BEFORE: The "other" Wyatt Earp film tonight - released in 1994, the year following "Tombstone" - so once again there must have been two Hollywood studios working on a nearly-identical topic at the same time. Which one ripped off the other's idea? Linking from "Tombstone", Billy Bob Thornton was also in "The Alamo" with Dennis Quaid, as I saw earlier this week. Quaid played Sam Houston in that film, but tonight he's Doc Holliday.
THE PLOT: The good times and the bad times of one of the West's most famous individuals.
AFTER: Another long running time - three hours plus, so once again I'm splitting a film over two nights. I simply must get some more sleep on weeknights. Thursday night (Fri. am) I watched right up until the point where Wyatt Earp moved to Tombstone, then I picked up the rest of the film on Friday night (Sat. am). This film decided to portray all aspects of Earp's life, from young boyhood on.
And that's where it made me feel lazy, as a product of modern culture. Back in the 1800's, it seems like people worked harder, or at least did more physical jobs, on the whole. Plus the whole frontier was opened up in front of them, so everything seemed possible, and ambition was rewarded. Heard there might be some riverboat jobs down in Missouri, and if that doesn't work out, I'll head up to Kansas and open a saloon, or maybe I'll strike out for Arizona and open a silver mine. Heck, I can always make a few dollars in the meantime shooting buffalo and skinning them by hand.
Meanwhile, I feel like I'm exhausted after a day of just answering e-mails. God, I'm lazy and out of shape. Actually, I am called upon to do physical labor from time to time, mostly during the two weeks of Comic-Cons, in San Diego and New York. But since I don't get much exercise the rest of the year, each week just wears me out and I need another week after to recover.
Anyway, back to "Wyatt Earp". The longer running time also allowed the film to take a stab at metaphor, something there wasn't much time for in "Tombstone". When Wyatt Earp made an early attempt at being a boxing referee, I couldn't help but see that as a foreshadowing of his lawman career. When you're the one in charge of settling an argument, or judging a fight, there's always going to be one person who doesn't agree with the judge's call, and will hold him responsible for it.
Also, when Earp was working as a buffalo skinner, and the buffalo were pretty easy to shoot - it seemed like a foreshadowing of Earp's "Renegade Ride", his less-than-legal attempt to rid Tombstone of the outlaw Cowboys gang by tracking them all down and shooting them on sight.
But how do the two films compare with each other? Sure, one does a better job detailing Earp's life before Tombstone, and the other does a better job detailing the shootout at the O.K. Corral, so I don't know - you may want to watch the first half of "Wyatt Earp" to get his background, then switch over to the other film to get a better handle on that fateful day. If you don't mind Kevin Costner turning into Kurt Russell and Dennis Quaid turning into Val Kilmer, that is.
"Wyatt Earp" also has a strange ending sequence, with Wyatt and his second wife on a boat in Alaska, and a young man recognizing him and telling him a story of how he supposedly saved his uncle's life. This is shown in flashback, but since Earp neither confirms nor denies the story, it's tough to see why it was included, especially out of sequence. Was this just a device to use the leftover footage that didn't seem to fit in anywhere else? Or does this serve to emphasize Earp's belief in the legal system, after a sequence where he completely disregards it?
Also starring Kevin Costner (last seen in "Tin Cup"), Gene Hackman (last seen in "Under Fire"), Michael Madsen (last seen in "Die Another Day"), Mark Harmon (last seen in "Natural Born Killers"), Jeff Fahey, Bill Pullman (last seen in "The Accidental Tourist"), Tom Sizemore (last seen in "Striking Distance"), Isabella Rossellini (last seen in "Wild at Heart"), Catherine O'Hara (last heard in "Bartok the Magnificent"), JoBeth Williams (last seen in "The Big Chill"), Mare Winningham, Joanna Going, David Andrews, James Gammon (last seen in "Cold Mountain"), Rex Linn, Adam Baldwin (last seen in "How to Make an American Quilt"), Annabeth Gish, Jim Caviezel (last seen in "The Final Cut"), with cameos from Karen Grassle, Tea Leoni (last seen in "Fun With Dick and Jane"), Betty Buckley.
RATING: 5 out of 10 cups of coffee
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