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A brilliant film that helped define a genre

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

The life of Wyatt earp i love this movie is my favortie movie

Director Lawrence Kasdan went mythic in scope and breadth with his majestic ode to the great lost American West for "Wyatt Earp". It's just full-on romantic sweep, hard-nosed stoicism, and pioneer spirit -- making for one of the most rousing pleasures in the entire genre. An initially overlooked classic, having had the misfortune to arrive under the still looming shadow casts just prior by the similar themed (and also great) "Tombstone". The two very different films share old west lawman Wyatt Earp as their main protagonist, but only overlap in depicting the episodes that culminated in the legendary Gunfight at the O.K. Corral -- which occurred in Tombstone's namesake; So naturally that film -- which focuses squarely on the particulars of those specific events -- wins, in rendering fuller aspect to its isolated circumstances.Whereas 1993's "Tombstone" was a cracking contained rollicking rampage of a buddy action western, 1994's "Wyatt Earp" acted as the saga of a man, a family, and a country -- a lavish production spanning the majority of its titular figure's lifetime.Kevin Costner is every bit as excellent in his own way here portraying Wyatt Earp as Kurt Russell was in his unique fashion for "Tombstone". But instead of being as hellbent and primal, Costner goes for quiet simmering dread. He's a peaceful realist haunted by violence, willing to warily adapt to triumph within those means. A harsh man with heart, convicted by the decency dispersed down to him by his disciplined and principled patriarch father, memorably played to perfection in just a few scenes by the always wonderful Gene Hackman. Doc Holiday is not the breakout star in this opus like he was in Val Kilmer's show stealing performance for "Tombstone", but rather he shows up maybe half way through and is played very believably and seriously by Dennis Quaid. More amusingly cantankerous in his witty retorts than Kilmer's swaggeringly deft provocateur. I imagine Quaid's less seductive Doc Holiday is honestly more realistic than Kilmer's, although Kilmer wins in entertainment value and greater sense of unpredictable danger. For the Tombstone set portion that occurs in "Wyatt Earp", it's really very well done, but admittedly it's mostly bettered in "Tombstone" simply because of that film's ability to flesh out just that story over the course of its entire running time. But also, I think the casting is slightly better, or at least flashier, there too -- I mean "Tombstone" has Bill Paxton, Sam Elliot, Powers Booth, Michael Biehn, and Stephen Lang just gnawing on the scenery and spitting it out! Although Michael Madson and Linden Ashby are no slouches as Earp bother's Virgil and Morgan, neither is Mark Harmon's local sheriff stooge Behan. One casting the two movies have in common that I find "Wyatt Earp" has a resounding superiority over "Tombstone" in though, is that of Wyatt's great lasting love Josie; In "Tombstone" she is played quite shrill and to my taste unappealing by Dana Delany, whereas Joanna Going here is so very graceful and lithely empowered that one easily imagines Wyatt's old weather-beaten heart's sudden exposure to the supple elements of such a fine specimen of femininity being quite enough to absolutely consume it. What I'm saying is Joanna Going is very pleasant in deed, which is especially good, because Josie plays a more integral role in "Wyatt Earp" as well. "Wyatt Earp" is so much more expansive than "Tombstone" however, and therefore has so many more fantastically casts roles throughout. Besides the aforementioned Gene Hackman, there's Bill Pullman and Tom Siezmore as Ed and Bat Masterson, plus young Ian Bohen is really good as the boyhood Wyatt. Veteran character actor, James Gammon makes a nice appearance. Even Jim Caviezel shows up briefly as the youngest Earp brother. And the Earp wives and women actually hint at some genuine human agency, nicely realized by Mare Winningham, Catherine O'Hara, JoBeth Williams, Alison Elliott, and Betty Buckley. So, an unequivocally great cast.The set design looks wonderful and appears proper in depicting the burgeoning West under construction. The costuming feels authentic, but "Tombstone" also felt appropriate and had the added benefit of cutting an indelibly iconic silhouette with Doc and the Earp brothers drapped all in black as near undertakers in those long duster coats and Wyatt's wide flat brimmed hat. Kurt Russell and Sam Elliot also clearly won the mustache war. Not that "Tombstone" wasn't a well photographed film in its own right, but oh-my, what wonders do dazzle brilliant in "Wyatt Earp"! Owen Roizman provides some of the most exhilaratingly lush pastoral scope cinematography you're likely to ever lay your gaze upon, yet then counterpoints that with wonderfully moody chiaroscuro lighting evoking the very best in film noir. It really is about as good as it gets. Yet not to be outdone, composer James Newton Howard goes on ahead and throws his hat in the arena of the very best Western film scores ever. In fact, the differences between these two iconic cinematic Earp offerings can perhaps be best encapsulated in their music scores, with Bruce Broughton composing an equally perfect accompaniment to his picture's less lofty but more rugged ambitions. But "Wyatt Earp" is just working on a whole other level, as is its moving score compositions. Although "Tombstone" was the breakout box- office hit, both succeeded wonderfully true to their aim. A provocative pulp novella, and a sumptuous sprawling tome; "Tombstone" is one terrific juicy burger, and "Wyatt Earp" is one magnificent four- course-meal. And just as a delicious entree, movies and music are treats of taste meant to be consumed and enjoyed; they're not subject to monogamous fidelity, and won't become hurt or jealous of time spent or pleasure derived from another!

I am not a Kevin Costner fan and think he is the most one dimensional actor around. Sometimes his delivery in this movie struck me as amateurish. I thought he wasn't bad in DANCING WITH WOLVES but that was his best effort.I had to smile at the good guys wearing black and looking like morticians,(which they were in a sense). All that hot desert weather and they were in heat absorbing black.The scenes with wives and lovers were tedious and added little to the film.Frankly, any movie this long should be classified as epic, and this one certainly did not fall into that category. I can think of a good handful of westerns without much effort, superior to this one.

The movie Tombstone was released a few months earlier, it was shorter and more action packed. It was also a better film.Wyatt Earp clocking in at over three hours is too long. It marked the beginning of Costner's decline at the box office. The audience frankly had enough of his epic and half baked films.Wyatt Earp wants to be a thoughtful ambitious biopic. It emerges as dull, bloated, uneven and about as truthful as many other pictures of this famous lawman with added overbearing score by James Newton Howard.Kevin Costner looks uneasy playing the younger Wyatt as an overgrown boy scout getting daily lectures on the importance of family by dad, Gene Hackman.After the sudden death of his first wife, what gradually emerges is a cold hard man who enforces the law his way, that way being by the barrel of the gun with his brothers as fellow enforcers.Director Lawrence Kasdan is shackled by Costner wanting to be the star of the show. The actors playing the brothers Earp do not get much of a look in as they are in the shadows of Costner, their wives come across more forcefully as they stand up to Wyatt for putting their husbands in danger. Rightly so, they all get shot and a few of them die.Even Dennis Quaid who lost weight to play Doc Holliday is underused and to me was largely a cameo. I can see why Val Kilmer overshadowed him in the rival Tombstone.The film is simply not compelling enough.