question:329--week_9_questions_comments-2020 [2020/10/28 01:41] (current) – [I.How does this movie work as a secondary source? What does the movie get right about history?] 73.148.123.181
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 My Darling Clementine was not a very good secondary source. The characters, although based on real people, hardly followed the stories of the real people or their position within the town. However, **the actual story of the main characters aside, the film captured that many men worked different jobs, gambled. The film also captured the violence and the “lawless of life in the wilderness” that existed in the old west.** —Helen Dhue
+So far throughout this semester, this has been my favorite assigned movie. I really enjoyed this movie and feel like it was filmed in such a beautiful way. Of course, there are some mistakes within this movie, just like a lot of other historically based films or movies. In the beginning, the movie portrays a Native American as being violent and drunkenly attacking people. As we know, Hollywood has portrayed the Native Americans in a very incorrect way. In addition to this, there does seem to be some added characters and storylines that are not the most truthful rendition of the real story, but that was added to capture the attention of the audience. -Kaylee Williams
 ====== II.	Problems with historical accuracy? Errors in fact? ======
 As far as historical films go, this has got to be the most historically inaccurate one that we've seen so far. For a film that is regarded as being one of the best Westerns of all time, that's kind of sad. I have multiple reasons why this film is not a good secondary source, and most of them deal with the characters. The only thing accurate about this film is the names of some of the characters (Wyatt Earp, Virgil Earp, Doc Holliday, etc.) and the ending shootout, which is famously known as the Gunfight at O.K. Corral. The first thing I noticed was that the year in which these events took place was wrong. Yes, this film is set in the vague time period when cowboys and bandits roamed the American West, but it seems like it is based on an actual event that screenwriters had heard of and just decided to go with as the plot of the story. I'm talking about the fact that the Gunfight at O.K. Corral happened in 1881, a solid year before the movie takes place. Then there are the issues with the characters. Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday were real historical figures and are each regarded as legends in the American West. I cannot stress how much it annoyed me that Wyatt Earp was the Marshal of Tombstone in the movie, because historically it was his brother, Virgil, who held that role. Then there are issues with Doc Holliday. In the movie, Doc is portrayed to be a surgeon who ventured out west after being diagnosed with tuberculosis. In reality, Doc was a dentist, not a surgeon, but at least they got the tuberculosis issue correct. Then there is the fact that the movie implies Tombstone is the place where him and Wyatt Earp met. The truth is that Doc Holliday had known the Earp brothers and ended up in Tombstone with them. At the very end we see the Gunfight at O.K. Corral, where Doc is supposedly killed. The shootout was not as dramatic as the film makes it out to be, and Doc did not die leaving Wyatt to ride valiantly into the sunset. The entire film is one giant exaggeration that is a fictional version of historical events, making it an abysmal choice for a secondary source of the time period. -- Lyndsey Clark
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 ====== III.	How does the film’s overall interpretation(s) deviate from scholarly historical sources? ======
-Despite the film being a classic western filled with many shootouts and gunslingers walking around, I would argue that //My Darling Clemintine// is actually pretty tame compared to the historical reality. Edward Buffum describes how a man was almost robbed and killed by 5 men before they were stopped by the town. In the trial, the judge asked the crowd what they thought the men's' punishment should be, the response was that they should be hung- //and they were//. Honestly, it felt more like I was reading something from the French Revolution than from 1800s America. Furthermore, women in the west are brushed aside entirely in the film. Chihuahua's character is fitting every stereotype of both Latina women and the saloon girl. Besides being a love interest Clemintine doesn't really have much substance to me, which is a shame because as a woman who came all the way out west on her own, I would have hoped she would have had more character. Letters written by Mary Abell show how difficult life was, having to deal with prairie fires, build a house from scratch, and when she gave birth, having no doctor nearby and no one to really help afterward. By comparison, Clementine really is living a "darling" life. --Cat Kinde
+Despite the film being a classic western filled with many shootouts and gunslingers walking around, I would argue that //My Darling Clemintine// is actually pretty tame compared to the historical reality. **Edward Buffum describes how a man was almost robbed and killed by 5 men before they were stopped by the town.** In the trial, the judge asked the crowd what they thought the men's' punishment should be, the response was that they should be hung- //and they were//. Honestly, it felt more like I was reading something from the French Revolution than from 1800s America. Furthermore, women in the west are brushed aside entirely in the film. **Chihuahua's character is fitting every stereotype of both Latina women and the saloon girl.** Besides being a love interest Clemintine doesn't really have much substance to me, which is a shame because as a woman who came all the way out west on her own, I would have hoped she would have had more character. Letters written by Mary Abell show how difficult life was, having to deal with prairie fires, build a house from scratch, and when she gave birth, having no doctor nearby and no one to really help afterward. By comparison, Clementine really is living a "darling" life. --Cat Kinde
-In this article (http://mcclurken.umwhistory.org/Film/Week9--MP--196-205.pdf), there is a section entitled “Theodore Roosevelt Describes Cowboy-Land, 1893.” Within this section, Roosevelt discusses how as cities start to grow the “instinct for the law asserts itself,” however until then “individual is obligated to be a law for himself.” He then goes onto discussing how reckless men, road agents, and murders have a good side to their characters. However, it is often hidden by bad choices because they are in an environment that forces them to make bad decisions. Roosevelt then says that men would do deeds that   “would be starting to dwellers in cities and in old settled places.”
+In this article (http://mcclurken.umwhistory.org/Film/Week9--MP--196-205.pdf), there is a section entitled “Theodore Roosevelt Describes Cowboy-Land, 1893.” Within this section, Roosevelt discusses how as cities start to grow the “instinct for the law asserts itself,” however until then “individual is obligated to be a law for himself.” **He then goes onto discussing how reckless men, road agents, and murders have a good side to their characters.** However, it is often hidden by bad choices because they are in an environment that forces them to make bad decisions. Roosevelt then says that men would do deeds that   “would be starting to dwellers in cities and in old settled places.”
-Based on this section the film’s overall interpretation deviates from this historical source. A big reason why it deviates is the fact that the Clanton family were constantly portrayed as these bad people when in reality they weren’t always bad. In fact, as this article suggests the behavior of men in the west moved on a spectrum from good to bad. For instance, Wyatt Earp was a wanted criminal but did good things as a Marshall. Another example was when one of the Clanton family members ran a lunch counter to help others. This film ignores this aspect because like most films they needed to have good guys and bad guys.-Megan Williams
+Based on this section the film’s overall interpretation deviates from this historical source. A big reason why it deviates is the fact that **the Clanton family were constantly portrayed as these bad people when in reality they weren’t always bad.** In fact, as this article suggests the behavior of men in the west moved on a spectrum from good to bad. For instance, Wyatt Earp was a wanted criminal but did good things as a Marshall. Another example was when one of the Clanton family members ran a lunch counter to help others. **This film ignores this aspect because like most films they needed to have good guys and bad guys.**-Megan Williams
-This movie makes living in the west, ignoring the lawlessness, seem easy which wasn't actually the case. Women couldn't afford to sit around and be taken care of. Based on the reading about female settlers in the west, women back then were very self sufficient and worked hard to take care of themselves and their family. Sister Monica's and Mary Abell's letters show how they shared the workload with the men and didn't try to be waited on. In comparison, Clementine seem to be a very tame character. She doesn't seem as independent or self-reliant, she takes on this damsel in distress persona. -Purnaja Podduturi
+This movie makes living in the west, ignoring the lawlessness, seem easy which wasn't actually the case. **Women couldn't afford to sit around and be taken care of.** Based on the reading about female settlers in the west, women back then were very self sufficient and worked hard to take care of themselves and their family. Sister Monica's and **Mary Abell's letters show how they shared the workload with the men and didn't try to be waited on.** In comparison, Clementine seem to be a very tame character. She doesn't seem as independent or self-reliant, she takes on this damsel in distress persona. -Purnaja Podduturi
-An important scene in the film, which sets Wyatt Earp up as the tough "do it yourself" good guy, was the scene when Wyatt reluctantly leaves the barber shop to deal with the drunk Indian who is shooting up the saloon. This scene represents not only a blatantly racist stereotype, but also a misinterpretation of historical evidence. From this article http://mcclurken.umwhistory.org/Film/Week9NewSouthExpandingWest.pdf we see that violent interactions with Native people in the West was most often started by whites, not the other way around. Also, when there were instances of violent incidents started by Natives, it was often in retaliation or something that was completely exaggerated by white newspapers. According to sources, it probably would have been rare to see instances of lone Natives shooting up small-town saloons completely unprovoked, and is just an example of racist stereotypes used to create a "good" and "bad" narrative. - Wilson LeCount
+An important scene in the film, which sets Wyatt Earp up as the tough "do it yourself" good guy, was the scene when Wyatt reluctantly leaves the barber shop to deal with the drunk Indian who is shooting up the saloon. **This scene represents not only a blatantly racist stereotype, but also a misinterpretation of historical evidence.** From this article http://mcclurken.umwhistory.org/Film/Week9NewSouthExpandingWest.pdf we see that violent interactions with Native people in the West was most often started by whites, not the other way around. Also, when there were instances of violent incidents started by Natives, it was often in retaliation or something that was completely exaggerated by white newspapers. According to sources, **it probably would have been rare to see instances of lone Natives shooting up small-town saloons completely unprovoked**, and is just an example of racist stereotypes used to create a "good" and "bad" narrative. - Wilson LeCount
 ====== IV.	How does this movie work as a primary source about the time period in which it was made or the filmmakers? ======