Country: U.S.A.
Genre(s): Western
Director: John
Sturges
Cast: Burt
Lancaster / Kirk Douglas / Jo Van Fleet
Plot
Unlikely allies Wyatt
Earp and Doc Holliday take on the Clantons, a family of cattle rustlers, in
Tombstone, Arizona.
What I Liked
Ultimately just a
very solidly produced and directed Western in the classic mold, “Gunfight at
the O.K. Corral” is separated from the pack of other fifties Westerns for two reasons. First, it more closely follows the true
events surrounding this oft-told story than any movie made previous, though it
still takes plenty of creative liberties.
Second, Kirk Douglas’s multi-faceted performance of that infamous
anti-hero of the West, Doc Holliday, set the standard by which all future
actors would approach Holliday. When
compared with Burt Lancaster’s obsessively straight-laced Earp and the
otherwise cliché cowboy characters in the movie, Douglas’s violent and
charismatic Holliday is the unpredictable factor responsible for all of the story’s
intrigue. Where he goes, excitement (and
viewer interest) follows. A great deal
of the film’s strength dramatically comes from the combative friendship that
develops between he and Earp, with the rest of Tombstone wondering why a
devoted lawman like Earp would keep a hot-tempered killer like Holliday around. Their “odd couple” dynamic provides a
sub-plot to the overall Earps versus Clantons rivalry. However, Holliday's persona overpowers Earp's absolutely in every scene in which they appear together. Whether he’s on a drinking
binge, in a screaming match with his woman, throwing a knife in someone’s chest,
or about to draw down on some poor sap, Holliday’s scenes bring the action and
drama to a film that is otherwise a whole lot of dialogue. His obvious edginess may even be seen as a
progenitor of the more volatile Western anti-heroes that would begin to appear
in the coming decade.
On a side note, look
for early appearances from up-and-coming actors Lee Van Cleef and Dennis
Hopper.
What I Didn’t Like
Outside of Douglas’s
performance and the film’s obviously high production values, “Gunfight at the
O.K. Corral” is not all that different from most of the other Westerns of the
period. A couple of its characters are a
little more interesting than your standard Western fare. It has a little more dramatic intrigue than
the serial and TV Westerns popular in the period. In its time it was extremely popular and a
financial success, yet to a modern viewer it can easily be lumped in with the
rest.
Most cliche of all is the title song sung by Frankie Laine. With the hokiest lyrics that I suppose was meant to pass it off as an authentic Western folk ballad and an annoyingly repetitive chorus, the song ruins several scenes that would have been much better without its accompaniment.
Part of the disappointment
may come from the fact that, for a movie whose title starts with the word “Gunfight,”
the film is decidedly non-violent by modern standards. Outside of one stabbing and the climactic end
battle, the film is mostly dialogue, constantly teasing us with the threat of
bloodshed that rarely appears.
Most Memorable Scene
Though the
confrontation alluded to in the title of course includes the majority of the film's action, for me the most stunning action comes earlier in the film when
Holliday, advised by Earp that men have come to Dodge City to kill him, gets
the drop on an enemy by throwing a dagger straight into his chest. It’s a personal act of hatred that tells us a
lot about both Holliday’s cleverness and his bitterness, giving us a closer
glimpse into his personality than any words could. On top of that, the effect is pulled off marvelously
and the surprise of the killing makes it more visceral than any shooting to
come later.
My Rating: 3.5 out of 5
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