very good western

Rating: Null/10 (27 December 2002)

I don't know much about what is "truth or fiction" where the real story of Wyatt Earp is concerned, but, as a western, this film is absolutely splendid.
There is a real feel for the west of the time, a time when the battle with the natives is no longer an issue, but the juxtaposition of white and Mexican cultures comes more towards the fore (how many people know that "Mexico" once included everything from Mexico to Utah?!). It has a feel for the way in which law was managed in these alienated towns, long before information technology and central intelligence could unite national law enforcement, and "the law" in any given town was simply the local sheriff, who didn't spend 2 or 3 years in a law enforcement program at the local community college, he just walked into the local sheriff's office and said "I wanna work with you" and when he was the last man standing whom the people trusted, he'd be sworn in.
In this story, Wyatt Earp comes riding into town, and installs himself as a protector, able to negotiate a fee for keeping rif-raf out of a local establishment, simple as that. It was mighty easy back in those days to just saddle up your horse, go somewhere else and start all over. No real estate agents, no hiring moving companies, no sending change of address cards to all your creditors, no having to prove employment or demonstrate good credit in order to get a new place, no having to come up with "first and last," no reference checks... no hassles with the phone company to change your service, no worries about "no vacancy" or high mortgage interest rates...no decision about whether to live "closer to downtown with more crime but access to amenities or out in the suburbs with bigger lots but a longer commute to work"...never having to fight for a tight parking spot...instead of having to buy a new car, you just owned some horses that could have babies...
The gun culture and gun play is remarkable. Folks would walk into an establishment and check their guns the way we today check our coats. Itchy trigger fingers abounded, and a man watched his adversary's eyes for the slightest hint as to whether this was going to be the showdown, right here, right now, or whether they'd walk away to square off another day. When they did finally square off, the townsfolk treated "another dead body in the middle of town" almost matter-of-factly. A shout-out was almost like the only real family entertainment. Folks didn't hide between shuttered windows, they lined the streets for a front-row seat!
As I mentioned in my comments on "The Quick and the Dead," Tombstone is a much more authentic movie (of course, that's a matter of conjecture, since I wasn't "there" living in Colorado in 1830 :-) but guns just weren't that accurate. Also, Tombstone is a lot "darker" - after all, they didn't have overhead lights the way we do today, after sundown it was bloody dark! I also found it rained a little too much in The Quick and the Dead, and it seemed to rain quite a bit in Tombstone as well (forgive me, but when I think of the west, I think of arid desert conditions where rain just doesn't happen a whole lot - although I'm no meteorologist and perhaps both movies were filmed during the rainy season...??)
Both movies also had a good view of medicine back then. If you got shot, chances are you were either done for, or you'd have some ugly scars. Doctors couldn't do a whole lot more than pour whiskey on the wound and into your mouth, while they either tried to remove bullets without anesthesia or stood over your abdominal wounds and just shook their head "nope, he ain't gonna make it." (and, in The Quick and the Dead, the presence of the undertaker was an interesting note, grim with his black hat!)
Anyway, there are some bad guys running the town, and "the people" beg the Earp brothers, with some help from their old friend quick-gun Doc Holliday, to restore some law and order in this town. In this story, Kurt Russell is the reluctant Wyatt who is dragged into conflict with the bad guys due to his brothers giving in to put badges on their chest; this leads to the showdown, and a final reckoning of who will run things in Tombstone.
If you want the true story of Wyatt Earp, do some surfing, there are plenty of websites offering their versions of who he was, good or bad. If you want to see a good story of how life was in the west, see Tombstone!