Wyatt Earp is a 1994 semi-biographical Western film, written by Dan Gordon and Lawrence Kasdan and directed by Kasdan. It stars Kevin Costner in the title role as lawman Wyatt Earp, and features an ensemble cast that includes Dennis Quaid, Gene Hackman, Mark Harmon, Michael Madsen, Joanna Going, Tom Sizemore, Bill Pullman, JoBeth Williams, Linden Ashby, and Mare Winningham.
Plot
The film opens with Wyatt Earp as a teenager living on the family farm. His older brothers, Virgil and James, are away at war serving with the Union Army. Wyatt dreams of war, and packs some belongings, bids his younger siblings goodbye, and attempts to run away, intending to lie about his age and join the Union Army. He doesn't make it off the farm before his father catches him and forces him to return home. A short while later, both brothers return home at the war's end, with James gravely wounded. Shortly afterwards, the family moves west. It is during this move that Wyatt first sees a man killed, shot during a gunfight. He gets sick at the sight, and vomits.
Years pass, finding him working out west as a wagon driver. During his time there, he works also as a referee for fights, and finds himself at odds with a bully. Wyatt and the bully eventually come to the point of fighting, with the bully intending to shoot Wyatt. Wyatt disarms him and defeats him, taking his gun as a trophy.
Returning home to Missouri, Wyatt marries a childhood sweetheart, Urilla Sutherland. The two move into their own house, and he begins working as a policeman. Months later, while pregnant, his wife dies from typhus. He stays by her side throughout the illness, becoming deeply depressed afterward. He burns their home and all they own, begins drinking, and drifting from town to town, eventually landing in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. He robs a man for money and steals his horse, but is captured only a short time later. Facing certain hanging, his father bails him out of jail, telling him to leave and never return to Arkansas.
He begins working as a buffalo hunter, where he meets Bat and Ed Masterson. The three become friends and work together hunting buffalo, with the two brothers working as Wyatt's skinners. Years pass, and he begins working as a Deputy Marshal in Wichita, Kansas, and builds a reputation as a good lawman. He is recruited to work as a deputy in Dodge City, with a lower salary, but for extra money for each arrest made, in the end making more than he would have in Wichita. It is here in Dodge City that he builds a hard reputation, and he kills his first man, a shooting witnessed by actress Josie Marcus. Wyatt becomes involved romantically with prostitute Mattie Blaylock, and the Mastersons begin working with him as deputies. Wyatt disagrees with Ed Masterson working as a lawman, believing him to be too passive, something he makes known to Ed. However, the Dodge City council decides that Ed is more acceptable than Wyatt due to Wyatt's excessive force, and relieve him, appointing Ed to take his place. He begins working for the railroad, capturing outlaws.
While pursuing outlaw Dave Rudabaugh, he is introduced to gunman and gambler Doc Holliday, in Fort Griffin, Texas, and the two men begin a friendship that would greatly benefit both later on. Holliday assists Earp in locating Rudabaugh, who Holliday dislikes tremendously. Shortly afterward, Wyatt receives word that Ed Masterson has been killed, having shot and killed both his assailants before dying in the street. Wyatt returns to Dodge City to help bring law and order. After working there for a period of time, he and his family move to Tombstone, Arizona, under the protest of the Earp wives, and Mattie. Wyatt immediately finds himself at odds with the Cowboy gang. He meets and becomes involved romantically with popular actress Josie Marcus, which puts him at odds with her boyfriend, Sheriff Behan. This relationship also causes stress in his relationship with Mattie, and becomes the subject of talk and rumor about town.
Wyatt and his brothers Morgan and Virgil arrest several Cowboys, and Virgil takes over as marshal following the murder of town marshal Fred White. The brothers find themselves at odds with the "Cowboys" often, and tension builds. Wyatt breaks up several altercations involving the "Cowboys", particularly Ike Clanton, and Doc Holliday swears his loyalty to Wyatt, whom he considers his only real friend. Eventually the Gunfight at the OK Corral occurs, with the brothers being looked upon by much of the population as villains, and the rest as heroes. Virgil is ambushed and wounded, then his brother Morgan is killed. The film then shows only a glimpse of the Vendetta Ride with Wyatt and his friends taking out revenge on the remaining "Cowboys", then skips to many years later with he and Josie mining for gold in Alaska. While enroute by boat, a young man on the same boat recognizes Wyatt, and recounts a story in which Wyatt had saved the life of the boy's uncle, "Tommy behind the deuce". The film ends with Wyatt saying to Josie "A lot of people say it didn't happen that way", to which she responds "Never mind them Wyatt. It happened that way".
Featured Cast
Inaccuracies
- In the film, two Earp brothers, Virgil Earp and James Earp, are portrayed returning home together following their service with the Union Army in the Civil War. In fact, James was wounded in a Missouri battle early in the war, returning home shortly thereafter. Virgil Earp actually returned home with another brother, Newton Earp, who was not mentioned in the film, but who, like Virgil, served until the war's end.
- Josie Marcus was not a well-known actress, and in fact had been in Tombstone, Arizona, for quite some time prior to Wyatt Earp's arrival, having lived previously with a lawyer and with Sheriff Behan.
- Wyatt Earp is depicted as having shot and killed a man who shot into a theater in Dodge City, Kansas. The cowboy's name was George Hoy and, in fact, both Earp and James Masterson fired on the man, and it has been said that Masterson actually killed the man.[citation needed] The presence of James Masterson was ignored in the film.
- Wyatt Earp is depicted as having met Bat and Ed Masterson while working as a buffalo hunter out west. Historically, it is disputed as to when and where he first met the brothers, but it is certain that when he did meet them he came to know not only Bat and Ed, but their brother James as well. James was ignored in the film altogether.
- Josie Marcus was not present during the George Hoy shooting.
- Ed Masterson replaced Marshal Larry Deger as town marshal of Dodge City following Wyatt Earp's departure, not Earp.
- Wyatt Earp did return to Dodge City following Ed Masterson's murder, but he did not return and become marshal. Instead, he returned and began working under lawman Charlie Bassett, whose presence was ignored in the film.
- Wyatt Earp was never the Marshal of Dodge City. He was Assistant Marshal and Deputy Marshal.
- Tombstone Marshal Fred White was in fact well liked by the outlaw "Cowboy" faction, and contrary to the film depiction, by his own testimony prior to his death, the shooting by Bill Brocius that caused his death was accidental. Brocius in fact showed remorse and regret over the shooting.
- Marshal Fred White was depicted as being an older man, but in fact was either 31 or 32 at the time of his death.
- The film portrays both the assassination attempt of Virgil Earp and the assassination of Morgan Earp happening on the same night.
- The film also portrays that Virgil Earp lost the use of his right arm when in reality he lost the use of his left arm.
- Outlaw Johnny Ringo was not shot and killed during the shootout at "Stinking Springs". His death happened later, and was "officially" ruled a suicide. Several men were implicated as having murdered him, to include lawman Wyatt Earp, gunman and gambler Doc Holliday, gambler Mike O'Rourke, and gunman "Buckskin" Frank Leslie, as well as little known gunman Lou Cooley, one of the few men alleged to have never feared Ringo despite his reputation. Earp and Holliday were most certainly in Colorado at the time, and more likely than not the death was in fact a suicide.
- Wyatt Earp was not involved in one hundred gunfights in his lifetime. Though an exact figure is difficult to calculate, fewer than ten would be more accurate.
Production
Kevin Costner was originally involved with the film Tombstone, another film about Wyatt Earp written by Kevin Jarre. However, Costner disagreed with Jarre over the focus of the film (he believed that the emphasis should have been on Wyatt Earp rather than the many characters in Jarre's script) and left the project, eventually teaming up with Kasdan to produce his own Wyatt Earp project. Costner then used his then-considerable clout to convince most of the major studios to refuse to distribute the competing film, which affected casting on the rival project.[1]
However, Wyatt Earp, released six months after Tombstone, was the less successful of the two films, taking in $25 million on a $63 million budget[2], compared to Tombstone's $56 million domestic gross.[3]
Reception
The biopic was not a commercial success, although it was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Cinematography in 1995 and writers Dan Gordon and Lawrence Kasdan received the Spur Award from the Western Writers of America for Best Drama Script. [4] The film was also nominated for five Golden Raspberry Awards including Worst Picture, Worst Director and Worst Screen Couple (for Kevin Costner and "any of his three wives" played by Annabeth Gish, Joanna Going and Mare Winningham) with Kevin Costner winning Worst Actor and the film being named Worst Remake or Sequel.
References
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