Movie Review: Gunfight at the O.K. Corral
It shouldn't come as any surprise that I've started watching movies and TV shows about Tombstone and all the assorted characters there in. I tried to find Tombstone at the video store, but it was checked out. I did come across this 1957 gem starring Burt Lancaster as Wyatt Earp and Kirk Douglas as Doc Holliday, with a young Dennis Hopper as gunfight victim Billy Clanton. Now, having recently become obsessed with Tombstone and its infamous gunfight, I must say that the movie takes quite a few liberties with the actual event, namely that it occupies the last twenty minutes of the film, when in actuality the gunfight lasted approximately thirty seconds. The plot was sound and the characterizations of Earp and Holliday pretty much dead on. Douglas does a fantastic job, using Holliday's known traits of gambling, gunfighting and his battle with consumption to create a nuanced character that rings quite true to known accounts. Lancaster does a decent job, though his Earp is fairly one note as the reluctant lawman who just keeps getting embroiled in one fight after another. If you enjoy Westerns or good classic films, give it a try. Don't think it's the be-all end-all history of Tombstone or the Gunfight, but enjoy as a genuine cinematic treat.
N.B. While the script has numerous inconsistencies, whoever designed the signs for the sets did their research. Every sign was dead on correct to the real locations and time period, down to the tombstones in Boot Hill. Even the font of the Tombstone Epitaph sign closely matched the original. I have to wonder, after all that hard work, if they were banging their head against a wall after reading the script!
N.B. While the script has numerous inconsistencies, whoever designed the signs for the sets did their research. Every sign was dead on correct to the real locations and time period, down to the tombstones in Boot Hill. Even the font of the Tombstone Epitaph sign closely matched the original. I have to wonder, after all that hard work, if they were banging their head against a wall after reading the script!