Film Review
This, the most popular film account of the famous Tombstone gun battle,
helped to reinvigorate the western genre in the late fifties and,
thanks to its star-led cast and stunning production values, sounded the
death knell for the cheap B-movie western. Leon Uris's
fanciful screenplay may play fast and loose with the facts, but through
John Sturges' assured direction and Charles Lang's lush colour
cinematography,
Gunfight at the O.K.
Corral stands as one of the most well-crafted examples of its
genre, a classic western that wears its age remarkably well.
The casting of Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas as Wyatt Earp and Doc
Holliday respectively is inspired, although the reverse casting may
have made for a more interesting film. Lancaster gives a solid
performance as the incorruptible lawman but is perhaps more naturally
suited for the part of the mercurial and morally ambiguous
Holliday. Although Lancaster and Douglas worked together on a
number of films, this is arguably their most enjoyable collaboration,
their on-screen rapport making this one of the earliest and best
entries in the buddy movie genre. Avid
Star Trek fans will instantly
recognise Deforest Kelly in one of his butch western roles, some years
before he found lasting fame as Bones McCoy on board the USS
Enterprise.
Although the first half of the film moves at a sluggish pace, things
soon pick up in the second half, building to a crescendo in the
masterfully staged set-piece gunfight sequence. Sturges brings
dramatic tension and pathos to a denouement that somehow avoided the
familiar clichés and set the standard for future westerns.
Dimitri Tiomkin's evocative score includes a haunting tragicomic ballad
(sung by Frankie Laine) which effectively knits together the film's
various episodes; sadly, this musical embellishment soon became one of
the most notorious clichés of the western genre.
A decade later, John Sturges would direct
Hour of the Gun, a more realistic
account of the Tombstone gunfight, although this did not enjoy anything
like the success of his 1957 film. John Ford's
My Darling Clementine (1946)
may still be the definitive account of the infamous Earp-Clanton
shoot-out, but Sturges'
Gunfight at
the O.K. Corral comes a close second, and remains one of the
most highly regarded of the classic westerns.
© James Travers 2010
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Next John Sturges film:
The Old Man and the Sea (1958)
Film Synopsis
Arizona, 1881. Wyatt Earp is a lawman who is renowned for his
sense of fair play and decency. So, when a lynch mob comes after
Doc Holliday, a gambler with a history of killing, Earp intervenes to
save his life, despite his personal loathing for him. Holliday
repays the debt at a later date when Earp, marshal of Dodge City, has a
run-in with a gang of sharpshooters. Having grown weary of his
life as a lawman, Earp decides to throw away his badge and settle down
to marry Laura Denbow, a lady gambler he helped to reform. But on
the eve of his marriage, he receives a letter from his brother Virgil,
the marshal of Tombstone, asking for his help in thwarting a cattle
rustling operation organised by Ike Clanton and his brothers. The
Clantons are none too please when Earp shows up in Tombstone.
When the new marshal ignores their threats, they gun down his younger
brother Jimmy. Enlisting the help of Doc Holliday, the remaining
Earp brothers agree to a final showdown with the Clantons, at the O.K.
Corral...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.