At the very least, the Western drama 'Doc' manages to be somewhat interesting from start to finish, if not exactly factual. It tells the very familiar story of Marshal Wyatt Earp and John "Doc" Holiday in revisionist terms, and takes a very gritty, moody, psychological approach to the material, courtesy screenwriter Pete Hamill. It traces the journey of Doc (Stacy Keach) as he makes the acquaintance of prostitute Katie Elder (a de-glamorized Faye Dunaway) and rides into Tombstone to hook up with his old friend Wyatt (Harris Yulin), and to deal with the problem of such trouble making characters as Ike Clanton (Michael Witney).
Keach is the main reason to catch this film. Deliberately paced by cult filmmaker Frank Perry (best known for the 1981 camp classic "Mommie Dearest"), who produced and directed, it attempts to be as un-Hollywood as possible, and show darker aspects to these real life people, especially Earp, played as an opportunist. Perry's film begins on a very atmospheric note, as Doc arrives at an isolated inn / saloon during a windstorm. Ways in which the script humanizes Doc are how it charts his unusual courtship of Ms. Elder (appealingly portrayed by Dunaway) and his relationship with the well meaning "Kid" (Denver John Collins), who is the nephew of the Clanton brothers.
Keachs' engaging, melancholy performance is something to see. Veteran character actor Yulin is also quite good, in a rare above the title role for him. The supporting cast is comprised of less well known but still solid character players like John Scanlon, Richard McKenzie, Penelope Allen, Antonia Rey, Marshall Efron, and Bruce M. Fischer. That's writer Dan Greenburg as Clum the journalist, who in this fictionalization is decidedly anti-Earp.
It might be worth considering pairing this film with another gritty Western from the same time period, "Dirty Little Billy", which similarly took an offbeat approach to telling a familiar real life tale (in that case, that of Billy the Kid).
Seven out of 10.
