MovieChat Forums > Purgatory (1999) Discussion > Doc Holliday was a dentist ...

Doc Holliday was a dentist ...

posted 12 years ago by set704
7 replies | jump to latest

.... He had a DDS, not a M.D. But I guess if you have a doctor title you can perform all sorts of medical stuff. Thank goodness he didn't have a doctorate in philosophy.

[–] montrossboc-1 10 years ago

God has some pull with Medical Schools

If you dint want him dead, why yall leave him with me?-Mouse

[–] Tresix 8 years ago

Well, on "Gunsmoke", Doc was called upon to pull one of Festus' teeth as well as tend to a mule that had been shot. As the correction in the goofs section for this movie said, sometimes different doctors had to work outside of their field of expertise.

Annoying the world since 1960!

[–] krasnegar 8 years ago

Holliday was, in fact, from Barnesville Georgia, where my grandfather grew up.

[–] Tresix 8 years ago

I was born on the seventy-ninth anniversary of the gunfight at the OK Corral: Oct. 26.

Annoying the world since 1960!

[–] Darren (1128) 7 years ago

This wasn't the only movie to make that mistake. John Ford did it in "My Darling Clementine" when he made Holliday an M.D. (from Boston no less!). But Randy Quaid was totally miscast in the role. He acted the part well enough, but physically, the slightly portly McQuaid was as wrong for the part of the skinny, tubercular Holliday as he could have been.

[–] Wuchak (8108) 6 years ago

It was NOT a mistake for Doc Holliday to play an M.D. because he already died and the town of Refuge is the "last chance" for the "marginally good," as phrased in the movie. As such, the inhabitants (not visitors) have different identities and occupations than in their former lives. For instance, Billy the Kid is now Deputy Glen, not a gunfighter; and Dolly Sloan is now Ivy, not a prostitute or suffragette. Just the same, Holliday was now Doc Woods who wasn't skinny because he no longer had tuberculosis.

Notice at the end how Sonny's wounds miraculously heal before the viewers eyes and he becomes the Sheriff of Refuge. Doc's tuberculosis was similarly healed once he died and became a citizen of Refuge.

[–] ExTechOp (2747) 3 years ago

the slightly portly McQuaid was as wrong for the part of the skinny, tubercular Holliday as he could have been

Maybe Randy Quaid's Doc represents how he'd look without TB

Whereas Dennis Quaid's Doc represents how he'd look with AIDS