Wyatt Earp the Film and the Filmmakers Lawrence Kasdan

9 /10

Earp, The Whole Story

This particular version of the Wyatt Earp story may be the definitive Wyatt Earp tale. Not that it's the best Wyatt Earp movie although an argument certainly could be made in its favor. It's because this film encompasses more of his life than any other film so far as I've seen.

I don't think any historical character even those out of the Bible have ever gotten better and more varied treatment with name stars playing the character. Most Earp films do center around the shootout at the OK Corral in Tombstone. There are some others like Wichita where Joel McCrea plays Wyatt Earp and the action centers around his first job as a marshal in Wichita. There are others like Hour Of The Gun where James Garner plays Earp and the action centers with the aftermath of the events at the OK Corral. A lot of that film is incorporated here. Garner played Earp again in Sunset which takes a look at Earp in the Roaring Twenties as a senior citizen in Hollywood. Wyatt was one tough dude in that one.

But Wyatt Earp as produced and starring Kevin Costner takes a long view of Earp from his childhood with an abolitionist family in Illinois with Gene Hackman as his father. The action goes to a coda where we see Costner and Joanna Going as his common-law wife as a middle-aged couple at the turn of the last century. Costner plays Earp as an upright man, but one who will not hesitate to back up his play with whatever is at hand. In one of his first encounters with a bad man, he nails him with a thrown wooden billiard ball.

It's almost like they were using the same acting coach, but Dennis Quaid in this film and Val Kilmer in Tombstone which came out roughly the same time turn in virtually identical performances as the murderous and tubercular Doc Holiday. You could transplant each other in the different film and not notice the difference. Here Quaid has around him Isabella Rosellini as Holiday's slattern mistress Big Nose Kate. The standard for that role was created in John Sturges's Gunfight At The OK Corral with Jo Van Fleet being abused and nursing Kirk Douglas as Holiday.

One performance in this film that set a standard in terms of how close to reality the character was is that of Jeff Fahey as Ike Clanton. By all accounts this one got it right, Clanton was a cowardly bully who usually let others do his fighting for him. He ran out on his pals at the OK Corral including brother Billy Clanton. And Ike preferred not to do his killing face to face. Fahey really hit the mark in a small but well written role.

Something tells me we've not exhausted Wyatt Earp as a film subject. Within the next decade and a half, I predict one if not more films will be made to once again interpret the character and events of the life and legend of Wyatt Earp.

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6 /10

Long, rambling, and way too long

Nicholas Earp (Gene Hackman) is the patriarch of the family. To him, only blood matters and everybody else is just a stranger. The family including Wyatt Earp (Kevin Costner) goes out west after the end of the civil war. Years later, he goes back to Missouri and marries Urilla Sutherland (Annabeth Gish). When she dies, he is depressed and aimlessly roams the country. Eventually it culminates into the legendary gunfight at the OK Corral with Doc Holliday (Dennis Quaid).

Kevin Costner is fine as a younger Wyatt still searching for a direction. He's not so great as the drunken mess. Later he's OK as the lawman. He has the righteousness but not necessarily the gravitas. It's asking a lot to play this wide range for anybody.

The biggest problem is the general long winding life story. This is long, epic, and very long. It's like a biopic from a historian. It is too rambling and unfocused. Director Lawrence Kasdan does a good job filming the movie but this long biopic will always have problems. It's too rambling to create much tension or pick up any pacing. It's just overly ambitious.

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6 /10

Some Historical Accuracies...But Not Many

I remember having to be somewhere. I had rented this movie back in the day, and I had to return it to the video store. So I watched it while my family was away. It went on and on and on. I can't complain about the acting or the production value. But it covered such a sprawling period of time and so many issues in the man's life, it was too big. Historically, Wyatt Earp was one of the most complex characters ever. He was more a politician than Sheriff, always trying to get re-elected and always having to overcome his past and come shady characters. His marriage was a disaster. His wife was needy and mean spirited and because Wyatt was an honorable man, he remained true to her. The big gunfight was so fictionalized that we don't really ever get to see it accurately portrayed except in documentaries. This isn't an awful movie. They just bit off too much for the time they had. And they had a lot of time.

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3 /10

Wyatt Earp

The movie Tombstone was released a few months earlier than Wyatt Earp in the cinema. It was shorter and more action packed. It was also a better film.

Wyatt Earp clocking in at over three hours is too long. It marked the beginning of Costner's decline at the box office. The audience frankly had enough of his very long epics and moody characters.

Wyatt Earp wants to be a thoughtful ambitious biopic. It emerges as dull, bloated, uneven and about as truthful as many other pictures of this famous lawman. There is an overbearing score by James Newton Howard.

Kevin Costner looks uneasy playing the younger Wyatt as an overgrown boy scout getting daily lectures on the importance of family by dad, Gene Hackman.

After the sudden death of his first wife, what gradually emerges is a cold hard man who enforces the law his way, that way being by the barrel of the gun with his brothers as fellow enforcers.

Director Lawrence Kasdan is shackled by Costner wanting to be the star of the show. The actors playing the brothers Earp do not get much of a look in as they are in the shadows of Costner, their wives come across more forcefully as they stand up to Wyatt for putting their husbands in danger. Rightly so, they all get shot and a few of them die.

Even Dennis Quaid who lost weight to play Doc Holliday is underused and to me was largely a cameo. I can see why Val Kilmer overshadowed him in the rival Tombstone.

The film is simply not compelling enough.

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Overly long and deliberate but a fine story

Wyatt grows up a young man who loves the law. When his wife dies early in their marriage he goes off the rails and becomes a drunk and a thief. When he is offered a chance at redemption he takes it and becomes a deputy. His legend spreads and he is offered the chance to be the deputy for Dodge City. He has great success but is removed from the job for being too brutal. When his replacement is killed as the law falls away in Dodge, Wyatt returns before moving on to Tombstone but finds his initial run-in with the Clantonhas left harbouring resentments.

When I saw this in the cinema, it was hassled by the fact that another, more multiplex-friendly version of the story had just been released shortly before. Viewed separately years later it fares better without the comparison to Tombstone, which is, in fairness, more of a fun bang-bang affair, although now it struggles because Costner's reputation is not even at the level it was when this film was released. The plot is good and is supposedly a true telling of the legend, although the film is careful to pepper the running time with hints that stories get changed with the telling.

The very honest and respectful telling of the story means that it gets told in a very deliberate and careful manner. This means on one hand that we get a good picture over Wyatt's life as opposed to the events in Tombstone, however it also means that the film itself is a little dull and overlong. It is overly deliberate and doesn't flow as well as it should - flowing more like syrup than water at times. Where some three-hour running times fly by, here it does feel like at least three hours - not always a good thing! The filling out of the characters doesn't always work either - I knew more about Wyatt but I didn't understand his character much more, also I was surprised that I was none the wiser about why he and Doc became friends considering how long was spent with them. A big failing of the film is that it assumes the status of an epic rather than earning the status. What I mean by this is that it tries too hard to be an epic - with constant sweeping music where it didn't need it. I still thing the film has an epic sweep to it, but it didn't need the cinematic tricks to achieve it; in fact, it could have down played it and let the sweep of the film do it for itself.

The cast is pretty good and also pretty deep. Costner may not be seen as a star anymore but that doesn't mean he can't act and can't hold the attention. He is a reasonable Wyatt but he suffers from being too deliberate and too shut off at times. I understand he needed to do it for the character but it contributes to the film feeling slow. The other brothers are played well by Madsen, Ashby and Andrews. Maybe it is because of Costner's drab Wyatt, but Quaid really lightens things up as Doc Holliday. His colourful character stands out easily against the old west types. The support cast is deep and includes faces such as Hackman, Fahey, Harmon, Pullman, Sizemore, Rossellini, Williams and O'Hara.

Overall this is a film that requires patience - if you prefer your films to contain action more than story then Tombstone may be more for you - but, for all it's failings, this is still a solid western and a good telling of the legend with more emphasis on background than action and fluidity.

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8 /10

"Nothing counts as much as blood. The rest are just strangers".

Warning: Spoilers

I'll get on a kick every now and then, and currently it's Wyatt Earp and the Gunfight at the OK Corral. Having just watched "Tombstone" and "Wyatt Earp" about a week apart, the comparisons between the two films are inevitable. Both pictures do a fairly credible job of putting the gunfight in context with the relationship of the Earp's and the Cowboys. So if you don't mind the additional hour tagged on by the inclusion of Wyatt's back story, the latter film might be your cup of tea. Now I don't mind a three hour plus film if it's going to hold my interest all the way through. But let's face it, with a finale like the OK Corral, the sooner you get to the action the better.

In approach, the Kasdan directed version here is what I'd consider the sanitized version of the Earps once they arrived in Tombstone. In most respects, the Earps are the good guys, and the Cowboys are the bad guys. For my money, the "Tombstone" take on the Earp reputation was closer to historical fact, that is, they were opportunists who ran the city about as close to a protection racket as you could get. They were involved in gambling and prostitution in addition to their mining interests, and Wyatt's ambition to replace Johnny Behan as Sheriff of Cochise County was also based largely on monetary consideration.

Moving the comparison of the two pictures to the principal players, there again it appears that "Tombstone" was better cast. I'll take Kurt Russell over Costner's underplayed characterization of the famed lawman. Dennis Quaid acquitted himself real well as Doc Holliday, but you can't beat Val Kilmer's barroom showdown with Johnny Ringo and all the flamboyance that went with it. It seemed like Michael Madsen was never properly introduced as big brother Virgil, and let's face it, he's no Sam Elliott. Maybe if the Coen's or Tarantino were directing he would have stood out more, but I just didn't get a sense of Virgil's presence here. And it was Virgil who was Tombstone's City Marshal at the time. Bill Paxton or Linden Ashby as Morgan Earp - that might be the only toss up. I could probably go right down the line with the supporting players as well, and the "Tombstone" faction takes it going away handily.

If I'm going to give the film some kudos, it's going to be with the actual gunfight. The real deal lasted only about thirty seconds with thirty one shots fired between the two factions. Now it's difficult to keep track of movie bullets flying, but in that regard, "Tombstone" overreached with about fifty gunshots that I was able to keep up with. With the benefit of replay, I managed to count off twenty nine shots pretty consistently each time I viewed that scene here. Of course those two shots I missed could just as easily have been there, it was just too difficult for my human ear to detect.

So I guess what it comes down to is 'take your pick'. I prefer "Tombstone" but "Wyatt Earp" is still a good modern day Western that should satisfy anyone's passing interest for the Cowboy era and it's principal legend. Better yet, watch them both and then decide for yourself.

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7 /10

Wyatt Earp

Warning: Spoilers

Months after the film Tombstone was released came this film, but it instead shows the full life journey of one of history's greatest lawmen, from Razzie nominated director Lawrence Kasdan (The Big Chill). It shows Wyatt Earp (Razzie winning Kevin Costner, also producing) growing up on the corn farm with his father Nicholas (Gene Hackman) and brothers Virgil (Michael Madsen), James (David Andrews) and Morgan (Linden Ashby). Then grown up, he marries sweetheart Urilla Sutherland (Annabeth Gish), who soon after died from typhus, while pregnant, and Wyatt burned their house and all possessions inside, turning to a life of crime to survive, forcing him to run away from Missouri to Dodge City. It is there he first makes a living skinning wilder beasts with brothers Ed (Bill Pullman) and Bat (Tom Sizemore) Masterson, then he builds a reputation as a good lawman, grows his moustache, meets partner Doc Holliday (a near show-stealing Dennis Quaid) who is slowly dying of tuberculosis, and makes sure all townspeople do not have any guns. I kind of lost my understanding of what was going on in the last hour or so, but it was still worth seeing the events in Tombstone and O.K. Corral. Also starring Catherine O'Hara as Allie Earp, Isabella Rossellini as Big Nose Kate, Téa Leoni as Sally, Navy NCIS's Mark Harmon as Johnny Behan and The Passion of the Christ's James Caviezel as Warren Earp. The performances are all good, the story has compelling moments, and all scenes seem beautifully filmed, a pretty good epic western drama. It was nominated the Oscar for Best Cinematography, and for some reason, it won the Razzie for Worst Remake or Sequel, and it was nominated for Worst Picture and Worst Screen Couple for Costner and any of his three (film) wives. Very good!

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9 /10

I'll Take This Version Over The Rest

This is one of the best, and underrated, westerns ever made. It was a very intense, interesting character study of a famous lawman, showing flaws and all. In fact, this is the only version, I believe, that really shows the sadistic side of Wyatt Earp, and what made him a bitter man. To be fair, it also shows his good traits.

It also has a terrific, deep cast and features a good mix of drama, romance and action. Even the music grows on you after several viewings. There is no humor in here: this is a serious story. Unlike the more popular "Tombstone," this Earp story has a lot less profanity and almost no usage of the Lord's name in vain....but there is rough language and some crude sexual remarks, so don't watch it with the kiddies.

At rate, the movie is a lot better than the critics would have you believe. (All nationally-known critics but one panned this, as far as I know.)

Kevin Costner performed one of his better acting jobs. It was nice to see Michael Madsen and Tom Sizemore as good guys. That's not seen in too many films! They were low-key characters, too. Dennis Quaid did a nice job as the fascinating "Doc Holliday." It's generally conceded that Val Kilmer's "Doc" in "Tombstone" was the best-ever, but Quaid version is just fine, thank you, and gets better and better with each viewing.

This is a long movie, but it's never dull and it never overdoes the action, either. The cast is deep so you see a lot of familiar actors. As mentioned, this film is extremely underrated. I know most people prefer "Tombstone" but I'll take this version of the Earp saga any time!

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6 /10

It's a Long Trial That Has No Turning.

Warning: Spoilers

Man, at 122 minutes, this is a longie. Probably three separate movies could have been made from this material. (1) Young Wyatt finally wins the girl he loves back home in Missouri and she promptly get pregnant and dies in his arms. Wyatt turns into a drunk before he finds himself. That one goes straight to Lifetime Movie Network. (2) After a few years of being a roustabout, Wyatt and his brother become deputy marshals, first in Dodge City, then in Tombstone. The Clanton brothers and a few other miscreants get nasty and it all leads to the famous shootout at the O.K. Corral. (3) Not all of the villains are dead and the surviving ones vow revenge. Another climactic shoot out at a train station in Tucson. Yes, there are several movies buried in this script, and actually at least four have already been made: "Tombstone," "My Darling Clementine," "Shootout at the O.K. Corral", and "Hour of the Gun." Almost time for the story to be told from the Clanton's perspective.

In watching these highly ritualized Westerns it's important to understand why the values we see being embraced were, in fact, being embraced. Pardon me, while I adjust this lectern. And, please, let's not throw any more spitballs.

The United States was essentially founded on two independent cultures, the theocracies of the North, the Puritans or Roundhead as they were sometimes called, and the South was settled by Cavaliers, who were men of stern honor. The English philosopher, Thomas Hobbes, had argued that the natural state of man was utter savagery, a "war of all against all," unless some kind of authority was introduced. In the settled communities of the North, that authority was the law and obeisance to God. In the South, authority rested with the individual, built on personal dignity, and a distaste for central authority. As the country spread westward, so did these different conceptions of responsibility. Southerners were existentialists of a sort. A man was what he made of himself. Or, to put it in the parlance of the Western film, "A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do," or, "When you call me that, smile." The various shoot outs we see in this movie are only modernized forms of Medieval jousts or duels with sword or pistol. Wyatt Earp violates "the law" he's supposed to uphold numerous times and is charged with murder. He and his friends get off because the law is weak and the judge sees "no criminal offense" in the murder. A Texas judge, a few years ago, was informed of a homicide and asked: "Did he NEED killin'?" And that, boys and girls, is why the North is blue and the South is red. And let's cut out those spitballs, please.

Lots of well-known names in this cast list. It often helps to understand what kind of Western you're getting into if you look at the heroes and villains. The heroes no longer wear white hats and the villains black. We're not THAT simple minded anymore. But usually, as here, the villains are creepy, oily, ugly, and/or filthy.

Costner does okay by the role of Wyatt, and Dennis Quaid almost always turns in a good performance. As a tubercular, Quaid has been decked out by wardrobe in suits that are wrinkled and too large for him, as if he's wasting away before our eyes. And towards the end, his face has grown pale and his eyes are rimmed with a touch of red. Not too much. Just enough. Nice job.

Some of the recognizable names aren't on screen much. Mark Harmon, as a sheriff, barely shows up. Isabella Rossellini, my supporting player in "Blue Velvet," has only one scene. Jim Caviezel is hardly seen. But then a lot of the characters are so ragged and bundled up and covered with soil that they're hard to identify. Joanna Going has an important role and doesn't bring it home effectively.

It's a long and complex story and though it does raise some moral questions, there's never any doubt about whose side we're on. In a world of Cavaliers, you must wield a sabre with skill and determination. And in the end, what has Wyatt Earp learned? Nothing. In that respect, it's very different from Clint Eastwood's "Unforgiven."

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6 /10

A very serious and disgustingly overlong biography about the mythic gunslinger and sheriff

Exciting revisionist epic Western about the mythic figure that suffers from bad timing and extremely overlong due to prolonged introduction to his early life , but with plenty of tension , emotion , romance , thrills , gunplay and high body-count . It is a vigorous recounting of a familiar tale , dealing with legendary lawman moves to Tombstone , Arizona , aiming to begin a new life along with his brothers , Virgil , James , Morgan ,and their wives . This trigger-taut Western drama deals with the tarnished badge lawman Wyatt Earp (Kevin Costner) and a badman gunslinger and philosopher Southern gent who usually coughs , called Doc Holliday , (Dennis Quaid who excels , giving comsumptive conviction to character) , the strangest friendship this side of heaven and hell . They fought shoulder to shoulder in the wildest stand-up gunfight in the history of the West . Meanwhile , Wyatt falls in love for an actress , Josie (Joanna Going) , though lacks the indispensable romantic spark . As the fabled showdown is seen about two-thirds of the way through this film . They are the strangest alliance between the West's most famous sheriff , Wyatt Earp , trying to overcome outlaws and the deadliest gambling killer , tubercular Doc Holliday . At the beginning it deals with his relationship to a strict father (Gene Hackman who is terrific , as usual) , as Wyatt grows in a grain ranch and marries the girl (Annabeth Gish) he always fancied , subsequently he takes various employments as a buffalo hunter , a croupier , as he ends up -as do most of his brothers- , as a lawman . It's incomparably performed by the greatest team who ever went into action , Kevin Costner portrays the large-than-life lawman , living by the old rules , driven by revenge , dueling to the death and Dennis Quaid who is most impressive as a gunslinger , the hellfire gambler , his only friends were his guns and his only refuge was a woman's heart , Big Nose Kate (Isabella Rossellini) . Wyatt and his brothers try to settle down to prospecting in Tombstone ; later on , there takes place the famous gunfight at OK Corral that is more of a skirmish . Two towering Box office actors in a huge exciting production . The film correctly builds up its suspense , even though movie is some 50 minutes too long , until a tense battle in streets of Tombstone , it is the highlight to the story and the start of a small war between the revenger Earp and the baddies : The nasty Cowboys , led by Curly Bill , Johnny Ringo , Ike Clanton , Billy Clanton , Frank McLaury .

This is an overwhelming Western , though too self-conscious , suffering from 90s Western revisionism . It was partially panned , but being , nowadays , well considered , may be seen by some as unoriginal and cliched but is really a very fashionable outing in Earp saga and a throughly agreeable Western , though really inferior to ¨Tombstone¨ by George Pan Cosmatos . Kevin Costner sounds and looks the part more than any other Earp , though he is hardly ever as a 20 and some lad but fares better as he ages . While Dennis Quaid delivers an awesome acting , stealing clearly the show , a character designed for scenary chewing , giving a breathtaking portrayal of the doomed dentist . Thirty pounds lighter and likely delusional Quaid is actually unrecognizable as Doc . Although overlong , but blessed with a high-energy level , thanks to noisy action , spectacular horse riding and rousing shooting . Costner spends a lot of time looking troubled by the violence while kills relentlessly. There's also essential support from the very effective David Andrews as James Earp , Linden Ashby as Morgan Earp and Michael Madsen as Virgil . As the picture benefits itself from despictable villians and a mutual merciless vengeance that the Earps and the Clanton attempt to exact . The film focuses Tombstone , 1881 , with stimulating scenes about OK Corral gunfight between Morgan , Virgil , Wyatt Earp , Doc against the nefarious Ike Billy Clanton , Johnny Ringo, and Tom McLowery . This main character is a historical figure , in this case the sheriff Wyatt Earp who participated the most famous duel occurred in the western town of Tombstone in 1881 that has been brought to the big screen many times as in the classic "My Darling Clementine" in 1946 directed by John Ford with Henry Fonda and Victor Mature , in this "Gunfight at O.K. Corral" (1957) with Burt Lancaster , Kirk Douglas directed by specialist John Sturges who would resume the same story in "The Hour of the Gun" (1967) ; the demystifying "Doc" (Frank Perry, 1971) with Harris Yulin and Stacy Keach . And , finally , the more modern, this one shot at the same time : "Tombstone: The Legend of Wyatt Earp" by George P. Cosmatos, 1993 with Kurt Russell , Val Kilmer , Sam Elliott , Bill Paxton , Dana Delaney , Robert Burke , Michael Biehn , Thomas Haden Church , Dana Wheeler , Powers Boothe.

This is a story enormous in scope , unusual in concept with a mile-a-minute action on a climatic and thrill-a-minute gunfight. Packs a magnificent and marvelous cinematography with a nice sense of period , and brilliant Technicolor in overblown chromatic by Owen Roitzman , being filmed on location in Santa Fe , New Mexico . As well as adequate costuming and lavish production design . This saga of Earp family and the band of law-abiding large moustaches contains a spectacular and lyric musical score by James Newton Howard who composes a rousing soundtrack . All of them help make this one an enjoyable action western film . The motion picture was professionally directed by Lawrence Kasdan , though there's much unnecessary fiddling around in Tombstone and Earp's first years . So that the film seems to be the ending , you realize there's still fifty minutes to go on and then drifts on .

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6 /10

Long let his legend be told. Worthwhile western epic.

Director Lawrence Kasdan gives us three hours of wild west adventure, rugged romance and plenty of gunfire. An almost excellent script from Kasden and Dan Gordon that is put to the test by a talented ensemble cast. The life and legend of Earp and his family proves very interesting, although taking a back seat to the film TOMBSTONE.

Kevin Coster does a good job as the famed lawman, but seems a little less powerful compared to the image of Earp in our minds. Dennis Quaid gives us a different slant on Doc Holiday. One of his better roles. Other fine performances are logged in by Mark Harmon, Catherine O'Hara, Gene Hackman, Bill Pullman, Michael Madsen, Tom Sizemore, Tea Leoni, Martin Kove and Joanna Going.

Maybe a half hour too long, but this movie is more than your average western. Relax and enjoy a very good version of the life of Wyatt Earp.

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9 /10

A Western That Is Rarely Made

Warning: Spoilers

Wyatt Earp is a semi-biographical Western film that is written by Dan Gordon and Lawrence Kasdan. Directed by Lawrence Kasdan, this epic version of the legendary western sheriff-gunslinger's life story stars Kevin Costner in the title role as Wyatt Earp, who lived from 1848 to 1929.It also includes an ensemble cast that includes Dennis Quaid, Gene Hackman, Isabella Rossellini, Mark Harmon, Michael Madsen, Joanna Going, Tom Sizemore, Bill Pullman, JoBeth Williams, Linden Ashby, and Mare Winningham.

Growing up on a farm in Iowa, Earp tries to run away to join the Union Army in the Civil War, but he is turned away because of his youth. Instead, he studies law and marries Urilla Sutherland. But Urilla dies of typhoid fever before they can have children. Earp grows despondent and descends into drinking and petty thievery, but his father Nicholas finds him, sobers him up, and sets him straight. Earp becomes a buffalo hunter and a close companion of Bat Masterson and his brother Ed. With his brothers, Virgil and Morgan, Earp sets out to clean up the violence- plagued towns of the old West by using his own guns to settle scores. Earp takes up with Mattie Blaylock, a drug addict and prostitute, then discards her for actress Josie Marcus. In Tombstone, Arizona, the Earp brothers and their comrade Doc Holliday, who is plagued by tuberculosis and a compulsion for gambling, meet their match in a ruthless gang led by Ike Clanton.

This massive, in-depth study of the dark Western icon comes off with mixed results. Trying to capture the whole life, of the lawman-criminal- brother-fortune hunter, director Lawrence Kasdan gains points for sheer scale, giving us a rich epic painted in dark colors with gritty settings. But the visual poetry and extensive foreshadowing ruin the dramatic drive. Some scenes have as much impact as stalker movies; you're just waiting for someone to get knocked off. As Earp, Kevin Costner is not afraid to look rumpled and play colorlessly, but it saps the energy of this 3-hour-plus film. Best is the first half, with Costner, as hip as he was in his Silverado days, going through a series of ups and downs until he accidentally finds his profession. Great set design utilizes dozens of similar settings that always look distinctive. Recommended to fans of the star and the genre, but the story never justifies its length.But nevertheless,it is beautifully shot and impressively directed, it's an ambitious Western in the classic mold, the kind of film that rarely gets made anymore.

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6 /10

Meandering Movie with Multiple Endings

Kevin Costner can Pass as a Movie Star, once in awhile, but Simply does not have the Depth as an Actor to Pull Off this Heavy Study of the Western Icon. Especially when the Script takes Over Three Hours to put On Screen, the Length and Microscopic Details that Focus on the Life of Wyatt Earp ends up Revealing itself as another Kevin Costner Vanity Project.

He is a Much Better Fit in "Open Range" (2003) having Grown Out of His Self Aggrandizement and His Film Projects in the Later Years show a Humble Restraint. Lessons Learned.

Mediocre and Inconsistent Director Lawrence Kasdan must take Equal Blame for this Elongated, Episodic Epic. It's Not a Bad Film, but Only Slightly Above Average. Because the Better Parts (the Cinematography, and some good B Actors) are Intruded Upon by way too Many side Stories and a Bloated, Wordy Script that Keeps making the same Points, Over and Over.

Overall, it's an Obese Film that seems to Never get any Momentum and even when it Manages some Motion, it is Reined In and Slowed Down by rather Boring and Unwelcome Scenes. The Movie Ends a Number of Times and the Train Sequence in one of the Endings is so Mishandled and Unremarkable as to be Anti-Climactic and Nearly Incomprehensible.

Worth a Watch for Die-Hard Western Fans, but Others are Not Likely to be Impressed and may have Trouble making it to One of the Endings.

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6 /10

Goodish, but not great, and much potential wasted

Goodish, but not great. Excessively long, at over three hours. Lacks focus, dwelling too much on minor details and irrelevant sub- plots. It could easily have been cut down to two hours, and been tighter, punchier and just as character-centric.

I am not a fan of Kevin Costner, and this movie didn't help that impression. He doesn't do Wyatt Earp much justice - trying to act the hero by being cool and calm, but just coming across as solemn, aloof and boring.

This said, the cinematography and scenery are great. Dennis Quaid's portrayal of Doc Holliday is something to behold.

The remainder of the cast is pretty amazing for the names involved, some of which weren't stars yet and/or had very minor roles - Gene Hackman, Mark Harmon, Bill Pullman, Michael Madsen, Jeff Fahey, Isabella Rossellini, Tom Sizemore, Mare Winningham, Tea Leoni.

So much potential wasted.

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6 /10

Tombstone Did It Better

I know that "Wyatt Earp" is a comprehensive movie about Wyatt Earp while "Tombstone" was more focused on the occurrences at Tombstone and, more famously, the O.K. Corral--still, I prefer "Tombstone."

"Wyatt Earp" was drama between Earp and his in-laws, Earp and his "wife", Earp and himself, and, of course, Earp and Ike's gang. I knew that "Wyatt Earp" would invariably have some elements that I didn't care for. It was over three hours long so it was inevitable. Once I got those elements, one being an unholy love triangle, I was tangibly perturbed.

Was Costner better than Russell? Was Quaid a better Doc Holliday than Kilmer? Was Michael Madsen a better Virgil Earp than Sam Elliott? That's a no, no, and no. I'm partial to "Tombstone" to begin with and I also happen to believe that the three actors of the former did better than the three actors of the latter. Kevin Costner, for all the quality movies he's been in, is not an ideal actor in my humble opinion. But Keven didn't stand out alone as a rather empty character. There were quite a few rote performances to the degree that I believe the director had to be instructing them to be as mechanically precise as possible.

It's clear that the movie "Wyatt Earp" wanted to expound on Earp's frailties and fallibility. That's to be commended, I suppose, as no person is without faults. Wyatt Earp's story wasn't that bad. He certainly lived a more eventful life than most, but at three hours and eleven minutes I don't care how eventful your life was--it needs to be a mini-series.

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3 /10

Boring and hard to root for

I always find it fun when a boring movie's backstory is juicy; it's like a consolation prize! So here's the deal with Wyatt Earp: Kevin Costner was going to star in Tombstone, but he split off from the project and co-produced Wyatt Earp with Lawrence Kasdan. He'd wanted the movie to be all about Wyatt, so hopefully he was happy with his own version. The ironic revenge of Tombstone? It was released six months earlier and made more money at the box office.

Now, to the movie. It's over three hours, which is an improvement over the 6-hour miniseries it was originally intended to be! But it's still really long, and not in a good way. Some movies can get away with a slow pace, and this just isn't one of them. The cure for such terrible boredom would have been a title character so wonderful and easy to root for that the audience doesn't mind the slowness. In this version, Wyatt just isn't likable. He's violent, vengeful, selfish, loses his temper constantly, and is a womanizer who doesn't have any respect for women. I don't usually have an issue with that, especially if it's during a time period when respect for women is hard to find anyway, but the "charm" Wyatt uses during his romantic interactions is more offensive than appealing. I tried, but it was pretty impossible to root for Kevin Costner in this movie, and if you're not rooting for the hero, you've got a very long three hours in store for you.

My favorite version of this story is 1957's Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. But if you like modern westerns and Kevin Costner, watch Open Range. It's similar and much, much better.

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8 /10

"Wyatt Earp" or "Tombstone"? How 'bout BOTH

Lawrence Kasdan's "Wyatt Earp" got a raw deal in 1994 when it was released; the movie "Tombstone" -- essentially the same story -- came out six months earlier and stole its thunder. The difference in these two films can be observed in their names: "Tombstone" focuses on Earp's conflict with the 'Cowboys' gang in the Arizona town, whereas "Wyatt Earp" is an epic Western detailing Earp's life from youth to old age, although the Tombstone events are certainly the center piece. "Wyatt Earp" runs 3 hours 11 minutes and "Tombstone" is an hour shorter. Both are top-of-the-line modern Westerns and whether you'll like one or the other depends on what you're in the mood for. If you want kinetic mythmaking "Tombstone fills the bill, but if you want realistic storytelling with the details and mundaneness thereof then "Wyatt Earp" is the way to go. Regardless, both are vastly superior to the dull 1957 version with Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas, "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral."

I originally saw "Tombstone" sometime in the 90s, but by the time I got around to seeing "Wyatt Earp" I had forgotten the former film; as such, "Tombstone" wasn't able to 'steal the thunder' from my viewing of Costner's version. I was engrossed throughout. It may not be as great as his "Dances with Wolves" (1990), but it's not far off and, besides, few Westerns stand equal with that one.

I recently saw both films back-to-back and it is fun comparing the two. Val Kilmer from "Tombstone" wins out over Dennis Quaid as Doc Holiday, but not by much and not because Quaid is bad but rather because Holiday's role is more prominent in "Tombstone" with better lines. Actually Kilmer is nothing less than fascinating in the role, although Quaid is more believable. Kurt Russell and Costner are about even as Earp, but "Tombstone" wins out overall in cast with Sam Elliott, Powers Boothe, Michael Biehn, Billy Zane and the shining Dana Delany as Josie, although Joanna Going in the same role in "Wyatt" shines just as much. But there are several exceptions; for instance, Isabella Rossellini in "Wyatt" edges out Joanna Pacula as Big Nose Kate, Doc's babe.

As for the dramatic walk to the O.K. Corral and the gunfight itself I favor "Wyatt Earp," but "Tombstone" has a better dramatic build-up to the confrontation. However, "Tombstone" loses too much steam after the gunfight with redundant shootouts between Wyatt & his men and the Cowboys; "Wyatt Earp" maintains better momentum in the final act where the train sequence is much more impressive than the quick rendition shown in "Tombstone."

Unlike "Tombstone," which was shot in Arizona, "Wyatt" was shot in New Mexico, with additional scenes shot in South Dakota, Port Angeles, WA, and Burbank Studios, CA.

FINAL WORD: Don't listen to the moron critics who undeservedly bashed "Wyatt Earp" upon release in '94. They're wrong, pure and simple. "Tombstone" was evidently too fresh in their minds and ruined the story for them. "Wyatt Earp" easily stands with the all-time best Westerns. Just make sure you're in the mood for a 3-hour-plus epic before viewing. And, by all means, catch "Tombstone" too -- they're both great.

GRADE: A-

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6 /10

Watchable

mm-39 9 September 2002

My dad hates this film and I watch it with little expectations and enjoyed it. Not the best movie ever, but I like the grittiness of it. The part where they show him in the bar, and how his life led to his moment with destiny. It is unfair to compare this to Tombstone, when they both came out, because Tombstone is a classic. This film is worth a look. 6 or 7 out of 10.

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7 /10

One of the Better Modern Westerns.

Warning: Spoilers

The great critical and commercial success of "Dances with Wolves" and "Unforgiven" in the early nineties led many, myself included, to hope that a great revival of the cinematic Western might be on the way. Although those hopes have largely been disappointed, the genre is in better health now than it was in the eighties and there have been a number of good examples. "Wyatt Earp" is one of them.

Earp has been the hero of several Westerns, and those that I have seen (I have not seen either John Sturges's "Hour of the Gun" or the more recent "Tombstone") have concentrated either on events in Tombstone ("My Darling Clementine", "Gunfight at the OK Corral") or on those in Dodge City ("Dodge City" itself, which offered a fictionalised version of the Earp story). "Wyatt Earp", however, is an attempt at a filmed biography which gives us its hero's entire life story, starting with his boyhood in Illinois. Most of the first hour or so is taken up with Earp's life before he became a lawman; the famous gunfight, about two-thirds of the way through the film's three hours, only takes up about a couple of minutes of the action.

The advantage of showing us the hero's early life is that this allows us to understand many of the facets of his character. Perhaps the most important incident in the film is the tragically early death of his young first wife Urilla; Earp's grief at her death turns him from a quiet, studious young man with an ambition to become a lawyer into a lawless desperado. Facing a death-sentence in Arkansas for horse-stealing (evidently still a capital crime in America in the 1870s, long after it had ceased to be one in Britain), Earp is rescued by his father's intervention and flees to the West as a fugitive from justice. His later career as a lawman is interpreted as an effort to make amends for this youthful foray into lawlessness. Another aspect of his character brought out in these early scenes is the importance to him of family ties. He and his brothers Morgan and Virgil later make a formidable team, with stronger emotional ties to one another than to the women in their lives.

In an earlier age, Earp would probably have been portrayed as a clean-cut hero, the brave man in the white hat cleaning up the wild frontier, but in the revisionist nineties such an approach seemed too simplistic and the film offers us something closer to a "warts and all" portrayal. Apart from the horse-stealing incident, Earp is sacked from his job as Sheriff of Dodge City because his methods of law enforcement seem excessively harsh even by Wild West standards, and much of the film is taken up with details of his loveless sexual relationship with the prostitute Mattie Blaylock. There is, however, a limit to the film's revisionism. As with many biopics, the film-makers have selected episodes from their subject's life in order to form a coherent narrative to illustrate a particular viewpoint. In this case the narrative seems to be that of a wild young man who matures into a legendary hero of the West, and any historical details which do not fit in are ignored. For example, the film does not explore the suggestion made by some historians that the Gunfight had less to do with law enforcement than with a feud between the Earp family and their Clanton rivals over control of Tombstone's businesses. On the other hand, the film is sometimes harder on Earp than the historical record might warrant. In reality, there is considerable doubt about whether he was actually guilty of horse-stealing; in the film his guilt is quite apparent.

"Wyatt Earp"'s main weakness is its great length. It is clearly aiming to repeat the success of Kevin Costner's other epic Western of the nineties, "Dances with Wolves", but does not have that film's staying power, and at times can seem too slow-moving. Costner's acting is not quite as compelling as in the earlier film, but he is still very watchable, and this is one of his better films, much better than, say, "The Bodyguard" or the embarrassingly bad "Waterworld". There is a good cameo from Gene Hackman as Earp's father, but the best contribution is probably from Dennis Quaid as the tubercular Doc Holliday, spitting out defiance of the world in his Southern drawl in between his bouts of coughing.

Despite its occasional longueurs, in its latter stages (which deal with the post-Gunfight spiral of revenge between the Earp and Clanton gangs, with Wyatt's happy second marriage to the beautiful Josie and with his final promotion to legendary status) the film achieves a similar epic grandeur to that of "Dances with Wolves", aided by those familiar features of the large-scale Western, sweeping photography of the scenery and a stirring musical score. One of the better modern Westerns. 7/10

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Boring Defined.

Boring story about the infamous Wyatt Earp (Kevin Costner) and his many adventures. To say any more about this film than that would be quite pointless. It's just not worth wasting time on.

I've tried to watch "Wyatt Earp" some two or three times, and only succeeded once at viewing it the entire way through. It's too long, too boring, and too darn dry--Costner's casting doesn't help there. (I mourn for the days of "The Untouchables" and "No Way Out.")

2/5 stars.

• John Ulmer

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8 /10

Best Western Drama In Years

This is the best western drama in many years. It is too long but that is a necessary evil when it goes through a retelling of a lot of western legends, not just a single story. It is a single story of the Earp family, but the Earps touched many other legendary Western characters in their lives that it goes much more in depth because of this.

Kevin Costner proves again that he can carry a long dramatic film. He has plenty of good support along the way in this one. Dennis Quaid as Doc Holiday is an excellent choice & plays the role very well. There are plenty of others too, but I want to avoid making my review too long. You can watch the film itself.

More characters are well drawn & given time to develop in this than most westerns. There are more women in this one with more screen time than in many. The costumes & scenery are well done too.

Like any western legends, there are most certainly some facts in this one as well as some fiction. The main thing is that the stories are well presented & acted by an excellent cast. This makes it a very watchable film- especially if your as avid a western fan as some people are Tiger Woods fans. This film is almost as long as the coverage of a PGA tourney where Tiger Woods is leading. The story is much more exciting though as it keeps me awake better than the golf does.

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Mister, I've been in a bad mood for the last few years, so I'd appreciate it if you'd just leave me alone

Warning: Spoilers

Overlong, self-important and cheesy, Lawrence Kasdan's "Wyatt Earp" stars Kevin Costner as Wyatt Earp, the US Marshall whose participation at the "Gunfight at the OK Corral" consigned him to a life of infamy.

Most films "about" Wyatt Earp glorify and mythologise a mostly unremarkable and at times despicable man. Kasdan attempts to reverse these trends by being "gritty", "realistic" and "factual". He begins with Wyatt as a kid, watches as Wyatt grows up, loses a wife, descends into criminality and then desperately embarks upon various money-making schemes. Tying these sequences together is Kasdan's overriding "theme": Wyatt, apparently, behaves as he does because his father taught him to be "loyal to family". Likewise, Wyatt's more disreputable acts are rationalised as being due to the "death of his young wife".

Fans of better Earp films ("My Darling Clementine", "Tombstone") will find most of Kasdan's picture familiar. Compensating for this are numerous excellent sequences. Earp's younger days are interesting, sequences in which he skins buffaloes are original and the film boats fine cinematography by Owen Roizman. The much maligned Kevin Costner is also very good, as is Dennis Quaid as a scenery chewing Doc Holiday.

6/10 – Better westerns from the 1990s: "Wild Bill", "Ride With the Devil", "Dead Man", "Lone Star", "Thunderheart", "Dances With Wolves" and "Unforgiven".

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7 /10

fascinating

this movie is quite a bit different than 1993's Tombstone.obviously it focuses on Wyatt Earp,more than anything.this movie paints quite a different picture of Earp than Tombstone does.it depicts him in a much different light.Kevin Costner's portrayal of Earp is much different than Kurt Russel's in Tombstone.i think i liked Russel's portrayal a bit more.Dennis Quaid portrays Doc Holliday,and his portrayal is much different than Val Kilmer's in Tombstone.i actually liked Val Kilmer's performance better,and i liked his character more.Quaid does a good job though.the supporting cast is also very good.another big difference between this movie and Tombstone,is that this movie is very deliberately paced,and more in depth.the story is much deeper.there is not that much action,and some may be turned of by the length of the movie at over 3hrs.but if you can view it as character study,you might enjoy it.one thing i really liked rising the musical score.i found it very rousing and poetic.for me,Wyatt Earp is a 7/10

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8 /10

The Essential Western Epic

Warning: Spoilers

Wyatt Earp if nothing else is the Western of all Westerns. It's epically enormous and tells a story of a man that could only be fiction and yet was a real person. There isn't anything that a lover of Westerns won't find in this film. It has absolutely everything. It is a very, very long film. It was originally meant to be a whopping six hours so thank goodness it was cut to only three. Without a doubt I think this is director Lawrence Kasdan's best work although he did work on another Kevin Costner vehicle that was very good, The Bodyguard.

Costner plays the lead role of Wyatt Earp. Now one thing is for sure Kevin Costner is an acquired taste. No matter what he's a commanding presence on screen and his portrayal of tough as nails, take no prisoners Wyatt Earp is awesome!! Sure sometimes he is a little dry in his acting but he has a quiet intensity that makes his roles so watchable. He goes from loving husband to grieving, to drunk, to Marshall, to protector, to the executioner flawlessly and seamlessly. The supporting cast of this film is incredible and too numerous to mention everyone. They have such an incredible ensemble cast and everyone adds to it in different ways. Gene Hackman makes a cameo as Wyatt's father, Michael Madsen as his brother, Catherine O'Hara as his sister-in-law (Madsen's wife), Bill Pullman as Ed Masterson, Isabella Rossellini as Doc Holliday's woman, Tom Sizemore as Bat Masterson, Adam Baldwin, Téa Leoni, Jeff Fahey...and I could go on. The film is a virtual who's who of Hollywood A and B movie actors who come together like I've never seen on screen. It's just fun picking out who you recognize as most of them are done up to an almost unrecognizable state with era costumes and set. However the two performances most noted were Costner and the amazing Dennis Quaid who plays the ill fated Doc Holliday. I did feel that they didn't really establish the friendship as much as they could have between Earp and Holliday but nonetheless Quaid's performance was the best in the film and Oscar worthy. A cold blooded killer, dying of consumption and dedicated to his friend. He's barely recognizable, even his voice is different and he's the perfect choice.

Wyatt Earp's most brilliant part is the entire setting including costumes, locations, and capturing the entire era of any era it displays. The dusty, dark, gritty world of the old west to the plains of Arizona to the Alaskan coast in the end. It's a visual masterpiece. The costumes are spot on and brilliant. I think Costner has a real love for the western and you can see his passion in this film. As producer he likely had a big hand in it's creation and it shows. I think Costner is a worthy Hollywood star and I've always liked him and this is one of the great films he has done. Any fans of Westerns MUST see Wyatt Earp because although made in the nineties it's the essential western epic and brilliantly done just a little long, that's all. Can't beat the content or performances and familiar faces. 8/10

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6 /10

Too reverent

Wyatt Earp, the sheriff involved in the fight at the O.K. Corral, is logically an inconsequential figure in American history; but his story has endured, perhaps because it's perceived as embodying the nature of the wild west, and the fine line between the law and the outlaw. Here he gets a solemn, lengthy biopic in which thee famous shoot-out is just one incident among many. I find the usually obligatory comedy character a major irritant in most westerns, but I almost wished there was one in this movie, which proceeded with a total absence of humour. What it does contain is a very conservative rendering of Earp's interesting life, it's colourful developments played down as the rather one dimensional tale of a brave and heroic man looking out for his family. Keven Costner is predictably at home playing this boring yet righteous hero; Dennis Quaid as gunslinger Doc Holliday has all the best lines. But in a film this long, they're too and far between, and the failure to develop the political and economic context of the story, in favour of a straightforward celebration of Earp's courage and integrity, leaves the film without an excuse for its length.

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Wyatt Earp the Film and the Filmmakers Lawrence Kasdan

Source: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111756/reviews

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