Gunfight At The O.K. Corral

Year: 1957

Grade: B-

Country: USA

Director: Sturges

Review

i didn’t like it as much as winchester 73. the strongest part of the film was in the characters, specifically those played by kirk douglas and burt lancaster….they really drove the film. of course the much told story of the earps and the gunfight at the ok corral (both of which were the subject of many westerns from tombstone to my darling clementine) is a good one, but it’s only as strong as the actors playing the parts. i liked the soundtrack (meaning the songs in the movie, as opposed to the score), it was catchy and provided a musical reinforcement of the plot. it felt like two movies because just past the halfway mark doc holiday and wyatt earp leave dodge city and go to tombstone to help wyatt’s brothers clean the place up. granted the situation (fight the bad guys) was the same as it was in dodge city, and the problems (internal and external) that doc and wyatt had followed them to tombstone, but it still felt like there wasn’t as smooth a transition as i would have liked. it was as if the movie was two separate episodes from the same television series. that aside the film was good overall, but the second half didn’t elevate the drama the way it should have. women played an interesting role. they were both the voice of reason and a source of antagonism, but in both cases they provided the yin to the men’s yang. the good and bad was more clearly drawn in this film than in winchester 73.