After the success of DANCES WITH WOLVES (1990) , both on the awards circuit and at the box-office, it seemed like Kevin Costner could do no wrong. A year later, he achieved a similar level of success when he visited Ye Old England for an updated version of a legendary local outlaw, ROBIN HOOD: PRINCE OF THIEVES, battling the evil Sheriff of Nottingham in a scene-stealing performance from the late Alan Rickman, who was riding on the coat-tails of villainy thanks to his turn as Hans Gruber in DIE HARD (1988)
Costner then focused on modern history in the Oliver Stone conspiracy thriller JFK (1991) which chronicled New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison’s attempt to convict local businessman Clay Slaw (Tommy Lee Jones) with evidence that incriminated him for the assassination of John F. Kennedy on November 22nd, 1963 during a campaign tour in Dallas.
With the success of THE BODYGUARD (1992) (originally written by director Lawrence Kasdan as a vehicle for Steve McQueen), Costner had proved his worth in his career that had taken him to new heights of achievement and satisfaction.
Yet, with big ups comes a down – and in 1994, he re-teamed with director Lawrence Kasdan to co-produce (with Jim Wilson) one of two Western biopics based on the legend of lawman Wyatt Earp. Around the same time, Kurt Russell took on the role in George P. Cosmatos’ TOMBSTONE and at the time was the bigger hit of the two films as it came out a few months before.
Costner and Kasdan had worked prior to the film, on THE BIG CHILL (1983) as the deceased character Alex, but Kasdan cut Costner from the film). Two years later, the Western SILVERADO, alongside a cast which included the likes of Kevin Kline, Rosanna Arquette and Scott Glenn, as well as John Cleese in the seemingly left-field role as a bumbling Sheriff, arrived in cinemas around the same time as Clint Eastwood’s PALE RIDER, the only other representative of the genre who had kept it alive thanks to his films the previous decade like HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER (1973), THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES (1975)
Released amidst the 1994 summer blockbuster season, which that year was dominated by the likes of FORREST GUMP, THE LION KING and TRUE LIES, WYATT EARP received mixed reviews, seen as an overlong retelling of a story often-told with the likes of GUNFIGHT AT THE OK CORRAL and MY DARLING CLEMENTINE already in the can in earlier decades.
However that would seem a little unfair in these days when people are watching more domestically – and WYATT EARP can be viewed with fresh eyes in these lock-down moments we are all suffering at present. Like Michael Cimino’s HEAVEN’S GATE (!980), another initial box-office bomb that found an audience later on, WYATT EARP does have the potential today to be rediscovered as one of the most underrated films of the 1990s, as well as one of the most underrated of its’ genre.
Telling a much broader version of Earp’s life, from his boyhood, through his troubled early life and doomed marriage to first wife Urilla (Annabeth Gish), the film does have a truly epic quality about it, with some handsomely mounted cinematography – and a scene-stealing performance from Dennis Quaid as Doc Holliday.
Gene Hackman’s holds the early sequences together as Earp’s disciplinarian but firm father who often reminds his brood ‘blood counts the most’ and we get a sense of what is to come, as Earp’s downward spiral through drink, due to the death of Urilla, is the catalyst for the next phase of his life.
He becomes a buffalo skinner where he meets future lawmen and brothers Ed and Bat Masterson (Bill Pullman and Tom Sizemore), but maintains a bond with his brothers James (David Andrews), Morgan (Linden Ashby) and Virgil (Michael Madsen). There is focus on the essence of brotherly bonds, as well as the concerns of wives who are refusing to accept the in-built spirit of these men, who would meet their destiny at the OK Corral.
The story keeps the facts and basic structure of the history of Earp’s life, but there is much pleasure in watching the ensemble cast, which also features a pre-BAD BOYS Tea Leoni as a hooker called Sally and Martin Kove (Kreese in the original KARATE KID (1984) as Ed Ross, who challenges Earp early on. Other familiar characters are personified by Isabella Rossellini (BLUE VELVET) as ‘Big Nose’ Katie Elder.
The film was nominated for ‘Golden Raspberry Awards’, an anti-Oscar ceremony that honours the apparent worst of Hollywood at the time and many critics felt the film was pointless in terms of the films that have come before.
However, what’s interesting is that in light of all these prequels, reboots and revamps, which began with STAR WARS EPISODE I: THE PHANTOM MENACE (1999), another film that was much maligned by both critics and the fan community at the time, but has grown in stature. Jar Jar Binks was a CGI-character that was berated, yet the technology behind it yielded Andy Serkis’ Gollum in the HOBBIT and LORD OF THE RINGS trilogies to much acclaim (Serkis recently got a Special BAFTA Award for his contributions)
WYATT EARP could also be seen as both a prequel and a reboot, as it tells an original story and how somebody became what he did. There is a truly epic quality about the film, that is ripe for reassessment and the wide-open spaces on view will be appealing to those who cannot wait to get going again once the lock-down is over.
The other thing is that the more device-focused people, interested in the period, might find this a good example to find out a little about the backstory and history of the Old West if they don’t understand certain names and terms.
On balance, this is well worth a look or a revisit if you haven’t seen it for years. WYATT EARP has much more inside its’ soul – and a good introduction to the Western if you have been uncertain about the appeal o the genre.