Gunfight at the O.K Corral

The name is straight to the point, isn't it? Here is yet another western about the legendary gunfight of Wyatt Earp, his brothers, and Doc Holliday against some outlaws at the O.K Corral in tombstone, Arizona. Now I've watched four other movies on this event(My Darling Clementing, Hour of Gun, Tombstone, and Wyatt Earp), and I could say that this movie was made sometime between My Darling Clementine and Hour of Gun.

The film started in Fort Griffin, Texas, with three men seeking revenge for the death of one of these guys' brother, who was killed off in a fair fight by Doc Holliday. The next day, Doc went off to the bar where they were waiting, and killed them in a gunfight. Doc was arrested, and while he was held captive, a huge mob marched to the building he was in. Luckily, Wyatt Earp was in the area, and with some persuasion from Doc's woman Kate Fisher, he got Doc out of the trouble. Before this, Doc and Wyatt had met earlier in that day when Wyatt was seeking information on cattle rustlers like Ike Clanton, and Doc had been most uncooperative.

Then, after Wyatt had gone back to Dodge City, where he was a Marshal, Doc also showed up. Wyatt warned him that he would not allow any gunfight there, and Doc gave him his word. Meanwhile, Wyatt was also falling in love with another newcomer into Dodge City; a woman named Laura Denbow. Soon they were planning to get married, and Wyatt was resigning from his job. But then he got a letter from his brother Virgil, who was the Marshal in Tombstone, asking for his help. For the Earp brothers, family was always first and so Wyatt chose to fly to his brother's rescue despite his fiancee's obvious displeasure. Along the way, he met up with Doc Holliday, who told him he was headed the same way.

In Tombstone, Virgil wanted Wyatt Earp to deal with the bad cowboys/ cattle rustlers...Clanton, Ringo, Mclaurys, the usual. Wyatt was to stop them from entering Tombstone no matter what. Wyatt agreed to take on the task. Somewhere in the middle of this drama, the youngest Earp brother James was killed by the gang. Now Wyatt and his brothers, thirsty for revenge, agreed to meet the outlaws at O.K. Corral for the famous gunfight. Doc Holliday, true to his only friend, went along despite the fact that he was very near death from his tuberculosis condition. And so the gunfight took place. They got the bad guys good. The end.

Now how does this movie compare to the other westerns that are based on the same event? Well, this movie shows that the reason for the gunfight was a personal one; revenge. This is exactly the same in 'My Darling Clementine'. That one also screamed 'You killed my family, now I kill yours!'. However, in 'Hour of Gun', 'Tombstone', and 'Wyatt Earp', the reason was that the cowboys were 'disturbing the peace'. I think the latter three are more accurate because in reality, no Earp brother died before the big gunfight.

Here is another similarity between 'My Darling Clementine' and 'Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. They both portay James Earp as the youngest brother. And yes, the same character was killed off in both movies, before the gunfight. But the truth was that James was actually the eldest brother. The movie 'Wyatt Earp' is more accurate in that sense. It shows James, the eldest returning from the War that Wyatt was too young to fight in. In 'Hour of Gun' and 'Tombstone', though, I don't recall any mention of James.

'Gunfight at the O.K Corral' ends just like 'My Darling Clementine', too. The gunfight was the climax, they got all the bad guys in that gunfight, and end of story, it's over. But the other three westerns I watched all deal with what happened after the gunfight. In their portrayal, not all the bad guys were wiped out at the gunfight. Wyatt and Doc had to hunt them down afterwards. Yes, and at that final hunting for the remaining outlaws, revenge indeed seemed to be Wyatt's motivater. Because not long after that gunfight, Morgan was killed and Virgil was crippled by the bad guys.

Now, let's also consider the portrayal of Wyatt Earp's leading woman. In 'My Darling Clementine', the woman who got his attention was, of course, Clementine. In both 'Tombstone' and 'Wyatt Earp', he fell for an actress named 'Josephine' despite being already married. In 'Hour of Gun', I didn't notice any significant other of Wyatt's(Nor any other woman, actually). However, in 'Gunfight at the O.K Corral', the woman he fell in love with was neither Clementine nor Josephine. It was Laura Denbow. I don't think she was an actress like Josephine. But she also wasn't the 'sweet young thing' like Clementine either. She was smart, and tough, and even gambled. This was a whole new character I was introduced to in this movie.

By and large, I would have to say that this version is not the most accurate version ever told of the famous gunfight. But still, it was fun and exciting to watch. And besides, if a movie focuses so much on historical accuracy, it can turn out to be quite a bore. 'Hour of Gun', for example.