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Kevin Costner plays the laconic lawman Wyatt Earp in this stately but sweeping western saga, which doesn't merely cover Earp's controversial career as a frontier marshal but delves into his personal life as well. Writer-director Lawrence Kasdan obviously didn't want to regurgitate old information, and it's plain from his script that there was a lot more to Wyatt then his well-documented friendship with dissipated gambler Doc Holliday (played here by a gaunt Dennis Quaid) and the notorious gunfight at Tombstone's O.K. Corral. The film's early section deals at length with Earp's first marriage, which ends tragically when his young wife (Annabeth Gish) succumbs to typhoid fever while pregnant with their first child. Kasdan allots considerable footage to Wyatt's subsequent tailspin, which only ends when he becomes -- quite inadvertently -- a lawman in the cattle town of Wichita. Earp's later forays into Dodge City and Tombstone document his relationships with Holliday and fellow star-packer Bat Masterson (Tom Sizemore), as well as his courting of Josie Marcus (Joanna Going). These latter days are depicted at some length, if not always with scrupulous fidelity to the historical record. Gene Hackman contributes a superb performance in the small but showy role of the Earp patriarch, and erstwhile pretty boy Mark Harmon shows impressive acting chops with his portrayal of Tombstone sheriff Johnny Behan, Wyatt's rival for Josie's affections. Costner plays the title role with solemnity, and if he doesn't seem especially impassioned it's because that's the way Wyatt supposedly was in real life. Kasdan stages incidents from the infamous Earp-Clanton feud with startling brutality, making them more sordid than has previously been the case in Hollywood movies tackling this subject. Clocking in around 190 minutes and dense with drama, Wyatt Earp may or may not be the definitive work on this fascinating historical character, but it's certainly the most ambitious. Ed Hulse

All Movie Guide

Directed by Lawrence Kasdan, this epic version of the legendary western sheriff-gunslinger's life story stars Kevin Costner as Earp, who lived from 1848 to 1929. Growing up on a farm in Iowa, Earp tries to run away to join the Union Army in the Civil War, but he is turned away because of his youth. Instead, he studies law and marries Urilla Sutherland (Annabeth Gish). But Urilla dies of typhoid fever before they can have children. Earp grows despondent and descends into drinking and petty thievery, but his father Nicholas (Gene Hackman) finds him, sobers him up, and sets him straight. Earp becomes a buffalo hunter and a close companion of Bat Masterson (Tom Sizemore) and his brother Ed (Bill Pullman). With his brothers, Virgil (Michael Madsen) and Morgan (Linden Ashby), Earp sets out to clean up the violence-plagued towns of the old West -- by using his own guns to settle scores. Earp takes up with Mattie Blaylock (Mare Winningham), a drug addict and prostitute, then discards her for actress Josie Marcus (Joanna Going). In Tombstone, Arizona, the Earp brothers and their comrade Doc Holliday (Dennis Quaid), who is plagued by tuberculosis and a compulsion for gambling, meet their match in a ruthless gang led by Ike Clanton (Jeff Fahey). ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide

Product Details

• UPC: 085391142683
• Source: WARNER HOME VIDEO
• Presentation: Wide Screen
• Sound: Dolby AC-3 Surround Sound
• Editions: Subtitled, Dubbed
• Time: 3:10:00
• Sales Rank: 25,340

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