Gunfight BCG

Wyatt Earp, played by Burt Lancaster, is a righteous lawman who is clearly a man of the gun, and definitely an alpha-male cowboy. ‘Doc’ Holliday a man quick with a drink and a game of cards is seemingly also an alpha-male cowboy. These men can both be considered alpha-males, even Doc can see this; “We’re pretty much alike, you and I, except that you got that badge.” So these men take a sidekick role in relation to the other. In town, Doc plays the sidekick to Wyatt, who plays the alpha-male cowboy. During incidents involving gunfights Doc reigns supreme as the alpha-male in comparison to Wyatt.

Evidence of this is abundant throughout the movie. In situations involving the town setting, Wyatt takes charge. As the mob gathers calling to lynch Doc, Wyatt is the one who establishes a plan and allows Doc to live to see another day. He establishes the rule “no knives, no guns, and no killing” for Doc. Doc takes this statement for a grain of salt at the time it is said, but when he is challenged by RIngo, Doc knows he is under the authority of Wyatt and must oblige.

However, in matters of the gun, it is Doc who becomes the alpha-male. Wyatt is sufficient with a gun, enough so to become recognized by the US government, but his authority as a gunmen lacks the reputation of Doc Holliday’s. With a much more willing trigger finger, whenever Doc enters the scene with a gun ready, the mood changes. During the Church social, Wyatt is seemingly undermanned and under armed in order to deal with such a raucous mob. The power of the room shifts with the addition of one man when Doc makes his presence known. As Wyatt pleads with the final Clanton that he does not have to fight as he readies to shoot, Doc is the one who kills the boy leaving the viewers to question whether Wyatt actually would have shot him. The power with a gun that Wyatt does not possess is why Wyatt plays the sidekick to Doc in scenes needing a gun.

The dynamic between Doc and Wyatt is much different than that of the alpha-male role, such as Ethan, in relation to his sidekick, such as Matt in The Searchers. Throughout the entirety of The Searchers, had Matt died, the search could have easily continued forward. Ethan, being a strong alpha-male cowboy would have been able to accept the loss, and finish what he set out to achieve regardless of if he had a trusty sidekick. The same could be said for Pompy as sidekick to Tom Doniphon. Doc and Wyatt needed each other, relied on each other during the film, in order to survive. The storyline of Gunfight at O.K. Corral would have been affected if one of these main male characters died off. So the characterization between Doc and Wyatt is much different than the idea of sidekicks in other western films. The idea of one character or the other being the alpha-male cannot be distinguished because Doc and Wyatt hold scenes and dialogue completely irrelevant to the other and without the other present. The most pressing examples are the personal lives of Doc and Wyatt. Scenes which involve Wyatt’s brothers do not involve Doc, until the gunfight. While Doc and Kate’s relationship is separate from the interaction between Doc and Wyatt.