In John Sturges’ Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday create a very unlikely friendship. It all starts when Earp saves Holliday by allowing him to escape from a lynch mob that is coming for him. From that moment on, he vows to help Earp in tough situations until his “account is paid.” Holliday shows this by going against his better judgment when he decides not to kill Johnny Ringo because that would make things much tougher for Earp. He is a lot like many other sidekicks in Westerns because in many ways, he is subservient to the alpha male cowboy. When he does not fight Ringo, he really has to swallow his pride as Ringo and Kate Fisher, his on again off again lover, are making fun of him about being close to Earp. Holliday shows that he really cares for “the only friend (he) ever had” when he shows up to help fend off Ike Clanton’s gang in a Mexican standoff of about two against fifteen. He again shows this when he is deathly ill, but decides to participate in the climactic gunfight at the O.K. Corral.
Unlike some of the other sidekicks we have seen this year, Holliday seems to have many of the qualities of the alpha male cowboy. For one, he is very morally ambiguous. The whole reason Earp has to save him from the lynch mob is because he killed a man in a bar, even though it appeared that it was a kill or be killed situation. Another quality of the alpha male cowboy is that of an excellent marksman. He is very proficient with a gun and displays this many times throughout the film. Holliday also is not a young man as the other sidekicks seems to be in the westerns so far this year. He seems to be about the same age, if not older, than Wyatt Earp. So while he cares about Earp the same way the other sidekicks care about the alpha male cowboy in their films, he does not necessarily look up to Earp as a role model.
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