Wyatt Earp (Blu-ray)

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"Wyatt Earp" arrived in theaters about six months after the Christmas release of "Tombstone," which featured Kurt Russell as Wyatt Earp and Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday. This film featured Kevin Costner as Wyatt Earp and Dennis Quad as Doc Holliday. In the dozen years since their release, both films have been consistently compared and the debate may never die as to which film is the better picture. "Wyatt Earp" has been given credit for being more historically accurate and Dennis Quaid has been given a lot of praise for his wonderful portrayal of Doc Holliday, but Kevin Costner received a Razzy for his turn as the historical lawman and the three hour and ten minute film feels longer because of its slow pacing and general lack of action. In my opinion, "Wyatt Earp" is the telling of Wyatt Earp´s story for those wanting to invest in the history of the character and "Tombstone" is for those looking for a rousing good time.

One aspect of Lawrence Kasdan´s "Wyatt Earp" is that the film spends time looking at the early years of Wyatt Earp and how his family and growing up helped shape who he would become. While Wyatt´s brothers Virgil (Michael Madsen) and James (David Andrews) are away fighting during the Civil War and Wyatt´s father Nick Earp (Gene Hackman) is out of town, Wyatt decides he wants to join the military and fight for the North. However, Nicholas Earp returns early and stops his son from entering the military and tells the young Wyatt that he needs to do his job around the house and tend the cornfields. Eventually, Virgil and James both return from the Civil War. Virgil is unharmed, but James is badly hurt, bandaged and unable to walk on his own power. His wounds do heal. Wyatt remains home and helps with his younger brother Morgan (Linden Ashby) and his sisters.

Eventually, Wyatt does leave the family homestead and travels on his own. He had spent his time working various jobs out west, but decides to come home to Missouri. When he returns home, he marries the girl he fancied as a teenager, Urilla Sutherland (Annabeth Gish). After numerous requests for marriage, Urilla finally agrees and she and Wyatt build a home and begin to start a family. During her pregnancy, Urilla is stricken with Typhoid Fever and perishes to the disease. Wyatt is saddened by the loss of his wife and unborn child and burns down his home and lunges into any whisky bottle he can. He soon becomes a drunken waste of life and sets himself towards a young death and the life of a horse thief. He lands himself in jail, but is freed by his father and told to never come back to Arkansas or he will be hung for his horse thievery. By being told to leave the land he made his home by his father, Wyatt cleans up his act and throws away whiskey in favor of coffee.

The next line of work for Wyatt is that of a buffalo hide hunter. He comes to an outpost with a wagon full of hides and no employees to cut the hide from the buffalo. Ed Masterson (Bill Pullman) and his brother Bat Masterson (Tom Sizemore) quickly approach Wyatt and join him under his employ. The three grow a strong bond as friends, but it isn´t too long before the restless Wyatt needs to move on and try to do bigger and better things. He finds life as a deputy lawman in Wichita, Kansas, but shortly leaves that town when he is given a better job offer for the up and coming cattle town of Dodge City. He brings the Masterson brothers and his own three brothers to work with him at Dodge City, where they are given seventy five dollars a month and two dollars and fifty cents for each arrest. Wyatt had found quick wealth and notoriety for his work in Dodge City, but his actions and methods are questionable and he finds himself replaced by the mayor with Ed Masterson taking his role as Marshall.

Wyatt´s next profession is that of a bounty hunter for the railroad. He is paid to bring back outlaws who have committed a crime and while looking for one outlaw, he finds himself in Fort Griffin, Texas. In Texas, Wyatt meets up with the ´sporting man´ and possible outlaw Doc Holliday. Holliday is dying of tuberculosis and spends his time gambling, drinking and traveling with the whore Big Nose Kate (Isabella Rossellini). Holliday is considered a murderer by many, but this early meeting quickly forges a friendship between the two that will last for many years until Doc Holliday finally dies. His work as a bounty hunter does not last long because Ed is gunned down and Wyatt is asked to return to Dodge City to help restore order. He obliges and returns to help his brothers regain the peace in the city.

Happiness is not part of his return and Wyatt soon tries to persuade his brothers and his friends Bat and Doc to go with him to Tombstone. With the promise of fortune and a better life, Wyatt and his entourage travel to Tombstone. Wyatt takes along Mattie Blaylock (Mare Winningham), a young prostitute who has feelings for him and they share a common-law marriage. At Tombstone, Wyatt and his brothers form a dangerous rivalry with a band of outlaws led by Ike Clanton (Jeff Fahey) and Curly Bill Brocius (Lewis Smith). He also finds himself at odds with Mattie and a County Sheriff when Wyatt begins a romance with a young Jewish girl, Josie Marcus (Joanna Going). Mattie nearly commits suicide to keep Wyatt away from Josie, but they are all forced together in the aftermath of the legendary gunfight at the OK Corral.

After the gunfight, Morgan is shot dead by the Ike Clanton and the remaining members of his group. Virgil is also badly wounded and nearly killed. Wyatt and his brothers had fought charges of murder directly after the gunfight, but found not guilty. However, Wyatt and Doc set out to kill the remaining Clanton gang to avenge Morgan´s death and Wyatt becomes an outlaw to coincide with his status as a lawman. He spends much of his time traveling and finally does seek some rest after Ike and Billy are both murdered in cold blood. When Wyatt finally feels that justice has been served for the death of his brother, Wyatt finds Josie and sets of to finally settle down and shake away the memories of the death of Urilla and the failed first try at settling down.

I liked "Wyatt Earp," but I found it hard to sit through the entire film. There were times when I was tempted to pause the movie and take part in some "Halo 3." However, running both a PS3 and an Xbox 360 demands a lot of power and I decided against it and forced myself to sit and watch this three hour plus movie in one sitting. This was directly after watching the two hour plus "The Wild Bunch." The movie looked at many different aspects of the life of "Wyatt Earp," but I was disappointed it didn´t show him in Deadwood. Kevin Costner is perfectly fine as Wyatt Earp and I feel he earned a Razzy because he is Kevin Costner. Dennis Quaid was simply awesome as Doc Holliday. Behind the facial hair and makeup, it was hard to tell it was Quaid. The rest of the cast wasn´t bad either, although I had a hard time believing that Michael Madsen and Kevin Costner could be brothers.

The film takes a lot of time into looking deep into the life of Wyatt Earp. It looks far deeper into the character than what "Tombstone" did and tries to show some of the emotion and thought process behind the legendary lawman and outlaw. This is a film that tries hard into giving the most in-depth vision of Earp ever attempted and it both succeeds and fails because of this. By giving a more personal and deep look at Earp, Lawrence Kasden has created a film that moves by too slowly. It becomes and excess of history. For instance, the O.K. Corral gunfight has a lot of buildup, but the actual fight lasts for just a few hectic seconds on-screen and leaves the audience surprised they have witnessed the most memorable gunfight in the history of the Wild West and not realized it. It is entirely possible to spend too much time on what subject and Kasden and his filmmakers did exactly that.