A Decent remake of a classic western story

Rating: 6/10 (21 December 2013)

This is a pretty good movie even though it is a remake of older movies with new technology. I tend to prefer the newer movies as the technology tends to add more realism to it. I also appreciate the new styles of cinematography that filmmakers use to make the movie more visually attractive. I have seen some other westerns (such as Clint Eastwood movies) and I was not impressed.
This movie has two actors that I enjoy: Kirt Douglus and Val Kilmer. My favourite character in this movie was Doc Haliday (Val Kilmer): he had numerous interesting personality quirks and very much seems to be detached from the world. He seems to always be around as he turns up in the most unusual placed. We are never quite sure what he is doing. The Earp brothers are normal and predictable, Haliday is not. The movie opens with a prophecy, something I have seen in another western (Pale Rider): beware the sickly horse. There are always four people around, at the beginning the three Earp brothers and Haliday, at the end Wyatt Earp, Haliday and two ex-Cowboys. This seems to suggest the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in that they are out to destroy the cowboys. The prophecy does not refer to a horse, but the rider - Doc Haliday. I won't mention anymore as it will spoil the end. This was used in Pale Rider but not as effective as here.
At the beginning Wyatt Earp enters the scene as a retired sheriff. Even though he continues to remind us that he is retired, it is evident that he is not. As soon as he reaches Tombstone he clears out a rough neck bar called the Oriental. Even though he does it for selfish reasons, this action shows us that he will not stay retired. Even though a number of times his desire for law and order is suppressed (and even then when things seem bad enough he finds himself in the thick of things) this overshadows him later by revenge for the death of his brother.
The criticism comes from a friend of mine who is a western fan. He claims that this is not the original story but rather a cut and paste to make an interesting and entertaining film. The story is twisted out of proportion to suit the audience. This was the same criticism that I had with the Odyssey which was also twisted around to make it more entertaining (though I still believe the original story was just as good). As I have little knowledge of the west, I cannot comment on this.
The filmmakers attempted to set this film in historical context with an introduction of the characters and the times in which the movie was set. The movie also finished with the typical narrative of what happened to the main characters afterwards. I thought that this was worked well into the movie and had no problem with it. One of the major things that I noticed about Wyatt Earp was the struggle he has with his former self. Not only is he struggling to remain out of the affairs of the state, but he is also struggling to remain faithful to his wife. When he was young it is made clear by Haliday that Earp was quite promiscuous; but now that he is married he must remain faithful. We are led to wonder whether he will give up his wife for this other woman, and when we look at his wife all we see is an opium addict. The movie thus suggests that it is alright to thus leave her because she is failing to be a good wife. This is not true for our marriage vowels tell us that we are to remain faithful "in sickness and in health." Even if they are sick, as Earp's wife was, we are not free to leave her for somebody else. The whole moral question though is made moot when at the close to the movie we are informed that his wife died of a drug overdose shortly after she left Tombstone, thus when Earp did meet up with the new lady, he was essentially free to marry her.
The end of the movie was a bit rushed but this is expected when they are trying to break up a big gang. They dealt with the leaders in a detailed manner but rushed through the other members. Ike was an interesting character as he was quite cowardly. He was the one that always escaped and when things seemed bad, he would always collapse and plead for mercy. To me, Ike was the most detestable of the cowboys because he could not face up to his punishment, and when it was obvious that he had been caught, he would plead for mercy only to go back to his old ways when set free. As a whole, I enjoyed this movie and would encourage others to watch it to.