Gunfight at the Ok Corral JY

In the film Gunfight at the O.K. Corral there are two characters that can be considered alpha male cowboys. Marshall Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday are these two characters. Some people may say that one of these cowboys is a sidekick but I see two alpha male cowboys that are opposites of each other. On one hand Wyatt Earp is the good cowboy that has a moral code and follows it. Then there’s Doc Holiday who is a gambler and a killer that doesn’t really have a moral code. But when these two work together they complement each other. Earp is the moral center and even stops Holiday from killing Ringo because holiday valued their relationship and killing Ringo would make it tough on the Marshall. But Holiday on the other hand has the reputation as a killer and is willing to do the dirty work that Wyatt Earp might not be able to do because of his morals. For example when they are at the church, Doc kills the guy that pulls a gun on Wyatt which leads us to question whether Wyatt could have actually pulled the trigger.

In other western films, such as The Searchers, we see this alpha male sidekick relationship. In The Searchers Ethan Edwards is the obvious alpha male cowboy and Martin is his sidekick. The difference between their relationship and Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday’s relationship is that Martin is just a character that follows and helps out Ethan on his journey. Martin doesn’t really have his own storyline and the film basically just revolves around Ethan. But in Gunfight at the O.K. Corral both Doc Holiday and Wyatt Earp have their own storylines that mesh together. The film isn’t based around either one of them, but instead is based around both of them and their stories.