Four Westerns on the Gunfight at OK corral

‘My Darling Clementine’, ‘Hour of Gun’, ‘Tombstone’, and ‘Wyatt Earp’

These four westerns, listed chronologically, all portray the legendary gunfight at the OK corral. The movies have different ways of telling the stories, although the last two; ‘Tombstone’ and ‘Wyatt Earp’ are rather similar in their plots. This gunfight took place on October 26, 1881. On that day, Wyatt Earp with his brothers and Doc Holliday fought against a bunch of cowboys. The cowboys were a band of cattle rustlers, thieves, and murderers.

The first movie, 'My Darling Clementine', started off with the Earp brothers trailing cattle. Along the way, they met an old man called Clanton and his son, who pointed them to the direction of Tombstone. At Tombstone, people wanted Wyatt to stay on as Marshal, but he refused. However, after discovering his youngest brother killed and the cattle all gone, he changed his mind. Then he later on found out it was the Clantons who did that. Further conflicts with these Clantons resulted in the gunfight at the OK corral. I think this is the least accurate of all of these films. For instance, the Clantons seemed to be the major focus as the villains in this film. I don't seem to recall any mention of the other bad guys that I later discovered in the later movies. In this movie, 'old man' Clanton is portrayed as the leader of the Clantons and a major participant of the gunfight. But in reality, he had died long before the gunfight took place. It also showed the Earp brothers getting killed in the gunfight, but in reality they didn't die at that time. Now let me come to the interaction between Wyatt and Doc Holliday. This movie shows them meeting for the first time at Tombstone, but the truth was that they had known each other before and were good friends already. And Doc didn't die in the gunfight as shown in the movie, he died later from tuberculosis. I also wonder why the movie was named 'My Darling Clementine'. Did a 'Clementine' exist in reality? I'm not sure, but I'm kinda leaning towards 'I don't think so'. In reality, Wyatt Earp arrived at Tombstone with a wife(Mattie), but fell in love with an actress named 'Josie'. This was portrayed accurately in 'Tombstone', and 'Wyatt Earp'.

The second movie, 'Hour of the Gun', is more historically correct, I should think. But despite that, I find this one quite boring, unlike the other three. I mean, where were all the women characters in this movie? So anyway, this movie starts with the gunfight itself. Then, Wyatt, his brothers, and Doc were on trial for murder. Wyatt and his brothers claimed the gunfight took place because the cowboys were disturbing the peace, but the opposing side claimed it was cold-blooded murder. Wyatt and his brothers were proven not guilty. In revenge, the cowboys killed one Earp brother, and crippled another. Wyatt and his friend Doc Holliday hunt down the killers together. In this movie, the gunfight was the starting point for all the adventurous events that followed. This is different from 'My Darling Clementine', where other factors such as cattle rustling and murder on the Clantons' part led up to the gunfight as a climax, and that was the end of that movie.

Coming to the third movie, 'Tombstone', this is somehow much easier to follow. Here, Wyatt Earp, who was a retired peace keeper, reunited with his brothers and traveled to Tombstone to settle down. Their wives were with them, too. At Tombstone, they met up with Doc Holliday, a long-time friend of Wyatt. At Tombstone, just as the brothers were starting to profit from their salon, they had conflicts with cowboys wearing red sashes, led by Curly Bill Brocius. These conflicts led to the gunfight at OK corral, and what followed was just like the previous movie, 'Hour of Gun'. Earp brothers got killed, Wyatt got thirsty for revenge, and he and Doc tracked all these villains down, putting an end to the cowboy group. However, this movie went on a bit further to show Doc Holliday breathing his last breath and Wyatt getting together with his actress lover.

Now for the last western, 'Wyatt Earp'. I watched this one right after finishing 'Tombstone', and I have to say, it felt like I was rewatching the same movie, only with different actors. The plot was almost identical. However, the only difference was that it touched on some topics that none of three other movies did. For example, I learned about Wyatt Earp's childhood, his first marriage to Urilla, his devastation after her death, his turning to horse theivery as a result, then cleaning up and becoming a marshal in Dodge city. All the other three movies seemed to focus on Wyatt's life only after he got to Tombstone. So this one was a nice exception.

So among these four westerns, I would have to pick 'Hour of the Gun' as the most accurate. Not only did the movie declare at its opening credits that these events were portrayed exactly at it happened, but some of my research on the legendary gunfight at OK corral revealed similar events. But still, that was my least favorite of the four, because all it focused on was fight, revenge, and kill. That's why my personal favorite of these westerns have to be 'Wyatt Earp'. I like movies involving action, adventure, and gunfights, but better when a bit of romance is mingled with them.