Review: Wyatt Earp

Released around the same time as the movie, “Tombstone”, this movie is unfairly compared and it is true that the sequences surrounding the gunfight at OK Corral are more enjoyable to watch in “Tombstone” (where we got to know the villains better and therefore got to hate them more, necessary in a good action movie)

But “Wyatt Earp” is not an action movie. It is an epic, concentrating on a character study of what made this man the legend he became. Costner does a superb job, better, and with more depth than Kurt Russell, although Russell was also good, so this is a compliment to Costner, not a complaint about Russell.

Dennis Quaid is as good as Val Kilmer in his portrayal of Doc Holiday but he is not featured as much as Kilmer was and does not have all the good lines Kilmer had, such as “I have two guns, one for each of you.”

Quaid does have his moments though, “Never put off till tomorrow somebody you can kill today.”

I liked it. If I had not seen “Tombstone” first, I would have loved it and that is not fair to the producers so I am giving it a top rating.

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