Rent Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957)

The Good, The Bad, & The Interesting - Gunfight at the O.K. Corral review by Count Otto Black

From its very first seconds, as the opening bars of Frankie Laine's gloriously sincere but rather silly theme-song ring out over the title, this movie is trying to be the ultimate epic western. It comes fairly close to succeeding, but there are two massive obstacles in its way. The first is the problem of constructing a two-hour narrative leading up to a 30-second shootout between four lawmen and five baddies, two of whom ran away. As climaxes go, that one isn't very epic, so of course the famous gunfight has to be spun out, and the not exactly overwhelming odds against the heroes increased by including people who weren't really there, but it's still a bit anticlimactic.

Interestingly, not only did director John Sturges learn a lesson from this when he made "The Magnificent Seven" in 1960, in which the gunfight everything leads up to is absolutely massive, but when he revisited the legend of Wyatt Earp in 1967's underrated "Hour Of The Gun", he made precisely the opposite of this film, starting with a historically accurate and therefore not terribly impressive depiction of the famous gunfight, and spending the rest of the movie exploring the increasingly bloody long-term consequences, and the transformation of Wyatt Earp from righteous marshall into merciless vigilante.

Which leads us to the other problem with this film. Wyatt Earp is the hero, so of course he has to be so squeaky-clean that other characters repeatedly comment on it, and he only becomes ruthless enough to go head-to-head with his foes after the cowardly murder of his brother James (who in reality had nothing to do with the famous gunfight and died of natural causes 44 years later). Burt Lancaster was a fine actor, but his good looks and square jaw got him typecast as boringly perfect heroes when he was far better at playing people who were extremely flawed or downright horrible - see "The Sweet Smell Of Success" for the ultimate example! Therefore the hero of this movie is a cardboard stereotype so holier-than-thou it's impossible to care about him, let alone like him. Even worse, it means there are way too many slow bits before he finally does what a man's gotta do.

Fortunately Kirk Douglas is around to steal every scene he's in as Doc Holliday, which he does, to an extent that makes you wish the film had been almost entirely about him with Wyatt Earp as a supporting character. In the sixties, when Lee Van Cleef was finally a star instead of getting bit-parts as villainous cannon-fodder in westerns (including this one), Doc would have been the hero, and Wyatt's hopelessly naïve attempts to uphold the law without a gun would have gotten him killed inside ten minutes. And frankly it would have been a better movie. By the way, before he was a Starfleet medic, DeForest Kelley always played tough guys in westerns. One time he even got killed by John Wayne. Here he has the small rôle of Morgan Earp, making him the only actor to have fought on both sides of The Gunfight At The OK Corral. And, thanks to some kind of Trekkie miracle, he won both times.

A Western Of It's Time - Gunfight at the O.K. Corral review by GI

In so many ways this is a solid, standard 1950s western fitting the Hollywood genre stereotypes before the 60s began to see a change in the depiction of the west. It's essentially an adventure western made for big audiences and lacks the nuances that the films of John Ford and others added in their contribution to the genre during this decade. The famous gunfight at the OK Corral has been filmed many times over the years and this version is only very loosely based on any historical facts indeed the actual gunfight reportedly only lasted a few seconds whereas the one in the climax of this film is much more drawn out into a fully fledged gun battle. But this is cinema so rightly so. Here we have two major stars at the height of their box office appeal with Burt Lancaster as a stoic Wyatt Earp and Kirk Douglas as the drunken, ailing Doc Holliday. Both do their thing perfectly well with Douglas especially enjoying the more extremes of the character. When Earp rescues Holliday from a Lynch mob they become unlikely friends and bond ever closer through the film culminating in the Earps feud with the cattle rustling family The Clantons and the showdown at the infamous corral. The film is enjoyable enough although it lacks any real sense of itself and simply tells to somewhat hackneyed story with some panache. Rhonda Fleming as a love interest for Lancaster is underused and sadly disappears from the story with little explanation. Jo Van Fleet has fun as Holliday's wayward lover and John Ireland is great as the psycho gunfighter out to get Holliday. Dennis Hopper, Jack Elam and Lee Van Cleef liven things up in supporting roles and there's a clichéd theme song from Frankie Laine that includes the usual whistling! This is an instantly recognisable John Sturges film, nowhere near his best and he actually made a better western about these character with Hour of The Gun (1967). Lovers of classic American westerns may still relish this but it lacks the finesse and status of many other westerns made at a similar time.

Odd Couple (spoiler). - Gunfight at the O.K. Corral review by Steve

Western melodrama leading up to the famous shootout in Tombstone in 1881 works best as an odd couple buddy movie between Burt Lancaster (Wyatt Earp) and Kirk Douglas (Doc Holliday). Earp saves Doc's life so Holliday trails the lawman across the famous towns of the old west to pay off his debt.

This is a study of the western gunfighters, so a few famous hot shots turn up who weren't really present. It concludes with Wyatt delivering a lengthy homily about the perils of the gunfighting life to one of the Clantons (Dennis Hopper). Who is shot anyway. The concluding face-off is excellent, but there's quite a lot of discursive chat in getting there.

It looks more like a western of the '60s. The palette of matt creams, browns and greens is muted compared with the more fluorescent Technicolor of the '50s. And Burt needs a shave at times and the impressive set of Tombstone feels relatively realistic. It's procedural even though the history is pure fantasy.

This is an urban western, but when the stars do leave town, the blue Vistavision sky is magnificent. Besides the action, there is romance and a few comical touches. Most of its big box office clout is down to the rangy leads. Burt and Kirk are a powerhouse combination as the legendary lawmen.