There have been ten separate Hollywood depictions of the true story gunfight in Tombstone Arizona. I have always been amazed at a town that was willing to name itself tombstone. A town like that was just asking for trouble. In any case trouble is what it received and the famous gunfight concerned the Clanton brothers and the deputized Earp brothers. It had 10 separate protagonists and was the stuff of American western Lore. John Ford recreated the story in his masterpiece, “My Darling Clementine”. In 1957, John Sturgis was given a large budget and premium actors to re-shoot the story. The result is the aptly titled, “Gunfight and the O.K. Corral” starring Burt Lancaster as Wyatt Earp and Kirk Douglas as Doc Holiday. Earp and Holiday were Sherriff and gunfighter who turned into friends. In addition Earp had his three deputized brothers. The Earp family controlled the law in and around Tombstone. The movie follows closely the interactions of Earp and Holliday giving only secondary considerations to all of the other characters. Both Lancaster and Douglas do their best with the material they were given. The problem is that the material is extremely wooden and lacking in depth. We see Holiday drink and smoke to death but are never given any real understanding as to why such a learned man (he is a trained dentist), became the gambler and gunfighter that he is. In many instances the script of the film does not make any sense. People gun other people down freely and never get arrested; regardless of the fact that there are men of law everywhere (the Earp’s for example). The sheriff struts around without a gun while standing his ground against many armed men. Considering the lack of law and order shown, I am amazed that none of the armed men shoot him. Another man is murdered and the so called men of law arrange for a fair shootout without even trying to arrest the perpetrators who never try to run away. The script looks at the end game, being the gunfight, and ignores everything that came before it other than for being a vehicle to get to the concluding gunfight. The gunfight itself has a few thrills but no real stand out scenes. Sturgis was an average director and other than some halfhearted attempts at copying Ford from the earlier and much superior film, paints his pictures blandly without any real style or vibrancy. In Fords, “Clementine”, there is a wonderful visage of Henry Fonda who plays Earp leaning on his chair to the point of nearly tipping it over. It was iconic and playful adding to the depth of the Earp character in that movie. Apparently Sturgis also appreciated that scene because he tries to copy it numerous times in his movie. Only in this film, the only thing these scenes succeed in doing was make me think of the earlier film and wish I was watching the Ford movie rather than this tepid excuse for a western.
1001 Movies before you die 